This Blog is done and dusted.

As it was all about our time in North America, and because we are now back in Aotearoa, then this blog is done and dusted. I will add a link to my new blog in the coming weeks.

Mike

Back in Chicago, long weekend on a lake, torn ACL, Frankfurt, Work, Helen Clark, Live Free Or Die, and Packing up

Well, again it has been a while since I have added a post to this blog - apologies!

I will go back to when I was in Guatemala. I was up very early for the flight to Miami - feeling tired but without the travel sickness I had earlier in the week. The flight to Miami was OK, the airport was again packed, and my hopes of catching the connecting flight to Ottawa from Chicago (30mins between flight connections) was screwed because the American Air (AA) flight was delayed for 5 hours! 5 hours, because there was no plane to catch in Miami - it was stuck at another airport due to mechanical problems! So AA put me up for the night in Chicago (Best Western Airport hotel) with a $15 meal/breakfast voucher. 8:30 the next morning I was on my flight back to Ottawa.

I tore my ACL - bugger it! I was playing flag rugby one Sunday afternoon in July - I had the ball and was in the middle of a huge sidestep to get past a player, when my leg got caught in a rut on the field - the leg stayed straight, while everything else (from my knee up) went with the sideways motion of the sidestep. I heard 2 pops, and hit the deck. 30mins later I was in A&E with Miriam, waiting to see a doctor. Diagnosis - something is torn (no shit) and you will have to see a doctor at a sports med (thanks for your expensive 15min assessment Doc!). So I left on crutches, and after an X-Ray and MRI (over the following weeks), it was confirmed that I tore my ACL more than 60% and had chipped my bone - fibia. Bugger! To cut a long story short, I started physio, booked in for an operation (with Doctor Don Johnston - I later learnt that he was one of the worlds best knee surgeons) and had surgery on October 16. Before the surgery I was able to play sports wearing the Don Joy brace (it stopped lateral/hyper-extension of the knee). Surgery wasn't like the old days, where you spend a night in hospital. Miriam drove me to a private clinic; my knee area was shaved; I was put under general anesthetic; had the 2 hour arthroscopic surgery; 1 hour of recover; Miriam backed up the car to the surgery door; I hobbled to the car; and we went home! It was funny, when I came out of my general anesthetic, I asked the nurse for laptop with Internet connection so that I could check work emails and get the blog post up for the ambassador - a bit of work stress there me thinks!

I was off work for 2 weeks, on some serious pain killers, with my CryoCuff ice pack, and CPM System. It has been 3 weeks now, and I my recovery is going OK (physio 3 times a week) - I drove for the first time last week, and made my first cycle revolution on day 8 (post surgery). I still haven't slept for more than 6 hours a night yet, the pain should wear off by next week. 6 months to 1 year before I am fully recovered - I hate sitting on the couch! My progress in photos are up on Facebook (a few below as well). Here is a video animation of the operation (this is a patellar replacement - for mine, they replaced my ACL with a bit of the hamstring).

Back in August (early September maybe) about 10 of us spent a nice relaxing weekend at a cottage on Bob's Lake (near Perth Ontario) - a cottage on an island that you could only get to by boat. It was an awesome weekend away with friends - sunbathing, guitar playing, swimming, eating, drinking, reading, fishing, and talking. Canada has some picturesque lakes. Some pics below, and on FlickR.

In September work sent me on a week long course in Frankfurt, Germany. The course was good (it was at the US consular grounds - huge grounds). On the way to the hotel, the taxi driver (while he was doing 180kmh on the autobahn - ahh, no speed limits) told my colleague and I that the Frankfurt Motor Show was on that week. Saweet! I ended up going to the show with an American and Italian from the course. the show was amazing - a dream come true for me, as I am fond of cars (not obsessed , jut fond of them). Some photos below, and here on FlickR. There is also a video on below and on my Facebook page.

My last night in Frankfurt I caught up with an old friend Lars (who drove from Cologne that night) and we had a great catch up and a few drinks. We ended back at the hotel a couple of hours before my flight back to Ottawa the next morning.

In September, Miriam and I went to see former NZ PM Helen Clark speak about her new role with the UN. After her talk, we went up and met her - very nice down to earth person (she was glad to hear some kiwi voices).

In early October (Canadian Thanksgiving weekend), Miriam and I drove down to the States to go to North Conway and Mt Washington, New Hampshire (the tax haven state with the slogan - 'Live Free Or Die' - the state that has relaxed laws - no helmets required on motorbikes, no seatbelts required over the age of 18). The drive through Vermont, and New Hampshire was amazing - the Fall colors were unreal (photos below do not do it justice). It was 3pm and we were 10 miles out of the little town of Conway, when we hit a huge traffic jam - of course not only was it Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, it was also Columbus long weekend in the States - so everyone was in Conway to view the Fall colors! So our hopes of finding a little B&B in Conway at 3pm, doing some outlet mall shopping, and then going for a nice meal were dashed, as it took 2 hours to drive that last 10 miles, and every hotel, motel, B&B, camping spot was booked out. We spotted 1 sign though in the middle of Conway with a vacancy sign. By the time we were able to make the u-turn and drive back 100m, the last room was taken:(. By 9:30pm (and 62 miles out of Conway) we found a room for the night (we were very close to deciding to sleep in the car).

The next day we did a little bit of shopping, then drove up the Mt Washington auto road (well 4 miles up of the 8 - it was too icy at the top). Mt Washington has the highest recorded wind speed in the world, and the weather conditions change rapidly (as it is where 3 weather systems collide). So we got the famous car sticker and certificate - "this car drove up Mt Washington".

Miriam and I have been very busy at work - Miriam is working on a presentation, and is getting a little nervous (the presentation is in a week), and I am finishing up loose ends before I finish on the 25th November. I have really enjoyed my work here, have made quite a few contacts (especially in Washington), and have won a few awards. I will miss the work, and especially next year when there might be a few Presidential visits!

So we have less than 4 weeks left in Ottawa :(:( I'm not going to go on about how much we will miss the place, I save that for another post. It has been busy organizing movers, selling the car etc, and buying some IKEA furniture for back home. We managed to sell the Subaru last week :( - it was an awesome car that took us to many places, and it was the best car for the snowy winter months.

So the next few weeks will be busy catching up with friends, including a hockey night, boys night out in Montreal (Miriam is having a girls night), and some farewell drinks at The Pump on Elign.

The work trip - the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Guatemala - 9 flights in 9 days - and I forgot my bloody camera!

Just been to breaky, and now I'll write a post about my work trip from my hotel room in Guatemala.

So I was sent to talk on social media etc at a conference in the Dominican Republic, and then talk with staff in Haiti and Guatemala - 9 flights in 9 days! I read the country specific information at travel.state.gov - a lot of warnings:

- the DR country information

- Haiti country information

- Guatemala country information

On the Human Development Index the DR is 91st, Guatemala 121st, and Haiti is 148th out of 179 countries. To put it into perspective, Canada is ranked 3rd on the HDI. So I knew that this trip will be an eye opener!

I got off to a bad start, realizing on the plane from Ottawa to Newark that I left my camera in the car - bugger it!

Anyway, I'm not one to dwell...

Short wait in Newark, and we departed (I was traveling with a work colleague for the DR part of the trip) for Santo Domingo in the DR. The drive from the airport to the hotel was crazy - there weren't too many road rules, pedestrians were crossing highways, and the houses on the side streets, were very basic - concrete, most without windows.

I spoke at the conference on the first day - it went OK, after a few technical difficulties. In the evening we walked to the Ciudad Colonial (Colonial Zone) - the first settlement made by Columbus and the Spanish explorers in the New World - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a look round, were given a tour (without asking), and went for dinner in a square.

I forgot my camera, but below are a few taken by a work colleague from Trinidad and Tobago:

The next morning I was picked up by a pre-arranged taxi to be taken to the airport to catch a direct flight on a CAA non-compliant airline (Air Caraibes) to Port Au Prince, Haiti. The taxi arrived on time, and we proceeded to the airport - I can't speak a word of Spanish, the driver didn't speak a word of English - but he knew where to go - the airport to catch Air Caraibes. After about 40mins of driving we arrived at an airport - as we arrived I thought to myself, hold on this isn't the same airport I arrived at 2 days earlier - maybe Air Caraibes flies out of this little airport in the middle of nowhere. So, I asked the driver as best I could - Air Caraibes, and showed him my ticket - as I did earlier - he nodded.


I went into the airport - still had 1 hour before my flight was due to leave, and the first thing I noticed was a bill board that said - Carib Air. I was at the wrong airport! I was meant to catch Air Caraibes and instead I was at a small airport in the middle of nowhere where Carib Air flew out of. This was confirmed after speaking to the person at the airline office.


OK, so it was too late to catch the Air Caraibes flight from the other airport (as it was 1 hrs drive away) - besides the next flight directly to Haiti was the next day with Air Caraibes - and I only had 1 day scheduled in Haiti for work (before flying onto Miami and then Guatemala). So I had to act quick. It just so happened that Carib Air also had direct flights to Port Au Prince in Haiti - the next flight was 3pm that afternoon. It was just after 9am. I rang through to a colleague in Haiti to say I would be late, purchased the ticket, and sat at the airport in the middle of nowhere until 3pm!


Now, the Caraibes Air planes do not pass the CAA safety standards - as I mentioned before. Well the Carib Air plane, I think, was in the same boat. When all 6 of us passengers boarded the small propellered 20 seater aircraft, the flight attendant told us all to sit at the back of the plane - maybe to help with liftoff?! As the plane took off, everything started creaking, and a couple of the overhead storage doors flung open - the plane creaked all the way above the mountainous terrain to Port Au Prince. It was a pleasant flight.

As we were descending into the Port Au Prince airport, looking at the houses and streets, I knew that I was entering a very desolate, under developed country and it was going to be an eye opener.


Haiti has had a long history of political unrest - from the Aristide Era, to the military rule (coup) - all of which has lead to violent demonstrations, and many deaths. And to make things worse, the country was hit by 4 tropical cyclones in the space of 2 weeks in 2008 - Tropical storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, Hanna, and Ike - which devastated the country (deforestation 95% - so during the storms, soil turned to mud and landslides killed many). So the French speaking country is in extreme poverty - there is little electricity - only the rich have electricity, but generators are still needed as the power goes off everyday.


Back to the airport. So I arrived into Port Au Prince (population over 3 million) - someone from the embassy took me straight through immigration (no questions) to a bullet proof vehicle for the 40min drive to my hotel.


Now I didn't have my camera, but the videos below, give you a good indication of what the driving, and housing was like. There are no road rules, cars are barely road worthy - many loose their brakes going down the hilly streets. There are no road signs - only a few traffic signals. People drive their vehicles on any side of the road - what ever gets them to their destination the quickest. There are only a handful of roads that are tar sealed - of which many have huge craters (not potholes, but craters) in them. Many people sit on the back of rusty utes - called tap taps - these are the taxis. In Haiti there are over 8000 UN peacekeepers - many from the Canadian military - there were a few staying at my hotel from Quebec, working as police. So you see many UN vehicles, and a lot of army personnel with automatic weapons. Many Haitians try to flee the country - either over the mountains into the Dominican Republic, or some pay a a lot to be taken by boat in the hope of reaching the shores of the US. They are either stopped by the US coastguard, or they drown. When I was there, there were reports that 70 people were missing trying to get to the US by boat.

So, I arrive at my hotel - I felt extremely guilty that I was staying there - in a neighbourhood that had 24/7 security, big gates/walls, internet access, air con, and a very nice room, good food and cable TV, and a bullet proof 4x4 pick-up drive to and from the embassy.

I met some work colleagues for dinner, and during dinner the power would go out - then the generators would kick in.

The next day, I was driven (40 mins) to the embassy for my days work. The talks went well, and I met some very nice people in the process. I was back at the hotel by about 4pm and started to pack for the flight to Miami, then to Guatemala City the next day.

During the course of the night I started to feel ill. I think I had food poisoning. I was up all night, the next day I was in and out of the loo on the aircraft to Miami, held on during the long immigration process, then back to the loo near my departing gate, then on the plane to Guatemala City, and then my hotel - late that evening, and all through the night, and the next day during my half days work at the embassy. Luckily there was nurse at the embassy who prescribed some antibiotics - 2 days later I am just recovering - and slowly getting my appetite back. I'm knackered!

I'm staying in a very nice hotel in Guatemala City - Hotel Barcelo - nice food, and you can get NZ butter!

My work host drove me out to the UNESCO World Heritage town of Antigua yesterday - it's about 45mins from Guatemala City . Awesome! I went on a 3 hour walking tour with Antigua Tours - with Elizabeth Bell. If you go to Antigua, I highly recommend you take this tour, Elizabeth Bell knows her stuff - has lived there for 40 years and knows many Mayan people - 20% of Guatemalans do not speak Spanish - they speak 1 of the 22 Mayan dialects found in Guatemala. E. Bell also has helped restore much of the city over the years. And no, the world will not end in 2012 - the end of the Mayan calender. It is just the end of the (around) 5800 year cycle of the calender, and they start over again - there will be huge celebrations in 2012. When we were around the back of the Antigua church, we saw a man who had walked from a rural area, to give gifts and light candles for God.

In the afternoon, I spent some money on some local products - very nice - will not mention here, because I am not back in Ottawa yet, and a couple are gifts for Miriam.

The embassy in Guatemala lent me a camera! Saweet, so I took a few picks, posted below.

Work tomorrow, then up early Tuesday (5:30am) - fly to Miami, then Chicago (I then have 40mins to catch my flight from Chicago to Ottawa) - (hopefully arriving in Ottawa just before 10pm). Then back to work the next day - joy!

I apologize for any spelling mistakes or incorrect grammar. I just write - it is an informal blog - no time to spell check and proof read!