60th Stop: Washington DC, USA

What's in that big box?

After meeting up with my host Rob, we took a walk and had dinner at a Salvadorian restaurant called Las Placitas. It wasn’t the best ever but the company more than made up for it. Rob works in the House of Representatives as a staff writer for the congressional office. It was great talking to Rob, one story led to the next and there seemed to be quite a few parallels in our lives (teaching English in far away places for one).

On Thursday, I got a Library of Congress card and sat in the rotunda for a few hours... surfing the internet and checking e-mail! The mission of the Library of Congress is to serve the legislators, providing references, data, facts and any other things they might need to argue and vote on laws.

Later that night, I met up for happy hour at Masa 14 with a longtime friend from high school, Briana, who now works at the World Bank. In May, she’ll be riding a bicycle from NYC to Washington DC to raise money for climate change prevention. Kudos to you Briana!

Checking e-mail in the LoC

After a few drinks and appetizers (get the tuna wrap, it rocks!), we went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Thanks to the saleswoman from Cisco who bought us all dinner!

One more stop before calling it a night: meeting up with Meredith from couchsurfing.org to listen to some jazz at U-topia. Meredith and I had a lot to talk about. She works for the government, helping Pashtun and Farsi teachers write lesson plans. We discussed language learning strategies and swapped some good ideas... She recommended using Declan Software and www.quizlet.com. Thanks Meredith!

The Wordfast Pro training on Friday was full :-) Thanks to everyone who came and a special thanks to Gwendolyn Gurley and Renate Cords for making donations to buy some bednets!

One more night in DC and what luck, my longtime friend from high school and soccer buddy Brian and his wife Kristen were in town for a conference! That night we ate a delicious Ethiopian meal at Dukem  and then wnet back to U-topia for more jazz and wine. Great seeing both of you and hearing about your future plans to travel and work in some exciting places. I'm looking forward to our next adventures together... bamboo bike ride?

One last incident to report: early Saturday morning I took the shuttle to the airport. At one point, the driver went onto the wrong side of the road--on a divided freeway! Luckily, I was half awake and alerted her to the oncoming bus. We were all a bit shaken up, but even happier once we arrived at the airport and got out of that shuttle!

Thanks again to Rob, Brian and Kristen for hosting me and to Meredith and all the colleagues that attended the Wordfast training!

Next stop: West Palm Beach, Florida!

P.S. - Sorry for the crappy photos; for some reason I forgot to take some in DC :-(

20th Stop - Douala, Cameroon Part 5, Final

Three more days in Cameroon, then off to South Africa. I thought it was going to be all work, play, work but it turned into work, disappointment, cheering up, work.

On Thursday, we planned to go with Annie and the kids back to Semé beach so I could teach them how to swim. That’s right, I used to be a lifeguard back in the day, just like David Hasselhoff, only less well known ;-)

We got off to a late start but were eventually on the road with Serge, our driver from last time, his friend Hervé, who was driving this time since Serge’s car was getting fixed, Annie, and the kids. No sooner had we made it past the outskirts of Bonabéri when we got stopped by the military police for an ID check. Sh*t! Annie forgot her ID card. They let us continue on our way after pleading for leniency, but that didn’t help us from getting stopped again further down the road. This time they didn’t want to let Annie go.

We could have paid off the cop to let us go but I didn’t feel comfortable having to pay off corrupt officials all the way to the beach. It only breeds more corruption when you take part in it. So I went back with the kids and driver to get Annie’s ID card. By this time, it was too late to go to the beach so I dropped the kids off at home and then went back to free Annie.

Now it was time to settle up with our driver, Serge’s friend Hervé. Before leaving, we agreed to 25,000 CFA (about 50 USD) for him to take us there and back. However, we didn’t even go a quarter of the distance, didn’t get on the tollway, and cut our day short by at least three hours. Hervé, however, insisted on being paid the full amount. What Hervé failed to realize was that his short-term gain would come at the expense of his reputation, as well as Serge’s. Not only would we never call on Hervé again (like tomorrow, to take me to the airport), but we wouldn’t call on Serge either. Too bad for both of them. By the way, if you fly into Douala airport, make sure your taxi driver isn’t named Hervé.

That night, I gave a demo of Wordfast Pro to a group of 15 translators and Annie at the American Language Center, owned and run by Martin and Hermiane. Everyone was very enthusiastic about attending a training; unfortunately, it was taking place the next day and only one person could attend. Thanks Martin for hosting the demo!

After the demo, Annie and I met up with Ghislain and Ezekiel at the Total gas station. I’m not sure if it was because it was raining, but there were an awful lot of people in the station, hanging out, drinking beer and eating snacks; my first cocktail hour in a gas station!



We didn’t stay long, got in a taxi and went for a bite to eat. When we walked into the restaurant, we had to pick out what we wanted (fish or chicken) and negotiate a price before sitting down. The fish started at 17,000 CFA, but Ghislain somehow talked him down to 6,000! The waitress had just served us our food when Dagobert, last year’s JCI national president, joined us with a few friends. We had a delicious meal and a few more beers, just what Annie and I needed to cheer up after the fiasco earlier that day.

On Friday I trained Martin on how to use Wordfast Pro. We had a very interesting discussion about corruption in Cameroon and he told me a few stories about people asking him to inflate prices for lessons so he could pay them kickbacks. I very much appreciated Martin's refusal to buy into the corruption and his ambition to run a clean, ethical business. I had spent nearly two weeks in the country and was amazed by how generous and lively the people were. If, however, there was one thing that Cameroon could work on to be better, I think the country's leadership should definitely focus on stamping out corruption.

It was getting late, I had to run home, get my stuff together and get to the airport. Ghislain offered me a beautiful wooden statue that I unfortunately couldn’t fit in my suitcase. So I asked him to hold on to it for me until I come back! Thanks again Annie, the kids, Emile, Ezekiel, Michel, Harly, Roland, Bruno, Alem, Royene, Hervé (the soccer player!), Dagobert and Ghislain for such a wonderful time in Cameroon. A special thanks to Ghislain, Annie, Harly and Michel in particular, that’s 12 more bednets for 12 more families.

Next stop: Johannesburg, South Africa!

5th Stop - Berlin

Probably one of the foggiest drives ever from Prague to Berlin. I guess it was the barrier from bad weather to good weather because I was truly blessed when I got to Berlin. Clear blue sky and sun for my stay (the clouds you see above cleared up the next day)!

Claudia, president of JCI Berlin, whom I met in Stockholm during the European Capitals Meeting, put me in touch with one of her members, Chuy-You Phow, for a home-stay. Turns out, Chuy-You is from France! I made it to Chuy-You’s flat in the former Eastern side of Berlin and then we went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Chuy-You recently started a marketing business and is currently completing a degree program in sustainable development. She’s aiming to do consulting work for companies in regards to sustainability issues in the near future. After dinner, we went for a drink with Marcus. Marcus told me about a great IT-related advertising idea that his company, Godot, is working on.

The next day, we both worked in the morning, but couldn’t resist the nice weather for long. We headed over to a nearby park for a walk and lunch, bratwurst, beer and Kartoffelsalat (potato salad, one of the few things I know how to say in German!). After lunch, we walked around the park some more and soaked up some rays.

On our way back home, we took a detour and went to an old bread factory that has been transformed into studio space for artists. We ran into Sara from Italy and Javier from Colombia and chatted a while with them. Sara painted some wicked shoes, I can see them now: hot blue, orange, and yellow.

As we made our way out of the building, we were intrigued by some nice music coming from one of the studios. We hesitated for a minute in front of the door, then said to one another “If you don’t dare to do anything, you end up with nothing”, opened it and walked in. Inside, we met Pat Matshikiza from South Africa. Pat was very nice to us and told us about his work in South Africa and what he likes about working up in Berlin. I hope I get a chance to meet up with him again... maybe in Capetown in August!

Chuy-You left that night for a trip to Paris. She also left me her apartment which may come as a surprise to you... Knowing that I am a member of JCI, she had no worries and full trust in me. Apparently, I even managed to fix the leaking faucet in the kitchen sink and the washing machine. I don’t know how, but am happy to have unleashed the magic nevertheless!

Thursday night, I had the opportunity to attend a business training on how to dress for success, organized by JCI Berlin. Thanks to Claudia and all the members for welcoming me to this training. You’ve encouraged me to learn German! Good weather and good people in Berlin, I think I’ll come back one summer for a couple of months.

On Friday, I ran a one-to-one Wordfast Pro course with Christa. We had a nice time and covered a lot of ground. Best of luck to your Christa for your future translating endeavors!

Thanks to everyone for making my stay in Berlin so nice and a special thanks to Chuy-You for hosting me; I’ve bought 3 bednets in your name and you’ll help protect 3 families from malaria for the next 5 years.

Next stop: Potsdam!