Mac has not been very well but is still e-mailing strong. Here are some of Mac’s tales of travel to high altitudes and also an update on Stanley, one of Mac’s fellow residents of the Old Soldier’s home in Washington. Stanley belongs to an organisation that distributes eye glasses to those in less developed countries.

You will be sorry you asked me if I ever visited Bolivia. The altitude is very high there. In La Paz the rich people live where you think the poor people would live and the poor people live where you would think the rich people would live in other countries. Where rich people would ordinarily live at high elevation and the poor at lower it is just the opposite so rich can breathe better than the poor.

When I was in Bolivia, the altitude got to me and I went to the airline and said I have to get out of here. They sent me to a pharmacy to get medicine for altitude sickness and it did the trick. I had an address of a budget place to stay but when I went to it, there was a fountain and stairs and nice yard in front with a nice facade of what looked like a resort hotel. I thought I had made a mistake but when I opened the door inside was a run down hotel with stuff coming out of seats and it was like the front outside wall was for a movie set and inside you faced reality. Ha!

By this time I had met and made friends with a couple from Canada. He was originally from Germany (a soccer star) and she was from Austria and she had gone to Canada as an au pair and they met and married. She arrived in Canada with no English and first day when she went down town she and a girl friend forgot the address where they worked. They went up to a policeman and said, “I love you,” the only words they knew. He laughed and guessed the situation and found out somehow where they were employed.

We kept meeting in different countries in South America and went to the airport together to depart for Chile. We were waiting for our plane to arrive, to board and were passed through to the departure lounge and went out to our plane. There was someone in our seats so we took other seats. I then discovered from my new seatmate that this plane was departing for Miami and had arrived late. I hollered at my travelling companions, “ We are on the wrong plane.” The other passengers said ,“No you are on right plane, this plane goes to Miami.” I shouted, “we don’t want to go to Miami but Chile,” and we dashed off the plane.

In that day and age I never thought one could get on wrong plane that way. Ha! I guess they never looked at our tickets closely. Just another travel experience. Someone said, “Mac it seems like everything happens to you.” Stay alert is the motto.

Because of the high altitude, I did not enjoy Bolivia as much as I should have. I am built somehow with a high diaphragm or something so don’t get as much oxygen as some. When young and in the armed forces, this did not bother me although whenever X rays are taken they often ordered more to see whatever they were seeing in my makeup. Later in life I had to be on oxygen for a year. I tire easily possibly because I don’t get as much oxygen as some. Or maybe I am just lazy. There are many countries I would like to return to, but would not go back to Nepal, Bolivia and some of the high countries again.

In Peru the airline gives you a drink that has some kind of drug for air altitude sickness when arriving at Cuzco. My room mate Hunt from the Old Soldier’s home woke me up in middle of night and said, “ Mac get oxygen.” I ran to desk and hollered “oxygen” and they ran with a tank and applied a mask to Hunt. Later I said to him that if he had died I did not know how I was going to get him down off the mountain and back to the Old Soldiers Home so I was going to tell the authorities that his dying wish was that he wanted to be buried up there with the Indians. Hunt and I went to Russia together so he has gotten used to me and my weird humour.

Stanley Sagara has returned from his Ethiopian eyeglass mission. They went by bus for fourteen hours out into the boon docks and I don’t want to put words in Stanley’s mouth but what they saw Stanley says was almost having him to have nightmares. The way the people were living or not living. So many had eyesight so far gone that glasses would not help. They could only help about 30 percent of those asking for help and I think some thought the Americans could put some kind of magic drops in their eyes and they could see and they couldn’t. Stanley has been all over the world and witnessed all kinds of injustices in his life but I think this experience saddened him. This is my interpretation and I often get things wrong.

And finally… I am reminded of something a friend here at the Old Soldier’s Home said to me recently. Frank, my friend had gotten the Medal of Honour for rescuing and pulling GIs from a burning plane on a runway in England. Clark Gable arrived at their unit. The GIs were told to not bother Mr Gable but they all stood around watching his arrival. Gable saw them and walked over to them and said, “Would one of you guys loan me a sixpence for a tea (or something like that.) It was his way of breaking the ice and saying hello. Every GI there was reaching into his pocket as they wanted to say they had loaned Clark Gable a sixpence or whatever it was. He visited with them and they appreciated this. If I ever get to be famous I too will be gracious, (if I have time.)

If you would like to get in touch with Mac, he is happy to correspond by e-mail when he is well. His e-mail address is: macsan400@yahoo.com