Our speaker last month was Norman Ford (Founder of the Globetrotters Club) who gave a wonderful presentation about present slides from his cycling trips. Plans for the Copper Canyon trip where also discussed. Everyone had a blast.

This month on March 18^th Joei Carlton a travel writer,will share her adventures with us.

For more information about the Texas Branch: please Contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or call Christina at 830-620-5482 or register for email updates at click here at our website.

PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION

We will meet at the VFW Hall on Peace Street instead of the library on Common St.

The hall is across from the entrance to Cypress Bend Park where the April 2002 picnic was held.

Peace Street is between the library and the river off Common St. Turn on Peace Street – the Fairgrounds are across the street so you can only turn one way. There is a sign for the VFW hall on the corner. Go to the dead end (cemeteries on both sides) and turn right into the parking lot for the VFW hall.

Mark your calendars – Dates of future meetings: April 12th,

The VFW folks will open their bar so we will not go to the Hoity Toit after the meeting. If you like, bring some nibbles to share for conversation time following the meeting – since we will miss the peanuts from the Toit.

For more information about the Texas Branch: please Contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482

If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

Marcin, from Poland, but alliteratively travelling in Panama sent the Beetle this message: Hola Hombres, after only 3 hours in Panama, my host Johnny from Haiti and I went to the demonstration against the war in Iraq. It’s good that Panama also want to show that something is wrong in our world. There weren’t too many people but the atmosphere was great and the first time I saw nuns, priests and old ladies with rosary beads on the demonstrations walking along with young communists with Che Guevara flags, Indians, feminists everybody in the same spirit and I hope that our effort can make a change.

The Beetle attended the London march: who knows how many people plodded along the London streets – the organisers say 2 million, the police much less than that. It took three hours to walk from Blackfriars Bridge to Hyde Park at a slow shuffle. The atmosphere was marvellous, people of all age, race, shape, colour attended. Despite the cold and the bad sound system, it felt like attending a historic moment.

Bill from Los Angeles wrote in to say that he took a flight legally from L A to Havana to meet Dr Byron Barksdale and his Cuba Aids Group in Cuba. All went – really well. The USA Customs officers treated me very well and the Cuban people I met were most interested in talking with Americans. There are many fine hotels to stay in at all price ranges and above all, I felt very safe throughout my trip.

Havana is a must see before the embargo is lifted. I recommend the trip to all your fine members. This prompted the Beetle to investigate. Below is some more information from Byron about Cuba.

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Cuba, the “Pearl of the Antilles” and Havana, “the Paris of the West” are becoming the destination site in the Caribbean since the Papal visit several years ago. The Cuban government has relied on tourism to fuel the Cuban economy after the collapse of the USSR. In contrast to other Caribbean destinations, in Cuba, the traveller can find local restaurants where beer is 50 cents US and hard drinks (rum mojitos or daiquiris) can be purchased for $1.00.

The beaches in Varadero, Cayo Coco, and Cayo Largo are unspoiled and the gentle slope of the shore allows easy swims and wading in crystal clear waters. International arrivals are possible into Varadero, Havana, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba. USA citizens may travel to Cuba legally through US Treasury Licenses for humanitarian purposes. An example is humanitarian travel through Cuba AIDS Project, www.cubaaidsproject.com, which supports Non Governmental Organizations (Monseratte Church, Caritas) in Cuba.

While in Cuba, travellers can find inexpensive lodging, which includes breakfast ($10-$25/night) in local homes (casa particulars) and cheap, but wholesome, meals at local family owned, private restaurants known as paladars. If hotels are preferred, modestly priced rooms can be found at Hotel Florida ($80/night) in Old Habana or Hotel Riviera ($75/night), including breakfast, on the Seawall (El Malecon). Art, old books, literature and music are available to enjoy and purchase in many “open air” markets throughout Cuba.

The time to see Cuba is before the USA Embargo is lifted. Once the USA Embargo is lifted, the innocence and mystery of Cuba will rapidly be overrun by millions of USA tourists seeking business and recreational activities in Cuba and Cuba may end up looking like South Miami Beach very quickly. Until then, for Globetrotters, the Great Possibilities of Cuba can be enjoyed for reasonable prices and uncluttered by too many USA tourists.

About the author: Byron L Barksdale grew up in South Florida and watched ships sail back and forth to Cuba from West Palm Beach in the mid 1950s. Currently, Byron is a pathologist in Nebraska serving small hospitals and clinics in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. Only after he became a physician could Byron find a legal humanitarian way to see and help the poor and needy in Cuba through Cuba AIDS Project, www.cubaaidsproject.com HIV/AIDS in Cuba is a public health concern for the USA since over 180,000 USA citizens travel to Cuba each year and millions will go to Cuba after the travel ban is lifted.

Since the New Year has on from its welcoming celebrations, many

travelling folk are spending the winter conceiving travels and tours for the forthcoming year. Such thoughts brighten up these grey months that stretch through to Easter and test our imagination. Can it be coincidence that travel shows thrive during this time? I’ve always found that there is considerable enjoyment to be had from visualising any possibility and anticipating what could happen along the way. If not planning, travellers can usually be found doing – indeed I’ve ‘lost’ friends to California, Canada and Australia in quick succession recently! Have you noticed that how our non travelling friends no longer caution against such exuberance? I’m sure we should spare them a thought or two, as they are subjected to our endless plans. To calm our intoxications perhaps we should all be given copies of Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel to digest – he comes up with some bizarre and somewhat unsettling accounts of the ‘satisfactions and disappointments of travelling’.

In considering the ‘satisfactions’, where do I find myself on route to next and how has it got to this stage? Well, following on from a long weekend in Valletta a ferry should then take me across to Sicily, probably Siracusa or Catania, with a second taking me, a week or so later, on from Trapani to Goletta. Whether this will leave me time enough to wander fully along Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast towards Gabes and Jerab I’m not sure yet. However besides the improved climates I have high hopes for good snorkelling, spectacular views of Mount Etna in its current active state and a distinctive crossing into northern Africa, which as a region is still unknown to me. If anyone has additional experiences of this vague outline they’d like to share, feel free to get in touch. Through this planning stage the ‘I’ has become ‘we’ – as Steve and Colin, two friends from previous travels who will add their own practical and entertaining inputs to this tour, have joined me. Indeed their immediate ‘yeses’ to my proposals has provided extra organising drive, along with Steve disappearing to the French speaking Canadian ski slopes for three months! No doubt Steve’s improved French language skills will ease our way into Tunisia! As a result and somewhat unusually this scheme has advanced quicker than previous and the scratched out beer plan has already evolved through to map and ticket purchases.

Initially my observations were that I wanted to make my travels more demanding this year, more revealing and more elsewhere. Attending Globetrotters and the RGS had left me feeling that my some of my recent tours were pedestrian and unchallenging in their nature and destination. Further impetus came from reading of namesake Charles Montague Doughty’s early travels across the Mediterranean countries, whilst discussions with friends Charlie and Carrie updated me with what adventures could now be had in northern Africa. Michael Palin’s recent television trek helped to round off these thoughts, particular with his attitude of still wanting to learn from what he was experiencing – something I’d like to echo. Along with the pleasure of journeys, I would still like to understand more of how I like to travel.

Where could my ‘disappointments’ come from? My previous experiences of Africa have been sub-Saharan and very much centred around Anglo Portuguese influences on the continent, but I do wonder how we will respond to French legacies and whether we can appreciate if the Sahara is a major dividing line of the African continent and peoples. I’m not vain in the sense in thinking that my travels will offer anything other than interesting experiences to us three. I would like to gain a deeper insight into what this region is about and to return with a book full of tales but as yet I’m uncertain as to what I will find, particularly in Tunisia. Like many I am wary of guide books, packaged destinations and official opinion, and as a result I’m trying to stick to a single map, a few articles that I’ve found in the weekend supplements and first hand knowledge passed on. Previous attempts at such vague planning have left me lost in Santa Barbara’s unbelievably square grid system but revealed gems such as Connemara! As such Colin and Steve don’t yet know how seemingly ill prepared we may be – I hope they understand that I’m not trying to be careless, that I just want a little more from my time away…

Matt is happy to be contacted if you’d like some more information about planning your travels or about any of the places he talks about in his own travel planning. E-mail mattdoughty@tiscali.co.uk

Time Zone: CDT (GMT -5)

Airport Code: ORD

Customer service number: 800 832-6352

Distance from city: 18 miles (29km)

Terminal 1 is for United and United Express flights plus Lufthansa departures.

Terminal 2 airlines include Air Canada, America West, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways.

Terminal 3 airlines include Alaska, American and Delta.

Terminal 5 is the international terminal for most non-US airline departures and all international arrivals

Chicago O Hare is named after Lieutenant Edward O'Hare who was a military hero, and flew planes in the Navy during WW2. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1942.

The largest US troop and cargo carrying airplane, the Douglas C-54, was built at a factory on the site and the base, known then as Orchard Field, which was almost entirely then used by the military. When the war ended, Chicago’s city Municipal Airport, later to become Midway Chicago quickly established itself as the world's busiest civil aviation operation. A far-sighted City Council saw the potential for air travel and decided a second major facility would be needed so in 1946 they bought Orchard Field from the US government together with another 7,000 acres next door. Three years later $2.4 million was spent on acquiring more land and Orchard Field was re-named in honour of O'Hare.

The airport was already busy before it was officially opened to domestic commercial flights in 1955, but Midway was still the star attraction until 1962 when all scheduled operations were transferred from Midway to O'Hare. When the airport was officially dedicated the following year, President John F. Kennedy said, “it could be classed as one of the wonders of the modern world”. He was right in one sense because O'Hare preserved its title as 'World's Busiest' for over 30 years until it was overtaken by Atlanta in 1998.

Source: http://www.airwise.com/

Submitted by Frank from the US. Actual comments from US travel agents:

A woman called and asked, “Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to who?” I said, “No, why do you ask?” She replied, “Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?” After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it” (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

I just got off the phone with a man who asked, “How do I know which plane to get in?” I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, “I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them.”

A woman called and said, “I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola on one of those computer planes.” I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, “Yeah, whatever.”

A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. “Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.” I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, “Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express.”

A woman called to make reservations; “I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York.” The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said, “Are you sure that's the name of the town?” “Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the customer. After so me searching, the agent came back with, “I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere.” The customer retorted, “Oh don't be silly, everyone knows where it is. Check your map!” The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, “You don't mean Buffalo, do you?” “That's it! I knew it was a big animal!”

It has certainly been an interesting month here in Mikindani, and also in Dar es Salaam. One of Trade Aid’s new ideas for Mikindani is to start up a local group who can produce Batik T-shirts. But what is this I hear you ask. Batik T-shirt printing is the dying of a T-shirt with certain areas left undyed, this enables you to produce a variety of patterns.

It was at the beginning of December that the journey up to Dar began, at the oh so sociable hour of four o’clock in the morning. After a back breaking sixteen hours in one of the Trade Aid Landrovers, being bounced and battered along a Tanzanian “road” we finally arrived in Dar Es Salaam, oh what a relief. After a day to settle in, and make extensive use of the bar and air conditioning at the Seaman’s mission [where we were staying] it was down to work. My brief was to look into the process of Batik T-shirt production, and to see if it would be feasible in Mikindani.

The Batik T-shirt printing takes place in an indoor market/shopping centre where the products are also sold. There I met the head of the organisation that prints the T-shirts and the head of production, who oversees the entire process.

The process begins when the parts of the T-shirt that are not to the dyed are covered in a special sort of wax. This can be applied through two methods, either using a brush or a wooden print. As far as Mikindani and the Boma is concerned it is my opinion that the print method would be the best, as it would produce work for the local carpenters.

Once the wax has been applied and dried the T-shirt is then dyed. A mixture of hot and cold water (17 litres) dye, caustic soda and sodium powder are then mixed together in a stone bath. The T-shirt is then repeatedly lifted in and out of this mixture until the dye has fully soaked into the material. After which it is then taken out of the water and hung to dry. The wax then has to be removed; this is done by placing the T-shirt into a vat of boiling water, where it is then stirred around until all of the wax has been removed. The T-shirt is then finished and can either be worn, or more colours can be applied by using the wax to cover the previous dyed areas and any areas that need to be left clear. This should certainly prove to be something that Trade Aid and the Boma can make good use of, and it should also benefit the local groups who can get involved.

For more information on the work carried out by Trade Aid in Tanzania, see their website www.mikindani.com