Dover city Councilman Gene Ruane has convinced me a trip to Africa is a wonderful experience not to be missed. Even so, it is not one of our trip plans at the moment.
He and his wife Marty have just returned from a 40-day safari which included seeing all sorts of wild animals associated with the Dark Continent plus encounters with native peoples. The company that organized the safari for a group of 11 wanted to provide an understanding of the countries they traveled through along with the excitement of seeing wild animals up close.
That they covered a lot of ground is indicated by the fact that there were 16 different flights in planes ranging from five and 13-passenger aircraft to jets.
It happens that Gene and Marty took the same sort of trip that George and Marilyn Chabbott of Dover, recently enjoyed in Africa. The Ruanes ran into a guide who mentioned knowing someone from Dover and of course it was George and Marilyn.
Details of the extensive Ruane trip and all the experiences would take more space than I have here. Some of the highlights included:
• Inflation in Zimbabwe is sky high, which was indicated when Gene picked up a million dollar bill which had fallen to the ground and the official he was with said, “You keep it — it’s worthless.”
• Members of the Maasai tribe concentrate on acquiring cows because it is with cows that a man buys a wife. One Maasai warrior had given 10 cows for his wife because she was special — a lawyer.
• The “tents” erected out in the bush were very comfortable and well equipped, even though at night there was no walking around the area because of the presence of wild animals.
• They were not really roughing it, even in the bush. An experienced chef prepared some of the best meals he ever had, said Gene. At the same time the toilet facilities in the bush were described as “a loo with a view.”
• Both the Japanese and Chinese have an interest in Africa’s development and are helping build roads, but Gene thought the Japanese were doing a better job of it.
• At every stop there were comments about the American president, whose father came from Africa. There also were frequent requests to spread the word in the United States about Africa as a tourist destination.
The above only touches on the safari experiences and reactions. Gene and George and their wives ought to get together and develop an evening’s presentation for the public.
*****
Along with thousands if not millions of others, I finally did see the YouTube account of the rough time given Rep. Mike Castle during a public meeting in Georgetown.
If you missed it, a lady identified in news reports as “Crazy Eileen” interrupted the Castle meeting by brandishing her own birth certificate and shouting that President Obama doesn’t have one, a valid birth certificate, that is.
Later Castle admitted he had never previously heard of the group called “birthers,” a name identifying the Obama challengers.
In her interruption of an otherwise routine public meeting, the lady with the loud voice served to deny other participants at the meeting of their opportunity to ask questions of Castle or to give their opinions.
The shame of it is that Delaware’s only member of the House of Representatives won’t be as ready to hold public meetings if this is the sort of abuse he has to endure. And because the YouTube coverage was such an immediate national sensation, other public officials have indicated that their appetite for holding a public meeting on current issues has decreased.
*****
Along with the rest of the country, I am following closely what is going on in relation to health care reform. There certainly are conflicting versions about what the various plans, or partial plans, will do for or to the country.
Do most people want better health coverage? I think it is fair to say a majority do.
Is it possible to have more coverage for more people and still have it cost less? I don’t think so.
What scares me is a thousand pages of what seems to be continually changing legislation and what the actual effects of it could be if hastily passed bills are signed into law by President Obama.
An issue this important deserves to be weighed very carefully.
*****
An issue of far less importance, but one over which I have a modicum of control, concerns our garage. Your garage may be sparkling clean with everything in place. That does not describe ours, or at least did not until son Paul visited us for the weekend and was the catalyst in a joint effort involving him, Mary and me.
If by chance anyone comes by our house, and the garage door is open, we now can be nonchalant about it. Until now it has been a matter of opening and closing the door quickly.
While a considerable amount of stuff was disposed of, there still are many items that have an indeterminate life span now that they have been uncovered and given a temporary reprieve. But at least there is neatness.
Some of the items had not been touched in years, and some evoked pleasant surprises when found.
There is a sense of satisfaction in joining our neat neighbors in terms of a presentable garage interior.
*****
This sad-looking man comes to the door and says to the lady of the house: “I wonder if you couldn’t spare a few bucks to help out a poor family here in this neighborhood. The father is dead, the mother is too sick to work, the nine children are hungry and they’re about to be thrown into the street because they haven’t paid their rent.”
The woman asks: “How terrible! Are you a friend of theirs?”
Sad man: “I’m their landlord!”
