Mr B @ Work

Just completed a 4 day sejour on the Bahamas. I assure you – this required dedicating myself 24/7 to schmooze a range of donors. In any event it puts me at 76 countries, still 5 countries behind the very worldly Mr. Earle. As you can imagine it was tough putting on shoes and a jacket while staying at the Vegasesque Atlantis resort on Paradise Island (along with 2,500 other Caribbean HIV conference attendees). Here you see me here sipping a tasty Kalik Gold lager (doing the needful), and munching on a conch salad. The Bahamas stand apart from many of its Caribbean brethren in terms of its successful offshore banking and general cleanliness. Amazing that within this orderly environment more than 3% of the adult population is living with HIV (mainly due to the extremely large Haitian migrant workforce).

Peace Building Movement

After a bit of break I am back on the road and looking for points. Next week I will be in Ethiopia for some low hanging fruit, but this week a slightly more prickly pear to pluck, North Sudan. In fact I was here a few weeks ago, and to my shame, not appreciating local customs fully, I failed to meet all club requirements. However, a second bite of the prickly pear and I was better prepared; with exceptionally strong (and rule compliant) mouth-wash especially imported from Loretto, Kentucky. A hard earned point but I believe but a point all the same.

Attached, also find a photo of an amusing sign I happened to see hanging discretely above the gents (or rather the "The Peace Building Toilet") in the office of a UN agency I happened to visit (and obviously won’t mention to avoid unnecessary embarrassment). But I must say, when I whipped out my iPhone to take a snap, I got a very dirty look from an earnest looking young women in the impeccably tasteful, global-and-yet-oh-so-ethnic-and-at-one-with-the-downtrodden-at-the-same-time, ‘neck ornament’ - but hang em’; A couple of us thought it was very funny. And if you can’t laugh at a bit of toilet humor...

So I wish all club members, peace-building movements, wherever their destination.

Warmest,

Grant.

The World's Newest Country

Greetings from Juba in South Sudan, the world's newest country. Tonight I did the needful with the locally brewed "White Bull" beer while dining on the banks of the Nile. To be confirmed by our secretary, but I believe this moves me from 9th place to a tie at 8th with Mr. Negus. I only regret that delayed permits prevented me from visiting Khartoum on this same trip and making it a two-fer. Next time......

Dar es Salaam Chapter Meeting

Messrs Karam, Earle and Chapman, with Special Guests, Messrs Manchester and Crapper, combined Club business with queries relating to Another Club such as "what was the name of our first representative in Eritrea?" [Mr Earle retrieved the answer in a mere a 48 hours; by that standard, I'm sure the rest of us would have come up with an answer by the end of the year]. All conversations concluded with a tale of our Dear Founder in the early 90s. Odd that. Mr Earle noted concern that some members appear to be actually trying to visit countries. Firm denials were issued all around.