One Small Footprint

What this makes:

This recipe makes both traditional chili, and the Burro recipe. The only difference is that the chili recipe uses tomato products and uses a special “chili grind” hamburger instead of diced round steak, as in the “Burro’s”

Total cooking time:        9 hours

 Ingredients:

           4 cups         washed, rinsed, sorted pinto beans

          1 lb             hamburger, “chili” grind (ask the butcher) *

          1 lb             Round steak #

          1 Pkg          Large flour tortillas #

          ½ Lb           Cheddar cheese #

           2                  Large onions

           2 Tbl           olive oil

          2 cloves      garlic, chopped (or jar of chopped)

          ¾ 4 oz. can diced green chili’s

          ¼ 4 oz. can diced jalapeno chili’s

          1 can           tomato sauce *

          1 can           tomato paste *

          1 Tbl           cumin seed – ground

          1 Tbl           chili powder *

          Salt, pepper to taste (note add salt last hour)

 *   Chili only!

#   Burro’s only!

Preparation:

Thoroughly soak and wash the pinto beans overnight. Putting them in the crock pot for soaking works well, First, look for, and remove, and dark beans as they are probably stones which will break your teeth, or old, moldy beans, or even small piece of dirt.

In the early morning, rinse the beans again, being absolutely sure to not reuse to old water. Flatulence is partly caused by indigestible oligo saccharides, which thankfully are water-soluble and can be rinsed out.

Add more fresh cold water to just cover the beans. Now set the crock pot, covered, on HIGH for seven hours.

 Now, in a skillet place in the warmed olive oil, one of the onions, chopped, and garlic. Sautee on medium until the onion pieces become mostly clear.

 *        In the meanwhile, crumble up the “chili grind” hamburger. Place in the skillet on top of sautéed onion/garlic.

 #        In the meanwhile, take the cut up the round steak into little ¼ inch cubes. Place in the skillet on top of sautéed onion/garlic.

 After the meat is browned, pour into the crock pot and stir in. Those juices in the pan should not be discarded. In fact add a little water to flush them out of the pan, and into the crock pot. Ummmm. Cover and continue the cooking till the seven hours are up.

 Watch to see if the water levels goes down on the beans (it will as it is absorbed). Add some warm water (so as not to congeal the grease) to just over the bean/meat level. I usually fill my 2-cup measuring Pyrex cup with water and sit it right next to the crock pot. This warms the water perfectly and keeps it at hand.

 At the end of the seven hours, reduce crock pot temp to “Medium”. After removing the lid (less messy), sprinkle on ground cumin seed and pepper.

Using a small fork place diced chilis and jalapenos in also. Add 1/2 of 2^nd onion, chopped, in to the crock pot.

 If you are making chili, add tomato sauce and tomato paste along with the chili powder.

 Replace lid and cook for additional two hours. Keep checking it and enjoying the aroma of your creation. In the last hour add salt. Be careful. All bean dishes require salt, but too much cannot be effectively removed. It’s like cutting cable. You can never replace too much removed.

 At the end of the nine hours:

 For chili dish up in large bowls placed on a saucer (it will be hot). Serve with crackers, maybe a little grated cheese on top. Add remain ½ of 2^nd chopped onion to top if desired.

 #        For burros, chop remaining 2^nd onion and place some on open tortilla remaining after warming them in microwave. Pour in burro mixture with a slotted ladle, not too much “burro soup”. Sprinkle more chopped onions on top with some grated cheddar cheese. Wrap up like a burrito and ladle (non-slotted) additional burro (soup and all!) mixture onto top of burrito. Sprinkle on more onions, grated cheese, and some salsa.

 Dig in with a fork!

 Note: after dinner, if there is any left (there should be!) pour chili/burro mixture in to large bowl to cool out of the hot crock pot. Allow to mostly cool before placing in refrigerator, don’t want them bacteria thriving in a room temperature mixture.

 For the refrigerated chili mixture it makes great chill dogs. Substitute tortilla with quality hot dog (Wrangler brand)in a hot dog bun. Lots of chopped onion and cheese on top, no salsa of course!

 I usually would make this during the winter months on Sunday nights. Then chili dogs (if chili recipe) for Monday Night Football!

 Buy large (10-25 lb) bags of pinto beans to keep on hand. Much less expensive that way.

I recall my professor announcing to my English class in college a few years ago, that “you never really know what you are thinking until you write it down”. Inwardly, I took offense at his remark. It was a beginning English course n basic composition – grammar, essay structure and the like. I knew that I needed additional skills in writing since I had many writing assignments upcoming for my present and future coursework. Yet, I thought to myself, I knew how to write – I had been writing most all of my life. I had not only written many a memo and even technical documentation.

In fact I was the kid in our neighborhood in the early sixties who published the neighborhood newspaper on my Underwood manual typewriter. This was prior to the availability of copy services at the local Kinko’s or even multiple page printing using a dot-matrix ink printer. I laboriously typed with six sets of alternating paper and carbon paper inserted into my old typewriter to produce multiple copies (are you are aware that the CC: function in multiple email addresses derives from “Carbon Copy”?). I wrote on-the-fly – composing as I wrote. By the end of this introductory class I was compelled to share with the professor that he was correct. I did not truly know what I was thinking until I undertook the beautiful and disciplined method of writing on paper. He was right…

Ferry Dock Arrival in Dhaka, Bangladesh Feb 2010

Since that time in 2004 I have written a great deal, but certainly not as much as accomplished or professional writers – nothing even close. I have mostly written informally for my own pleasure as well as publicly on my blogs. I have also written technically. I learned a great deal more about Microsoft Word 2007 during my six week stay in Bangladesh earlier this year. I produced a 1,000+ page computer system documentation and operations manual for the Save the Children Mother and Child Aid (McAid) maternal health and food distribution system which I have been associate with since 2005. More recently I spent several weeks producing a formal review and recommendations technical report as a deliverable to my support of a micro finance company in the West Bank of Palestine in May. these are very dry technology reports for a very narrow audience. But, I have found that I enjoy even that type of writing.

I have written Web Logs (Blogs) since 2006. My first attempt was purely to describe to myself my experiences and thoughts on my first visit to Haiti. My professor was indeed correct. After a full day of traveling to remote areas of developing countries, I needed to somehow narrate to myself in writing what I not only experienced, but what I thought. Most of these blog editions are contained on my business web site for SixBlue Data.

Save the Children USA office in El Geneine, West Darfur - Sudan

Apart for a few sporadic blog entries here in my personal blog, I have strangely been silent. I feel that it has been from dis-interest due to other interests – or likely just becoming lazy. But, in looking back, I see that I struggled in writing on my blog after my return from Darfur in early 2009. Nothing horrific happened during my visit there. I, in fact, have spent time working in twenty countries – few of which would be described as tourist destinations. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Sudan. I spent the first few days in the capital Khartoum immediately after my visit to the Arabian Peninsula country – and seldom visited by Westerners – Yemen. After a few days I received permission to travel west to the regional capital of Darfur – El Geneina. It was a long turbo-prop plane ride aboard a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) flight across the Sahara. I recall seeing the sand-covered outlines of past cities and towns long deserted. The first thing that a visitor sees approaching the small airport outside El Geneina is the sand-bag encircled air artillery emplacements. Not much of an airport that is surrounded by sand and thorny acacia trees. I was there to support a mobile technology training and project assessment for their massive food distribution program operated by Save the Children USA.

Guest House Where I Stayed in El Geninea, West Darfur - Sudan

El Geneina was stable, but you could feel the tension. at most street corners competing group of armed thugs with automatic weapons and rocket launchers stared each other down. Upon nightfall, steel gates shut and one heard gunfire all night long. A bit unnerving, but I was well taken care of. During the day, I openly walked the dusty streets with a staff member. However, I left early since our security staff informed us that trouble was imminent since the Sudanese president was about to be indicted by the International Crimes Commision of genocide charges. One month after I left, there was a forced expulsion of twelve relief agencies, including Save the Children USA . I made it out in time.

So, for some reason that I am unable to explain myself, I have not blogged – until now. A lot of projects are upcoming in the next few moths. I see a possible third trip back to Haiti to conduct on-the-ground requirements gathering for mobile health (mHealth) systems on behalf of the Washington DC-based mHealth Alliance. also, it looks like I will go to the southeastern African country Mozambique to support several projects for Save the children. I love to travel – and share. Still, I am somewhat hesitant. I see that our culture has moved to an ego-centric “look-at-me” style of self aggrandizement. I see that I am no different, wanting people to look at me. Please pardon me, I hope only that you might read something that will give cause to consider another viewpoint or opinion. I learned a while ago, yet not well-embraced, that my opinions cannot possibly be the right ones. Probability shows that my one-in-6+ billion chance of being right are slim at best!

Texting and Twitter – A Primer for the Novice

Most everyone has a cell phone of one type or another. There are many kinds, from Smartphone, to “Droids”, and my favorite, just a basic cell phone. We think of cell phones in terms of for talking to one another – by voice. Many of us, and even more so our children – and maybe even grandchildren – like to text. Texting, formally known as Short Message System or SMS for short, can be used in many other ways other than just chatting with a friend.

These two basic features, voice and texting, are present in all cell phones. The text portion was originally placed there by the cell phone companies for their techy people to communicate between cell phone stations. The guy who was asked to design texting into cell phones had to come up with a standard length of text message characters allowed. It is urban legend that he got out a box of his Mom’s post cards and then averaged the number of characters, including spaces and punctuation, that it took for someone to write what they wanted to communicate within that limited space. That’s reportedly how the 160 character limit for texting came about.

So, now days many people seldom even use the voice part of their phone and instead mostly communicate to friends using text messaging. One SMS tool that has become popular in the last couple of years is Twitter. Twitter uses the SMS as the communication channel on cell phones. Twitter also makes use of SMS through an internet connection as well, so people can send Twitter messages, known as “Tweets”, to their friends and colleagues while at their desktop or laptop computers. Increasingly, more elaborate and sophisticated cell phones, such as Smart Phones, have ability to access the internet using data plans – which then allows Twitter access directly.

To gain a simple understanding of how cell phone texting differs from Twitter, when a person wants to text another person from their cell phone, they need only type in their message and send it to another person’s cell phone using that persons’ cell phone number as the delivery address. As you can see, this communicating between two cell phones is a one-to-one communication channel. Twitter, on the other hand, also allows a single person to send a SMS text message, known as a “Tweet”, to one, or more than one person. It is a one-to-many communication channel. In another sense, Twitter is also a many-to-many method of communication. A crowd of people can nearly instantaneously communicate with one another – wherever they may be with their personal cell phone, if their cell phone is charged, has cell phone signal strength bars, and that they are paid up on their account! Increasingly, we are seeing the familiar Facebook and Twitter logos at the bottom of company advertisements on television, internet and in print. Industry and non-profit organizations are scrambling to these two most popular social media tools. You may want to check out a video posted on YouTube that explains the current and future impact of social media on our global societies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&NR=1

Do you own a business? Checkout how Twitter can be used for it: http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/

Valid concerns for privacy are in order here. I mean, do I have really anything to say that would be of interest to others? Well, since many of us CHS alumni have not had direct contact between ourselves in four decades – well, yes, I’d like to connect and hear what you have been up to! Also, Twitter is by default completely public. But guess what, you are able to have a Twitter account, let’s say one named CHS_70 that is by private invitation only! Additionally, at any time you can block individual people tweeting you. If they really became more than annoying, Twitter takes quite serious the reporting of such people and they would soon find their account permanently de-activated.

Getting Setup and Becoming a Twitter User

So, what could this mean for us Clairemont High School alumni. We could use Twitter from our cell phones to contact and keep in touch with our fellow classmates. This communication could be of a short term nature, for instance immediately prior to , or even during, our September reunion (in-person will be far better). It could also be used in the aftermath of the reunion after we have re-discovered classmates, or even new ones. How might Twitter be different than how Facebook or even email is used to connect? Because you do not need to go to a computer to connect with friends, you can connect anywhere that you are. Twitter follows you where you are – at work, at play, at home -anywhere, since most people own cell phones.

To get started, you will first need to setup your own Twitter account. Afterwards, you would simply search for and then “follow” the Clairemont High School Class of 1970 Twitter account: CHS_70. At this point, we are keeping it a “closed” account, but that could change later if there is consensus to do so. In order to follow CHS_70, you will be asked to be confirmed by the CHS_70 Twitter administrator. Then, you are connected. As you become familiar with accessing the CHS_70 Twitter account, you will notice other CHS alumni “following”. Click on their user names and decide if you would like to begin following them individually as well.

How to Get Setup With a Personal Twitter Account

1. Go to this Twitter web page for step-by-step instructions to start using Twitter: http://help.twitter.com/entries/100990-how-to-sign-up-on-twitter
2. Do a search for the CHS_70 Twitter account and then “Follow” it. Within a short time, your Follow confirmation will be emailed to you.
3. Sign into your Twitter account and watch the dialogue between Clairemont high class of 1970 alumni – and join in!

Usually when I am overseas, I strive to avoid at all costs being put up in a hotel. instead I find myself sharing household tasks with a staff member’s family, Often there will be a local housekeeper whom I can swap recipes with. Here is one from El Salvador for Chipotle salsa. Be careful, as it is powerful, and one does not need to use a lot. A teaspoon or less is often sufficient. I will just stab my fork into the salsa then lightly drag it across my scrambled eggs. The seceret, I feel, with using “hot” sauces such as Tabasco, etc. is to only use a little bit. Its the flavor that the sauces impart, not os much the “heat” that I enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion – quartered

4 cloves of fresh garlic

4 whole Roma tomatoes (the little pear shaped ones)

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce*

*you can find these at most all stores, or better yet, stop by a local Hispanic tiendita (“small market”) and become acquainted of this new wealth of ingredients. You have already Safeways’ selection…

Roast at medium-high heat in a dry (not an oiled griddle or preferrably a #8 cast iron skillet) the quartered onion, the cloves of garlic, and the Roma tomatoes. 

Let them all items roast until they soften a little on one side, then

turn them to prevent burning.

Put them all in a blender with the cilantro (just the leaves, minus as many stems as possible to assist in the straining). Add the canned chipotle peppers in and then blend on high, and strain.

Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Great on scrambled eggs, or as an addition to homemade/store-bought salsa, soups, tacos, etc.

The Wedding Party

It is nearly noon Friday, the day prior to my daughter Amanda and soon-to-be son-in-law Casey Holland’s wedding. I had requested a room for my wife Heidi and I up on the fourth floor facing inside towards the South Atrium where both the rehearsal and actual wedding will be taking place. This is so much easier. Even though we live less than hour away, I knew it would be best to book a room the night before the reharsal as well as the day of the wedding and the following day. We do not need to arrive by vehicle through traffic with the weather to be in the mid-80’s – all hot and sweaty and rushing in for the rehearsal. I also booked a room for two of my sons, Paul and Steven here for this afternoon as well. The only person missing is Amanda’s oldest brother Kristoffer who is currently in training at Fort Drum NY.

Amanda's mother Linda (l.) and my wife Heidi Isaak

I cannot speak of others, but my perspective is a bit unique, reflective, sad, joyful, celebratory and expectant. All of your life, from the moment that you were born, I fully knew – in my deepest of the deeps of what I know, that I was at that moment of birth your “covering”. I was to protect, nourish, support, provide, all those needful and rightful things to get you to this point – this hour – with Casey. I often thought of Casey, years before he came into your life. We knew that he was coming. We both wondered. But you chose, not I, and I fully confirm and enter in to that choice of Casey by yourself. Soon, as I step aside after walking you down the aisle on my arm, my covering will be removed after I respond to the question, “who gives this bride…?” and I respond with a firm but inwardly excited “I do”. As Casey steps to your side, as I step back, the covering is transferred, with no gaps between. That is why Casey and I both are present as you approach.

That is not to say that over the years that my covering over you was not as full or completely extended as it should have, but I think I did okay. Soon, it will be Casey’s covering. As I step back from the two of you as you proceed with your vows, I will then be in a state of expectation (Casey: I Do, Amanda, I Do…) followed by celebration and joy. I’ve been waiting for this a long time.

You are the center of the wedding in a sense – a join before God and Family and Friends of both you and Casey, but it is like two ballet dancers on stage, a beautiful ballerina and the male dancer. Largely, and I have seen ballet in person, (a lot of floor-pounding and gasps and shouts – kinds like a marriage can be!) and the ballerina is the star – graceful, skillful, beautiful. The male dancer is there to lift her to heights, to extend her, to support her, to provide balance to her as she executes deft maneuvers across the dance floor of life. But also, she would be out of place on the stage by herself. She could not provide the beauty, the ah’s and gasps of the audience without his support and encouragement. You both have your role, but by the woman’s’ delicate and fragile nature – one to be cherished and protected. And that confidence I have as my Covering passes over to Mr. Casey’s capable hands.

Amanda Isaak's Wedding Shower - July 2009

It is here. My wife Heidi and I are checked into the hotel which is the venue for my daughter’s marriage to her fiance’ Casey Holland. The bridal shower has already been given – hosted at Amanda’s friend Nicole’s house. My wife Heidi planned and prepared for that gathering.

The wedding takes place in Lynnwood, WA at the Embassy Suites hotel. I travel quite a bit and I see many different hotels. This hotel has provided a great experience for us all.

Peter Chopelas Prepares the Paschal Lamb

A couple of years ago, after Heidi and I’s marriage, we rented a small house in the woods east of Arlington, WA USA. We had decided to rent out the house that we owned in town to escape the city and start anew. The following Spring we noted a gathering at our neigbors, the Chopelas’, that was accompanied by the aroma of a lamb being roasted on an open air spit. The father, Peter Chopelas, is Greek by heritage. They attend Saint Andrew Orthodox Christian Church , in Arlington, WA, which is part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

Peter, and his entire family, have enriched our lives and understanding of what it is to “be” Greek.  I was aware that they observe the holidays and festivals, associated with the Eastern Orthodox Church calendar and how that the calendar differed from the one that most Americans are popularlyfamiliar with. Therefore, for the past two Springs, I was not surprised that “Easter” was celebrated by my wonderful Greek neighbors seemingly a week later. I later learned that Peter and his family celebrated the Pascha, or the Feast of the Resurrection

I have found that over time as I have matured (hopefully), that listening to others is far more interesting than listening to myself. Therefore, recently, I glided over to where Peter had assembled the fire pit and located a freshly butchered lamb on the roasting spit. I asked a few questions, not being content this year to remain ignorant of the details of this event. I have found that it exacts very little cost to become informed. Peter patiently explained the differences and root historical differences between the Eastern Orthodox Church calendar. I was also keenly aware of the spiritual significance of the meaning of the Passover, or more rightly, the “Paschal Lamb”.

Peter Explains The Paschal

Peter explains it:

The Paschal Lamb

Front page of note written in 1998 by Kayla Eland when she was nine years old

My son Paul Isaak now lives out on the Tulalip Indian Reservation west of Marysville, WA. The house that he shares with his work friend and long time soccer partner Tyler has access to the beach. Several weeks ago Paul was walking along the shore and discovered a bottle washed up on shore. It contained two sheets of paper that contained handwritten notes by two young girls who had vacationed on Whidbey Island in the summer of 1998. The girls listed their favorite hobbies, and they included some information about families. The back of each girls note also contained drawings.

I took an interest in this eleven year old find. I contacted a few newspaper columnists. As a result, the Everett HeraldFortunately, each of the children provided information on their home addresses and even a phone number.

As you may possibly be aware, ten non-governmental organizations (NGO) were told to leave the country of Sudan in response to the United Nations International Crimes Commission indictment of the President of Sudan for complicity in the devastation to the peoples of Darfur. I was in Sudan for ten days from late January until my departure on February 2nd 2009. I spent five days in El Geneina in West Darfur visiting the Krindle I refugee camp briefly and a food distribution point.

El Geneina, West Darfur state, Sudan

The following is an exceprt from Andrew Epstein, who I shared a guesthouse of Save the Children USA with during my time in Khartoum. A note, “ex-pat’s” is short for expatriate,  which means “to leave one’s native country to live elsewhere” and is typically used to describe relief workers that are non-native to the coutry in which they are living and working in.

During this whole “occupation” people at first were very on edge often shouting at each other as the security guys were literally thugs whom seemed to enjoy flexing their power. I had brought a huge, huge bag of lollipops with me from the states to take to schools, so I brought it down from my room and gave them out. The thugs gleefully took huge handfuls and then suddenly all was quiet: everyone had a lollipop in their mouth! They were like big babies!

Most of the ex-pat staff managed to make it to Khartoum and I must say it was an honor and a pleasure to have met them. The night before people began to depart for their home countries…Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi, Guinea, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Canada, the US…we all gathered at a restaurant in Khartoum and the devastation of what was happening began to sink in. It was like being at a funeral: where all these people who are aware of each other, like a family spread out across the globe connected by stories and email, finally meet each other in person, but under unfortunate circumstances. It’s was almost too much to think about what the impact will be on the people of Darfur and Nuba Mountains in the absence of these organizations. Notwithstanding the criticism international NGO’s and their staffs endure, it was clear that many people are going suffer severely in their absence.

Instead, individual and sometimes hilarious stories about their experiences were shared as all their hard work and commitments lay there like a white elephant lying in a coffin in the middle of the long dinner table. Peter told the story of how a Janjaweed militia hijacked a Save the Children land cruiser and all the personal belongings of the staff inside. So the next day, he went and found the hijackers in their camp and negotiated the return of the stolen items in exchange for being allowed to access food aid: they were starving too. From then on Peter was the liason between Janjaweed and Darfurian; he was even invited to proceed over Janjaweed weddings.

Lake Crescent, Olympic Peninnsula, Washington state, USA

I found the chance meeting of schedules for both my self and my middle son Stephen to take a couple of days for a ride over the Olympic Peninsula. This area is dominated by the Olympic Mountains which rise to over 8,000 feet northwest of Seattle. Even though it is only a half hours ferry ride across Puget Sound form Seattle, then a couple hours drive, it has always seemed a bit detached from the metropolis of Seattle. One of it’s first expedition of exploration, known as the Press Expedition traveled from north to south along the Elwa River in 1889 – 1890. Even though the Olympics Mountains could be clearly seen by Seattleites in the late 19th century, it was largely an hour unknow except for a few independent hardy souls. This Press Expedition was well-chronicaled in the book Across the Olympic Mountains: The Press Expedition, 1889-90  by Robert L. Wood, and also The Good Rain by Timothy Egan, 1991.

Southeast Shore of Lake Crescent

I have traveled to this region several times, the latest with my wife Heidi just last summer. Stephen and I came over her for a day trip in the late 1990’s that was largely limited to the north coast, including a stop at arguably oldest continually operated general store in the state of Washington located in the city of Joyce. This general store figured prominately in the 1984 movie Kid Colter and was a favorite of my family even while we watched it on video when we still lived in San Diego in the late 1980’s.

Wynola, California Store (Formerly "Manzanita Ranch")

 There is quite a gap here between this blog entry and my prior departure from Darfur. A lot has happened since then. In short, I thought it prudent to exit from Sudan a couple of days early due to the imminent indictment of the Sudanese President by the United Nations International Crimes Commission (ICC). I was to await my Save the Children USA Monitoring and Evaluation co-worker in Khartoum those last two days. But, her trip to Sudan was cancelled due to insecurity in the area. Since I really had no remaining work in Sudan, I contacted my wonderful travel agent Pamela to change my itinerary. She is really wonderful and instantly responded with a new itinerary.

View From my Dubai Hotel Room

I flew out of Khartoum Tuesday night of 3 February to Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The layover would be for nearly twenty-two hours, but then I had a direct flight back to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. I booked a room in downtown Dubai to get some rest and take a shower. I did not necessarily like Dubai. it is probably the most expensive and clean city that I have ever seen. But it has an international touch to it that was influenced by the raucous hotel that I stayed in. It was comfortable but there seemed to be an unsavory cast of characters posted outside the lobby bar and other transaction of dubious nature. I was just there to sleep.

View From Inspiration Point in east San Diego County, CA USA

Soon, however, I was on my nearly sixteen hour flight to the U.S. After a quick stop in Atlanta, I was on my way to San Diego for a week to visit my mother and sister. I also took a day to drive up into the mountains east of San Diego. The picture at the top of this post is where I used to frequently stop whenever I was on my way to go hiking or camping in the Cuyamaca Mountains during, say 1971. This small hamlet of Wynola is just west of Julian, a delightful little town nestled in the mountains. It had snowed a great deal there, so I was unable to park in town. Instead, I drove a few miles south to Inspiration Point overlooking a 4,000 foot drop into Imperial Valley to the east.

One of the Younger Soccer Players in Aden, Yemen

I am now back at my home east of Arlington, WA state after over 22,000 miles of travel. Time for a rest.

El Geneina, West Darfur - Sudan

I am now esconced in a modest hotel room in Dubai, of the United Arab Emirates. I departed from Khartoum, Sudan the day after I flew from the West Darfur state. It was a humbling experience. A part of me definitely wanted to depart. However, I seemed to thrive in the climate and the people were so warm and welcoming. I was repeatedly advised not to take any photos, since a special permit from the Government of Sudan is needed to do so. This is in addition to the travel permit I was required to have before I left Khartoum.

Still, the ocassional gunshot outside of our compound walls were unnerving. I do not think I would of lasted ten minutes if I had ventured outside our steel-gated walls at darkness. Military were garrisoned frequently at street corners, some of which I had difficulty determing if they were the UNAMID (joint United Nations – Africa Union) troops or some other paramilitary group.

Street Outside of Save the Children Office - El Geneina, West Darfur

On my next to last evening, the guard at our guest house compound approached me as I was reading a book under the lights of the generator. I thought that he wanted me to evacuate. He only was telling me how a UNAMID driver had been shot at a couple of blocks away. I had heard the shots about ten minutes earlier. The driver was evacuated to Khartoum. It must of been serious, since I was told that the medical doctors could handle most any gunshot wound. I found myself always on alert, but never afraid. I was well taken care of. That was not the case for those outside the walls.

Save the Children PDA Team - El Geneina, West Darfur

Still, the thirty-five Save the Chidlren staff (my largest training group) were enthusiatic and in no need of cajoling to participate. I also had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp nearby (Krinding I) and also an impressive food distribution site. This latter was one of the most orderly and efficient that I have seen. Save the Children is the largest NGO operating in Darfurand distributes food commodities to nearly half a million internally displaced persons (IDP’s) refugees and returning persons.

Map of West Darfur, in West Central Sudan

I just was handed my travel papers allowing me to board a United Nations flight early tomorrow morning to El Geneina in West Darfur. I am excited. I was told that they have arranged for me to visit one of the nearby refugee camps in order to obtain the context for use of the PDA’s for the survey.

View From Guest House

Sudan is the largest country in Africa and covers an area the size of Western Europe. Darfur, of course, has received notable visibility the past several years due to the famine and conflict there. Try as I might, I am unable to clearly understand the causes of the conflict. I guess politics are just beyond my understanding. It is, like most things in life, complex with several stakeholders and interests. I am going there for a much simpler reason.

Morning in Khartoum

 I will  return to Khartoum on Sunday the 1st, and i am unsure whether I will have internet, email, orcell phone connectivity,

Mobile Vendor - Khartoum, Sudan

I am still in the city of Khartoum (“HAR-Tomb”), the capital of Sudan. I am staying in the Save the Children guesthouse but two blocks away. There are three private rooms on each of the three floors, which includes a common kitchen area and bathroom/shower. I am very pleased with the accommodations. I share it with another consultant, Andrew.

The Save the Children Guesthouse - Khartoum, Sudan

On my first evening, knowing that it would be best to cook my own meals in the guest house, I had the driver take me to the Western-style supermarket – Afra. It was expensive, lacking inventory and customers.

View of Khartoum, south of city center

Last evening, I accompanied Andrew and another consultant, Sue, to the Al-Soug al Markzi – the Central Market,  across the busy highway . There are few things that I enjoy more than visiting an open air market. If you would want to sample a region quickly, the market serves that purpose. It is a concentrated area where there is the expression of the agricultural products of that region all dictated by the demands of the customers – it is what they use.

Chair on roof of Save the Children building

I know absolutely no Arabic. I was unable to take any pictures since you actually need a permit to use video equipment in Sudan. It is a crowded are in the open with vendors hawking their piles of fresh leeks, tomatoes, watermelons, beans, onions between aisles not much wider than two persons. An army of boys approach potential buyers with offers of plastic bags to hold their purchases. These young men also offer to carry the filled bags for a small price for both bag and effort. There were also boys and young men with metal wheelbarrows constantly hemming me in and slowing my progress.

Firefighting Station - Save the Children office, Khartoum, Sudan

Well, I was disrupting the local labor pool. I was obviously taking away jobs by carrying my the heavy produce that Sue was purchasing. My “payment” was observing her skills in communicating and negotiating the prices and quality.  I was her “boy”, much to the amusement of the vendors and young workers that I had temporarily displaced.