Moore Family Blog |
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Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Top 100 April Fools HoaxesA coworker pointed me to this list of top 100 April Fools Hoaxes. I like number five, "Nixon for President": "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again."(0) comments Monday, April 28, 2003
Biked to WoodsideI went on a 50-mile bike ride, yesterday. Here's the route I took:
It would be so much easier if I could trace out the route visually and add notes describing the ride. (0) comments Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Vignettes from KabulDaddy is working in Kabul, Afghanistan, for Management Sciences for Health. He wrote the following update a week ago, after his first 24 hours in Kabul:Hi to all, Just a few vignettes from my first day in Kabul: I had no trouble getting a ticket from the airport counter for Ariena in New Delhi($250 one way cash only) The flight was only 30% full. I met some other NGO folks on the flight and sat next to an Afghan Internist who has worked his whole life here in Kabul at a big hospital which now has almost no lab machines or xray equipment. So he works completely by clinical impressions as to what is wrong with the patient. In other words, he has no help in his diagnostic exam from the lab or the xray which we consider so essential in the developed world, but is rarely present here in the developing world. I was met at the airport by an MSH driver. Since they don't have any machines to offload the baggage from the plane, at the small airport, it took longer to get the checked bags(2 hour wait) than the flight took from new delhi(1.75 hours). The people at MSH Kabul are a very nice group and we had a dinner together last night at a couple's house who are from Olympia, Washington. She works on contracting with the ministry of health giving money to other NGO's and he works with the Ministry of Finance trying to install Western type accountability and systems into there way of budgeting and paying out government money here. He is a Graduate of HBS class of 1971, and has had an interesing career in many countries doing this type of consulting work in accounting and budgetary systems. He told me the budget for the whole government of the entire country this year is only $500 million. 40% of which comes from revenue generated by local taxes and customs duties and 60% comes from international donors. I am getting oriented these first few days. Friday(today) is the only holiday in the 6 day work week here. So it will be a slow start which is just as well, I was taken for a drive around the city yesterday and it does look like I expected, maybe a bit worse, in terms of the amount of destruction of buildings. 23 years of civil war and two international superpower wars have made Kabul hardly recognizeably as a capital city of several million people. Many bombed out buildings are now the site for squatter families, who are returning refugees from Iran or Pakistan and have no house or land of their own. The daily life for the people here is very difficult, but their spirit is unbreakable. They are a long suffering and almost unsuppressible people, and I suppose that is what inspires the western workers who come here to try to help. It is that and the level of poverty, which is worse than almost any other country I have been in. The old markets and streets which existed here back in 1973 when we came thru here in our campervan, on a trip from London to Bangladesh, are no longer here, due the destruction from constant war. They are just now starting to get rebuilt and you can see the entreprenuerial spirit is still present in the people(mostly men). More reports later. Steve (0) comments Pictures from bike ride up Mount DiabloA few Sundays ago, I climbed Mount Diablo on my bike with Mike Samuel, a co-worker from Google. Mike posted pictures from our trip.(0) comments Mommy made it to BangkokMommy got out Kathmandu, despite a strike, and is now in Bangkok:Hi family, I am now sitting in our favorite email place just below Khao San Rd. I left KTM today in spite of the general strike throughout the whole valley. The students were protestiing the price of oil and wanted the government to reduce it to last year's level. They called a general strike last Sunday while I was trekking in Poky so I did not know about it. The whole country was at a standstill. They called for another strike today and all the shops , taxis, buses, cars were off the street. The only people making it big were the rickshaw pyullers,and a few tuks tuks. I took a tuks tuk to the airport of 200 rupee cos I asked a local in front of me how much he paid. They were asking for 1000R.So I was glad to be able to get out of KTM and even tho I was on the wait list I knew I had a good chance of getting a seat. The whole plane was full cos a lot of Nepalis were on their way to work in Malaysia.The plane left at 2 pm and arrived BKK at around 7 pm. I did not have the notebook and no STeve ,so did not have the guest house numb er. Fortunately, even tho I arrived at her place after 8 pm she had a room for me and it was the same room that I had the last time and facing the garden. I was very happy. The first thing I did was of course took a shower and right away went off to the night market and ate and ate and ate. Now I am doing email to you guys after the wonderful food of Thailand. (0) comments Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Mommy's Nepal trekMommy e-mailed us some exciting updates about her trek in Nepal:Hi guys, I am back from my trekking trip from Jomson to Pokhara. I only did it in 3 days but doing 10 to 11 hours a day and instead of going out thru Poon Hill, I decided I was not interested in trekking up a big hill and trekkingh down and seeing the same scenery. I was sore. the plane from Ktm to Pokhara was cancelled the nite you flew to Delhi and so I shared a taxi with a nepali man and a couple from Calcutta. We arrived at Poky around midnite and cbut I was not afraid of the taxi man.I stayed 2 nites in Poky and bougnt a Gurka Air tix to Jomson. I did not take a guide or porter and was glad I did it this way cos I walk slow and I did n ot want the porter to wait the whole day for me. The trail is quite popular especially with donkeys and porters. I found my way by following the donkey poop all along the way and stayed in tea houses along the way. It was an ewxperience to trek alone but I was never afraid.It was also not an easy trek cos I keep going up and down mountains and deep revines , full of stones and rocks and poop so you have to watch every step of the way. You could not take a step without looking down.The wcenery was wild and beautiful but each nite I was so thankful to stop. It is an experience I am gladI did but I would not do it again.Going around in the camper is better way to go. Li, Good to see your reply.I can at least say I was the only woman to trek alone and without a porter or guide on this trek. As for the trip, I actually did loose weight on these 4 days cos I would only eat 2 eggs and some potaatoes in the morning, drink some black tea in the afternoon, and in the evening eat dal bhat or 2 packets of noodles with 2 eggs for dinner. I drank the water along the way with 3 drops of iodine and a bit of tang in it. I did not get sick as many hikers did but they ate all the wrong food.Food at the beginning of the Jomson trail was expensive and all the prices on top were controlled by the association of trekking. But as I got lower down, prices started dropping. I stayed at guest house that averaged from 50 rupees to 80 rupees a nite. It is 76 to the dollar so I was not exactly breaking the bank on this trip. I started waling at 6 am and did not stop till 5 or 6 pm. I probalbly took about one and a half hours more than the other people but I did not want to keep up. I did not take a plane back to KTM from Poky because I was afraid it would be cancelled again. The 7 hour bus ride from Poky to KTM was a frightening trip and I was glad to arrive in one piece and so I tipped the driver well. ( I sat right up front of the bus so saw everything including accidents head on)I have been tipping a lot of people but only about 20 to 50 rupees each. I still have some money left and I was glad that you Steve gave me the money from your Swiss francs cos I am using it all up. The first thing I did on arriving at KTM was to check into the same room that your father and I occupied , took a bath, canged my dirty clothes and then went downstairs bakery to have a pot of tea and pastry.Tonite I will go and have a dinner at the Chinese restaurant here cos I need some good food.I was so happy to find the email place again. We appreciate such simple things after a few days of toughing it out. As I am writhing this, the person next to me said there is a transportation strike tomorrow and no taxis or buses all over the country. So I will have a hard time going to the airport. I will try to hire a motorbike man to take me to the airport or take a rickshaw. They are afraid the students who are organising this strike will beat them up.I hopre I can get to the airport cos the chances are better for me to get a seat on the plane. (0) comments Monday, April 21, 2003
Pager trainingI'm going to start carrying a pager this week, so that I can fix problems when things break. I learned how to respond to pages this afternoon. I'll be in the rotation with the other engineers on my team. I think each engineer gets the pager for a week at a time.(0) comments Tooth cavity fillings cost $713!I went to the dentist, last week, for a checkup and a cleaning. The dentist found a few cavities, and his assistant sent me an estimate for how much fillings will cost: $713.20! Part of the reason the fillings are expensive is that this dentist only does tooth-colored fillings, which are more expensive than silver fillings. Delta Dental, the dental insurance company that I'm signed up with, only pays for silver fillings, though, so I have to pay the difference. Delta is paying $952.80, which means that the total treatment cost is $1,666.Since it's so expensive, I don't think I'll get the work done at this dentist. I could do one of the following:
(0) comments Sunday, April 20, 2003
Lindy in the Park, Cherry Blossom Festival ParadeI spent the day in the City, today. I danced swing for an hour at Lindy in the Park, and then I spent a couple of hours at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown, watching the closing parade and eating Japanese food. The parade featured floats from various local and visiting organizations, like the Boy Scouts and a traditional dance group from Tokyo. The two Taiko floats were the most exciting. Each float had 10 drummers, and they were all pounding away as hard as they could. They played a catchy rhythm.(0) comments Saturday, April 19, 2003
70-mile bike ride to coastI just got back from a 70-mile bike ride from Mountain View (California) to Pescadero Beach and back! The longest ride I'd done until today was 40 miles. I rode with seven co-workers from Google. This is roughly the route we took. It was a beautiful day, and the company was great. I wore biker shorts and a jersey for the first time, and I put two water bottles and a comfortable seat on my bike. I was on my mountain bike for my last long ride, and I find a road bike much easier.I wish I had pictures of today! I would have had a beautiful shot of the whole group with the beach in the background. I need to buy a pouch to put under my bike seat, so that I can bring my camera. I also need to get a windbreaker that I can stuff in my jersey pocket, because I was cold on some descents. I should get biking shoes, too, but I was pretty comfortable in my sneakers, today. (0) comments Monday, April 14, 2003
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