The Trip Home

We’re back in Canada again, having arrived in Toronto this past Saturday afternoon. Our trip was an interesting one in that we experienced a few firsts.

First of all, we had the good fortune to meet the friendliest and most helpful taxi driver in all of New York City on Saturday morning. We reserved a taxi on-line a couple of days before (isn’t that cool?) and went downstairs on Saturday morning to find him already waiting for us, playing a game of chess on his laptop. He cheerily greeted us, immediately got out and loaded our luggage for us, and then took us on our way. Quite a difference from the other taxi drivers we’d had to date, all of whom were the grunting, monosyllabic type.

He told us that he was from India and had already been in the States for quite some time. When I asked him if he ever went back to visit family in India, he said no. At $2,000 per ticket per person, the sum for him, his wife and their two teenage daughters is rather prohibitive. In addition, his family and relatives all expect him to bring back lots of expensive gifts for them. He said that his brother recently asked him for a new 3G phone. After all, money grows on trees in America, doesn’t it?

Once at the airport and through security, we looked for and found a Starbucks for our morning coffee. Here we experienced another first: service with an attitude. The girl behind the counter was anything but friendly. She didn’t smile, wouldn’t respond to my hello, told me that they didn’t have what I wanted, and then gave me something else without even waiting for my response! It’s amazing what you’ll put up with when you want a good cup of coffee, though.

For breakfast, we went to an airport diner that had bacon and eggs on the menu, made with fresh eggs. That sounded good! Real bacon & eggs is something we really can’t get in Burkina, so we try to enjoy it here while we can. However, when we asked for fried eggs, the waiter told us that they couldn’t make fried eggs, only scrambled eggs. So what was this about “fresh eggs” on the menu? Turns out that they make their breakfasts with a scrambled egg mix, which is made from fresh eggs. Okay. Sounds like they’re playing loosey-goosey with their definitions if you ask me.

We had some interesting experiences with the airline too. When we went to check in, the staff were not friendly or very helpful at all. Serving customers seemed like some distasteful task they had to do. No smiles, no hellos, nothing. How do these people stay in business? Maybe it’s the same thing as me and my coffee. It’s amazing what people will put up with to get a good deal on airfare, including lousy service.

Kathy remembers something about free luggage on their website. We ended up having to pay $20 for our one bag. Then there were signs all over the airport, touting the superior service offered by Continental Airlines (yeah, right!), like free meals on flights at mealtimes. They must have a different definition of mealtime or of a meal than we do. Our flight was over the lunch hour and all we got was a complimentary drink and a little bag of pretzels. But that’s okay. I’ve got to watch my weight anyway.

But we did get to fly in a plane with propellers instead of turbofans this time (a DeHavilland Dash 8), another first (not counting the small, private airplanes we’ve flown in a couple of times). We sat right under the wing and got to see the propeller on our side start up and go into action. That was kind of interesting. Definitely noisier than a turbofan, though.

And it was an opportunity to appreciate the speed with which a camera can take pictures. With the naked eye, you couldn't see the propeller at all. It was just a faint blur.  Even when I took photos of it at full speed, it hardly looked like it was turning in the picture.

Got a cool shot of Niagara Falls on the way too.

Day 24 - New York City

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a bus anywhere in North America, so I was pretty impressed with the one we travelled on to get from Washington, DC, to New York City. Not only was it comfortable, but it had electrical outlets and wireless Internet connection for people who wanted to use their laptops to work or surf the Net while travelling, which about half the people on the bus (including Kathy & I) did. And it was free! Well, okay, it was probably part of the ticket price, but it felt good to not have to pay extra for it :)

Once in NYC, we headed for the hostel at the Vanderbilt YMCA. It cost significantly more than even a room at Motel 6 in other cities and gave us significantly less value for the money (a pretty basic room painted institutional yellow with communal toilets down the hall), but it was close to where we wanted to be: the United Nations.

We must have looked like yokels fresh from the boondocks as we walked along the streets, craning our necks to look up at all the tall buildings, ogling all kinds of interesting shops, businesses, and street vendors, and navigating our way through the greatest variety of people I’ve ever seen. First we grabbed something to eat, and then we headed off to get temporary passes to the UN and an appointment with the UNESCO person responsible for literacy.

The next time I come anywhere near the UN, I’m going to have to remember not to wear a coat, not to carry anything in my pockets or my hands, and especially not to wear a belt to help keep my pants up. Every time we wanted to go into a building to do something or see someone, we had to go through security, including metal detectors. I got especially tired of having to remove my belt and put it back on again so many times!

For supper, we decided to take advantage of NYC’s incredible ethnic diversity and find a restaurant whose type of food we’d never eaten before. We chose a restaurant that served food from Afghanistan. And we were not disappointed. The food was delicious! Even the atmosphere was great. The restaurant was decorated with articles and artefacts from the Afghan culture, and the music sounded like it was from there too.

Getting a good night’s sleep was not easy. We could easily hear doors to neighbouring rooms opening and closing, closet doors banging, and people loudly talking. Whenever we did manage to get to sleep for a while, the hot water pipes running into the room’s radiator would start pinging and then banging until we were wide awake again. But it seems like we fared better than our colleagues who had a room across the hall. They were on the street side of the building. Not only were they privileged to enjoy the same noises we did, but they were also treated to the sounds of loud groups of people walking by, and the garbage truck making its rounds in the early morning hours.

This morning, we went on tour of the UN. We didn’t get to go into some of the important parts of the building, like the Security Council chamber, because they were under renovation, but we did see the main chamber where delegates from the 192 member countries sit to hear speeches and carry out their deliberations. This is the room featured in the film “The Interpreter” with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn (if you haven’t seen it yet, I’d recommend it). Our guide even pointed out the interpreter booth that Nicole Kidman sat in for the film. We looked for and found the seat for the delegate from Burkina Faso. Fortunately it was close to the back area where we were permitted to go, so we were able to take a picture of it.

Our final appointment was with the culture & education officer of Burkina’s permanent mission to the UN. This lady was very friendly and talked with us for about half an hour. I think she would have liked to talk more, but she needed to get back to the meeting she was skipping out on to see us. She gave us a list of key people we could get in touch with back in Burkina in order to promote the use of minority languages in the public school system there.

This evening, our last in NYC, Kathy & I decided to have supper at a place I’d recently read about in a book by Danny Meyer, the famous restaurant entrepreneur. The place is called “Blue Smoke” and it’s an up-scale BBQ joint. I’m not usually a rib fan, but I had to try them here. We ordered the rib-sampler plate for two, featuring three different kinds of ribs. Even I had to admit they were pretty good! The only downside was that the meal actually cost us and extra $10 more than the price on the menu. Well, not exactly the meal. It was actually for cab fare. We were just too full to walk all the way home again!

Tomorrow, we catch a plane back to Canada. I’m looking forward to catching up on my sleep. Between the heating pipes and the guy that keeps slamming his door down the hall, I don’t think I’m going to get much here tonight! But hey, what do you expect for $125?

Day 22 - Washington

Today, we walked our legs off. Wow, we never knew Washington DC had so many hills, and that we’d have to do so much walking here! It seems that if there isn’t a hill somewhere, they’ve built a set of stairs or something else for people to climb! Maybe it’s the government’s way of helping its employees get the exercise they need after sitting at their desks all day :)


Each morning this week, we’ve walked a block and a half to the nearest subway station, where we have to climb a broken escalator to the elevated platform. Then we stand in a crowded train for 20 minutes until we reach our destination. This is followed by a walk of several blocks, mostly uphill, until we get to the SIL office where we begin our day of meetings and activities.

Before getting on the subway, however, we pop into a place called “The Dutch Touch Café”. Ironically, it’s run by Koreans :) But they make a tasty omelette sandwich that we order to take out. When we get off the subway, we head straight for a nearby Starbucks to get our morning fix to drink along with our sandwich before continuing on to the office.

This afternoon, we did two interesting things. First we went on a high-speed tour of the Capitol. The person in charge of our orientation has a friend who is an official historian there, and he took us on a special guided tour of the Hill. We decided that at some point in the future, we really need to come back prepared to take several days to do the tours properly. There is just so much that is interesting to see and do there. You just can’t do it in a few short hours!



The second interesting thing we did was pay a visit to the Burkina Faso embassy. The ambassador was not there, but the two officials that received us were very warm and welcoming, just like people from Burkina tend to be. It turns out that one of the officials was from a language group that did not yet have a written form of its language. When we told her that we planned to begin work in her language within the next few years, she enthusiastically promised to do all she could to help us, including putting us in touch with key people in the community and elsewhere. All in all, it was a very profitable visit!

Tomorrow morning, we need to get up extra early to catch a bus to New York City where we will pay a visit to the UN, to the offices of UNESCO, and to the permanent mission of Burkina Faso to the UN.

Day 20 - Washington

After 45 minutes of waiting and watching, we decided that we’d better try to contact someone. We’d arrived in the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., following an evening flight from Charlotte, NC, had collected our luggage from the baggage carousel, and waited, looking for someone who might be looking for us. Deciding that we must have miscommunicated somewhere, I opened my briefcase, pulled out my laptop, and fired it up, planning to check the e-mails for a phone number.

Meanwhile, Kathy powered up our Canadian cellphone. It was probably going to cost more to use it than a local pay phone, but we didn’t want to move far from the baggage claim area in case the person picking us up came by.

I found a number, but it looked like an office one (it had an extension number after it), so we had our doubts that there would be anyone there on a Sunday night to take my call. I called it anyway. What choice did I have? It was the only number I had!

After several rings, a lady answered. You should have heard her reaction when she heard who was calling! “Oh no! I was supposed to pick you up at the airport!” Apparently she’d gotten busy with something and just totally forgot :) And yes, using our Canadian cellphone did definitely cost us more! Almost $10 for a 3-minute call.

After depositing our luggage at the place we were staying, we went out to get a late night bite. That complimentary drink they’d given us on the plane just wasn’t going to cut it for supper. Fortunately, there was a place called “Whole Foods” just around the corner. This wasn’t just a grocery store. It was a food emporium! It had all kinds of food ready to eat and a place with tables to sit down and eat it. They had a salad bar, an international food buffet, and more. The unique thing is that they charged for meals by weight. You just grabbed a paper plate, filled it up with whatever you wanted from the different bars and buffet tables, and then took it to the checkout counter where the cashier weighed it on the scales to determine how much it was going to cost you. An interesting way to buy a meal!

Today, we spent a fair bit of time riding the subway in Washington. First from where we are staying to where we had our day of meetings. Then to meet friends and former colleagues from Burkina for supper and back again. Fortunately we never got lost, or got on the wrong train (both have happened to us in Paris!). It was nearly midnight before we got home again, so I’m looking forward to getting a few hours of sleep before it’s time to get up and at ‘em again early tomorrow morning.

Here’s a sign we saw on a door of the building we’re staying in. Guess they wanted to make sure pet owners get the point!

Day 18 - Waxhaw

For a moment this morning, I could have sworn that I was back in Burkina. I was just finishing up my shower when, through the bathroom window, I heard a rooster crowing. However, we aren’t anywhere near Burkina. We’re in a semi-rural setting on the JAARS Center near Waxhaw, North Carolina. I thought my ears were playing tricks on me! But when I looked out the living room window of our one-bedroom guesthouse apartment (after getting dressed, of course), there were indeed some chickens foraging for food in the strip of woods behind the building.

A number of things have struck us on this trip through the States. One is that the “green” movement does not yet seem to have made as much of an in-road in the parts we’ve travelled through as we’re accustomed to in Canada. Incandescent bulbs are still the norm (which we’ve appreciated for their warmth as well as their light at times!) and recycling is more of a do-it-yourself-if-you-want-to affair. Recycling boxes are noticeably absent and throwing tins, aluminum cans, and plastic containers into the same receptacle as organic waste and paper in both public and private spaces has not been easy for us after several years of habitual separation. There are places to recycle some of these things, but it means getting in a car and delivering them to a place that usually requires you to spend more in gas than you’ll get back in refunds.

We’d forgotten how friendly service tends to be in the States. Kathy was impressed with this all over again when a friend took her shopping for a few supplies at a local grocery store. The friendliness of the lady at the checkout counter was in marked contrast to what we often encounter in Canada and especially in Burkina. Burkinabè have the reputation (largely well-deserved) of being the friendliest people in all of West Africa, but this can quickly be changed by putting them behind a cash register or an office desk!

My pet peeve, however, is the new credit card security measures used at US gas stations. Gas theft and credit card fraud has succeeded in creating a level of inconvenience for non-US visitors at these places that has me wishing for the old days of full-service gas stations again. No longer can anyone just fill their tank and pay later. If you’re paying cash, it’s prepaid only, and involves a walk to the cash register and back, and taking a guess at how much gas you’ll need. Over-guessing means a second trip to the register for a partial refund. Under-guessing is okay, unless you have a rental car that needs to be returned with a full tank. It took me two trips to the register and back to make that happen.

Credit cards work too, but not for foreigners like us. Why? Because you have to enter your US address zip code for it to work. Not a US citizen with an address here? Sorry. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Go straight to the attendant on duty and prepay there. If you miscalculate and overpay, watch to make sure a partial refund shows up on your card statement.

I’m not sure what the best solution is here, but I’ve learned one thing: always pick the pump closest to the cash register. Unless you really need the workout :)

Day 13 - Waxhaw

It was pouring rain as we were chauffeured to the Dallas – Fort Worth airport by a volunteer SIL driver at noon today, and it was with some relief that we settled down to wait for our boarding call. We had finally reached the end of an incredibly packed week and weekend. In fact, our last meetings were held just this morning. We hardly had time to check our e-mails before it was time to leave for the airport!

Despite the busyness, we did enjoy meeting with various people. And we even managed to get in a few visits with friends, but not all of them. So if I could do it over again, I’d budget more time for that. Who knows how many years will go by before we pass this way again?

We're also very thankful for the people who went out of their way to look after us and help us out with scheduling, transportation, accommodations, meals, and times of fun, food, and fellowship.  Some of these folks had never even met us before!  They were all a real blessing.

Guess what we saw in the Dallas - Fort Worth airport?  A Best Buy vending machine where you could purchase digital cameras, i-Pods, chargers, USB keys, and a host of other electronic devices!  I was fascinated.  I'd never seen one of these before!  Guess I'm more of a country bumpkin than I thought I was :)

Upon our arrival at Charlotte, North Carolina, I forgot to read the instructions concerning airport pickups. Not sure it would have helped anyway since our Canadian cell phone wasn’t working properly. When we didn’t call him like we were supposed to, the driver said that he tried to call us twice but couldn’t get through. So we ended up waiting in the pickup area until his wife came along carrying a JAARS sign. I don’t think they were too happy with us, but thankfully they were fairly gracious about it :/

When we got to the JAARS Center, we went to visit Kevin & Anita, recent colleagues from Burkina Faso who had invited us to have some supper at their place. At the end of a long day and in a new place, it’s sure nice to see familiar faces! Anita even went out of her way to get us some basic supplies so that we’d have something to eat over the next few days. The JAARS Center is far from any grocery stores and we don’t have a car here. We wanted to pay her for them, but she refused to tell us how much it cost.

For the rest of this week, we're staying in a cute little one-bedroom guesthouse apartment.  Sure glad we brought our coats along.  It's chilly here!

I have another presentation to give at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, so I’d better get busy on that.

Day 10 - Dallas

Wow, I haven’t had such a bunch of full and busy days like this in some time! Kathy & I are running from one meeting to another from 8 o’clock in the morning till 5 o’clock at night each day, with just a quick bite for lunch. We’re meeting lots of interesting people, and hearing and learning lots of interesting stuff, but haven’t really got the time to process any of it right now.

In the evenings, we’re visiting with friends or preparing for upcoming talks and presentations. I rarely get to bed before midnight. When we arrived, I got a stack of leadership books to look at. They all look very interesting and will definitely be going on my “To Get” list, but I haven’t yet had a chance to look at any of them! For the first half of this week, I carried several around with me, hoping to peruse them when I had a spare moment. I finally gave up on that idea.

We’ve been provided with a nice place to stay in the home of SIL colleagues just a few miles from the SIL Center. And have been able to rent a Center vehicle so that we can be mobile. This is great for going to Starbucks, visiting friends, or going out to eat somewhere.

One way for us to unwind after a heavy day of meetings has been to go out for supper together, or to have supper with friends. We’ve already enjoyed a great BBQ place (see my last post), TGI Fridays, and a Mexican place. Last night, we were invited to go to Chili’s with friends we haven’t seen in seven years or so. Surprise, surprise, they looked the same. Just older. Like us :)

Saw this interesting sign recently. But I guess there weren’t enough people saying “Hallelujah!” because the place is closed up :)