Where is Ron?
Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, January-March 2006
Ron, windblown in Malta, February 2005
Djibouti and Eritrea
14-21 March 2006
14 March 2006
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
Here is a short note from Ron outlining his plans for the next week and giving a few impressions of Djibouti.
Love to all,
Ellen
14 March 2006
To see the two photos from Djibouti, click on the thumbnail at the left.
DjiboutiHi my dear,
It seems that I have done too much today for it still to be Tuesday. I arrived in Djibouti around noon and went directly to the Eritrea Embassy to apply for my visa and I will get it tomorrow at 12:30. Then this afternoon, when people went back to work at 4, I found a travel agent and reserved my flight to Asmara, Eritrea, which leaves tomorrow at 9:10 pm. I have to dig out my Visa card since they do not accept Mastercard. Tomorrow, after I get the Eritrea visa, my Visa card and the train schedule, I am to return and purchase my round trip ticket.
As I have traveled around I looked at various different hotels, the cheapest of which was around $30, and chose the Djibouti Hotel, near the center but half the price of those in the center.
Twice I have visited the train station to find information about schedules. It appears that the train which used to go several times a week, now only goes on Wednesday morning at 4 am. It arrives in Djibouti on Tuesday evening at 7 pm (this is Tuesday) and departs back to Dire Dawa the next morning, arriving in Dire Dawa at 2 pm. Seems a bit strange to me. But this means I must return to Djibouti from Asmara next Tuesday March 21, and will arrive in Dire Dawa on Wed 22. This plan gives me 5 days in Asmara and 3 days for Harar, not counting the travel days.
It was so easy when I was traveling on my bike - no schedule, no timetables, total flexibility.
From what I have seen of Djibouti so far, it agrees with what I have read, and the only reason a person should be here is to be going somewhere else. I have seen many other westerners but have not met any of them yet. They look like people living and working here. With just a few hours of experience, my impression of the people is that the Ethiopians are more polite. When I pulled out my camera to take a few pictures, it was like I had pulled out a weapon and people were either trying to get me to take their picture, trying to get in my picture, or yelling "no" at me to not take their picture or any picture. I just put my camera away.
It is much hotter here with a much higher humidity, which combined makes it much more like a beach area. I did find a section of the Red Sea coast near the train station that was public and walked along the sandy beach that was covered with litter. There were a couple of soccer games going on and at the end there was a wall with large rocks (placed there to protect the walls) that were in the shade being enjoyed by others. I stopped and read for a while as I watched the various activities.
It is cooler now and I am hungry, so I will go see what I can find and give up this sticky keyboard. There are a lot more French here and many people greet me in French. The keyboard was also set up as a French keyboard, but the guy at the Internet Cafe changed it to a standard English keyboard. However, some of the keys are still different, especially the punctuation marks.
Nice to be in touch so often to bring you along with me virtually.
See you soon. Love you.
Ron
16 March 2006
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
As this message indicates, one has to be flexible when traveling, especially in places where transportation is limited or infrequent! And I await with interest Ron's report on how he came up with the money for his flight to Asmara (see below).
Just before he left Djibouti for Asmara, Ron sent me three photos of the Nile River Gorge between Bahar Dar and Addis Ababa. This was the section where he took the bus and was glad he did so because of the steep and rough road down into and up out of the Gorge. I've posted the photos as a third photo link from the Bahar Dar to Addis Ababa page.
Love to all,
Ellen
16 March 2006
Asmara, EritreaHello my dear,
Thanks for the report on what is blooming. Gee, I am already missing part of the spring! But will be home soon to watch spring bloom.
About my plans ... all not going as I would wish. The train [from Djibouti to Dire Dawa, Ethiopia] only goes on Wed at 4 am, and the flights from Asmara to Djibouti are only on Sun and Wed which means I have to return to Djibouti on Sunday morning, allowing only 4 days in Eritrea and making a longer wait in Djibouti for the train.
I have played with a lot of alternative plans, but making changes here involving travel in or to Ethiopia is just as difficult as coming the other way.
My credit card in my pouch turned out to be MasterCard so I could not use it [they would only accept Visa to purchase the air ticket to Asmara]. No where in Djibouti could I cash travel checks; because there had been some counterfeiting of $100 bills and most of mine had dates before 2002, they would not take them.
I had one hell of a time getting money to pay for my flight. It will be a wonderful story that I will have to write later when I have a bit more time.
Today I started the process to get my visa to return to Djibouti, and when I pick it up in the morning I am going to take a bus to Massawa and spend Friday night (tomorrow) on the coast of the Red Sea, returning Sat night to Asmara for my Sunday morning flight back to Djibouti. I am tired already.
Asmara reminds me of the town we visited outside Rome, except here it is flat. But Asmara is very Italian-like. Last night when I got in it was like a ghost town, quiet with large buildings, lights, and very few people anywhere. And I was very cool. Today was hotter but again cool in the evening.
Just finished my Italian Pizza with eggplant, cheese, pineapple. I have some left for a late night snack.
When I get back to Djibouti I will have lots of time to write up a complete report. But until then, I am well, safe, tired, and losing weight.
More later. Love and miss you, and look forward to returning. When I leave Massawa day after tomorrow, I will consider my travels as returning home. It will just take a while.
Ron
24 March 2006
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
Following is a communication (an essay? a diatribe?) Ron wrote about his experience with money in Djibouti. When he sent it to me on 19 March (after arriving back in Djibouti from Eritrea), I asked him if he wanted me to send it to the list or post it to the Web page, and he said yes, but not until after he had left Djibouti. He is now back in Ethiopia, and has given me the OK to send this out. It is quite a story. Keep in mind that before he left on this trip, Ron did extensive research to figure out what financial arrangements would be available in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, and what form of money (cash, travel checks, credit cards) he should take with him and what would be accepted in each place. He thought he was prepared for financial transactions in each place.
He also sent me 92 high resolution photos from Djibouti! There was a really fast connection (the first he's had on the entire trip), and he took advantage of it. There are photos of his bus ride from Debre Markos back to Addis Ababa, some taken in Addis Ababa, a few from Djibouti, and then photos from his time in Eritrea. It will take me quite a while to get the photos all reduced to an appropriate size and posted to the Web. I'll probably post the photos in installments, and will send email to the list as the various sections go up on the Web page.
Ron is now in Harar, an old city just south of Dire Dawa, and will return to Addis Ababa early next week to do his shopping and packing before flying home on 30 March. I'm hoping he will send a report on his trip to Eritrea -- I have all the photos, but no text! He does say that there have been power outages in Harar, and the Internet cafe keeps shutting down, which makes it difficult to write a long report.
Love to all,
Ellen
19 March 2006
Djibouti City, DjiboutiMoney in Djibouti
After arriving in Djibouti around noon [on 14 March], I went directly to the Eritrean Embassy to apply for my visa, which would be ready the next day at 12:30.
Then I tried changing a $100 dollar bill at the money changer, but they refused to take my $100 bill because it had a date before 2003. I was lucky to have another with a 2003 date, but was a bit concerned since most of my apparently new crisp $100 bills the bank had given me before leaving home had dates going back to 1996. [Note from Ellen: in another message, Ron told me that the reason they wouldn't change the bills is because there had been problems with counterfeit bills for those earlier years.]
In the afternoon when people returned to work around 4:00 I found a travel agent and reserved my flight to Asmara, Eritrea which left the next day at 9:10 pm. I figured I could use my MasterCard to charge it, but was told they don't accept MasterCard, only VisaCard. (Is Visa French?)
So I made a reservation for the flight (I didn't want to pay for a ticket until I was sure I could get a visa and thought I had my VisaCard back in the safe at my hotel) and proceeded to the bank to cash my American Express Travel Check. The first bank told me they didn't cash travel checks and sent me to the other bank in town; both banks I understand are owned by the French. The second bank said they would only cash my travel check if I had an account with the bank. I appealed to the manager but he refused to meet with me, his secretary saying he was too busy. Perhaps if I could have spoken French....
Then I went to the Eritrean Embassy to apply for my Visa. I left my passport and they said I could pick it up the next day at 12:30.
After going back to my hotel and discovering that my credit card was a MasterCard and not a VisaCard, I realized I had a problem.
So here is the situation: I am to pick up my passport and visa at 12:30, pick up and pay for my ticket at 4:00 and be at the airport at 7:00 for my 9:00 flight to Asmara. I had three $100 dollar bills with dates before 2003.
My plan was to go to the American Embassy, which is close to the Eritrean Embassy, after picking up my passport and visa, and exchange my three one hundred dollar bills for three with a recent date, then go the travel agent, pick up and pay for my ticket and proceed to the airport.
At the Eritrean Embassy I had a long, friendly and informative conversation with the Eritrean Consul, and after coffee he provided his driver to take me to the American Embassy, not far away. Not very often am I treated as well in any Embassy.
At the American Embassy I met with an American who said he was in charge of financial affairs at the embassy. I explained that since the US dollar was no longer backed by gold and was now only backed by our faith in our government, and since he was my country's representative here in Djibouti, I wanted him to back my three one hundred dollar bills by exchanging them for three new ones with dates later than 2002. He found my point interesting but explained that he was having trouble getting enough dollars with these dates to pay for the Embassy operations and he couldn't (wouldn't) take my old ones and give me new ones. Instead, in the spirit of finding a solution he did some research and gave me the name of a money changer who would cash my travel checks. I was doubtful, and thought that I had already been to that money changer, who told me he would not cash travel checks or take my $100 dollar bills. But I followed the directions -- only to find myself in front of a the same money exchange place I had already tried (but this time closed), so I returned to the embassy.
The Embassy official I'd talked to refused to meet with me again. Perhaps because I had said that this will make an interesting article. The receptionist talked to someone else and came up with another name and phone number and street, but no house number of a person who would take my 1996 and 1999 bills, since the counterfeit bills had 2000, 2001 or 2002 dates. Time was getting short and I just couldn't believe this solution. In the spirit of finding a solution I asked the secretary to call the person I'd talked to and let him know that I was willing to accept Djiboutian currency instead of new dollars, and if this person would exchange the old dollars, then he could exchange my bills for the same amount of Djiboutian currency he gave me, he could save his new dollars and also solve my problem. He must have hollered at the receptionist that it was her problem and not his because she told me she was hollered at for calling him.
So here we have the official position of the US Embassy - they will not back the US currency. The Embassy official told me that Embassy personnel traveled around teaching the local people what the new US dollars looked like. They could have trained the local people how to tell the counterfeit dollars from the good ones. Their actions made all the old dollars worthless. There was nothing posted on the notices for Djibouti on the Embassy web site, although the official told me they wrote and warned any of the Embassy staff and other official people coming to Djibouti to bring bills with dates later than 2002.
So the President's representatives in Djibouti knew the problem existed, their actions contributed to the problem by making the good older bills worthless, they took no action to warn American travelers of the situation, and refused to back our currency by exchanging new bills for the old ones. Officially the Embassy contributed to the problem and provided no solution and I would have been stuck in an impossible situation.
But ... a person who listened to the conversations going on was willing to exchange six personal $50 dollar bills for my three old $100 dollar bills after being told by the main cashier at the Embassy that the problem was only with the $100 dollar bills. The only request this person made was that I not tell anyone who did this.
So while our government's policies suck, there was a good Samaritan that saved the day.
When I got to the travel agency, they looked at the dates on the $50 dollar bills and would not accept those with dates earlier than 2003 because they said their bank told them not to. It took a lot of conversations before they finally accepted them and I got my ticket and left for the airport.
So remember: our government will not back our currency, and in Djibouti the older almighty dollar is worthless!
Perhaps you shouldn't accept any US dollar bill with dates older than 2003! And forget that folklore about the currency being backed by our government. It's just paper.
Ron Enders [Final note from Ellen: Without the "good Samaritan", Ron would have had plenty of money, but would not have been able to use/exchange enough of it to leave the country. He says that in Eritrea, he was able to change a $500 travel check, getting $200 in Eritrean money and $300 in dollars he could use/exchange in Djibouti -- but that the $300 was changed first to Eritrean and then to US dollars, and so they charged the commission for the exchange twice!]
Afton, Virginia, USA
26 March 2006Dear family and friends,
Once again, as he left Eritrea, Ron ran into difficulties with financial transactions, and this time found himself in what might have been a very sticky situation. Luckily, the officials seem to have decided that it wasn't worth pursuing beyond a certain point. I told Ron I was very glad I didn't have to figure out how to get him out of an Eritrean jail! Why does he do these things? Sometimes I think he just likes to see how far he can push the system. I think it is time for him to come home (which he does in just a few days)!
I asked him what food he would like when he gets home, and the list was interesting. He said, "Chicken soup [by which he means the Vietnamese chicken soup that is our house standard], pad thai [Ron's recipe special], cheese, chicken, fresh vegetables, tomatoes and tofu [another of our favorite recipes]. I am doing fine on fruit, eggs, and pizza as well as beef, fish, bread, and water. But some our tap water would be a real hit! [We have a well with excellent water.]" So I'm making my grocery list accordingly.
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos from Asmara, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos from the bus ride from Asmara to Massawa, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos from Taulud and Massawa Islands, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Report on Eritrea
To see photos from the bus ride from Massawa back to Asmara, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Written in Ethiopia
26 March 2006Hello my dear,
My time in Eritrea was really too short to get to know the country, but I had a good sample and can make some comparisons to Ethiopia.
The capital, Asmara, is nothing like Addis Ababa; it is more like the town we experienced on our day trip to Sicily, Italy, during our trip to Malta. The large buildings look Italian, the streets are wide with little traffic, taxis and buses instead of shared mini-vans, and lots of bicycles. The terrain is almost flat and conditions are very good for bicycling. Someone called Asmara "little Netherlands." Traffic is very light, with taxis being the majority of cars. [Note from Ellen: I'm not sure what town in Sicily Ron is comparing Asmara to, since the one we visited was very old, with steep hills and narrow streets and lots of traffic. But now I understand why there is almost no traffic in the photos of Asmara.]
When I arrived in late evening from Djibouti, around 11 pm, the streets were like a ghost town. During the day there are lots of people on the streets but I am not chased by kids, and don't hear the constant "you you; money money" in the background. I found far less beggars and homeless on the streets.
I found hotels and restaurants for travelers and tourists to be much more expensive and of a lower quality than I have learned to expect in Addis Ababa. More on finances later. While Asmara might be a comfortable and pleasant city to live in if you are living or working in Eritrea, I found it rather expensive and boring for a tourist. It was interesting to walk around following the Lonely Planet Walking Guides and looking at the architecture of the old buildings.
Although difficult to quantify, my sense is that the people are more self-confident and have a greater sense of their importance. While I am guessing the political values in force tend to support values for all, especially in social welfare, employment, education and health, I also have a sense that the ruling class here lives fairly well in Asmara. I read that the growth of the city was intentionally suppressed in favor of keeping people in smaller towns or the countryside.
From the various things I have been able to read and what I have picked up in informal conversations, I tend to agree with the Eritrean position on the boundary dispute with Ethiopia. It appears that both Ethiopia and Eritrea had representatives on the commission to resolve the boundary, and after the commission agreed on the proposed boundaries and the international community (including U.S.) agreed to support and enforce the agreement, Ethiopia, which is led by a leader from one ethic group, decided he wanted a change that would affect his ethic group. OK, I don't have great access to information on this subject, so consider my opinions anecdotal. (I have heard recently that Ethiopia has agreed to the borders and the issue is resolved, but have not found anything to support this in print.)
From several different conversations, including what I learned in my meeting with the Eritrean Consulate in Djibouti when I got my visa, I understand their educational and National Service systems to work something like this: school for 11 years, the 12th year is a special school as part of military training and starting National Service. Standard tests then determine who goes on to college and who goes into the military and National Service jobs.
On the surface, it seems like a sensible and fair system; however, several stories I have heard about the implementation of this system leave me concerned. I have heard that the youth rebel against national and military service, and often refuse to go. I have heard reports about the military coming into small towns and just rounding up the youth and taking them immediately into National Service without even allowing the students to go home and say good bye to their families. I have heard reports about parents being put in jail because their children failed to report for National Service. I discounted these stories, but my final experience in the country, which I will write about below, tended to make me believe them instead.
In Asmara I had to apply for a new Djibouti visa which involved leaving my passport overnight in the Djibouti Embassy, which mean another night in Asmara. The next day I took a bus to the port and sea town of Massawa, on the Red Sea. At the bus station I didn't get on the first bus and passed up the second bus where I would have had a bad seat near the back since seats were on a first come first serve basis. I figured this would put me in a good position for the third bus, and I wanted a seat by a window that would open. I managed to get the first seat up front, next to the driver, but couldn't figure how to open the window, so moved a row back only to find that I was in a another seat where the window didn't open.
While I was waiting on the bus, a guy found a large rock and marked my spot in line with it. Most people were leaving their bags to mark their place, but I was reluctant to leave my small backpack. While I waited, I crossed the street and sat down on a wall in the shade. Almost immediately I heard a lady screeching and looked behind me to see an old lady throwing a rock at me. I figured I must have sat in front of her house so I moved over to the next part of wall and sat down again. But she kept screeching and yelling and threw another rock at me. People tried to explain that she was crazy (no need to explain) and encouraged me to move back across the road and wait in the sun. I just moved a bit further away but stayed in the shade and read my book as the crazy racist continued to shriek and shout. We talked about the crazy racist, and whether she should be able to set the conditions of who sat where or not, but I am not sure anyone understood the philosophic part of the discussion. But no one cared to deal with her.
The road from Asmara to Massawa would be a great early morning downhill bicycle ride, as it is paved and downhill for the 100km to the coast, dropping more than 7,000 feet, and took the bus about three hours. However, I think I would not want to do the reverse, and noted that the buses have racks on top, so a bicycle could be strapped to the top rack for the return trip. The sun was strong and there was almost no shade for the entire trip.
Massawa is an ancient town, with a long history with the powers of this part of the world. Off the main city are two islands, Taulud Island being the smallest and closest, and Massawa Island being one bridge further. I stayed on Taulud Island and spent most of my time on Massawa Island. Looking across at Massawa Island from Taulud, it looked like an Arabic town, more of a yellow color and Arabic architecture.
There were some large ancient buildings that have not been rebuilt since the Eritrean and Ethiopian War, and their bomb and bullet ridden shells are still standing. Other buildings are very ancient, including one made from coral. It felt quite run down and ill-kept, but also like an undiscovered place that will become very popular in years to come. I enjoyed wandering around and talking to people, who were friendly. It was a slow, laid back, backpacker kind of place. Almost no traffic on the Island, and it had a much livelier feeling than Asmara.
The Lonely Planet listed Sallam Restaurant and talked about how they split and baked their fish in a tandoori oven, which made me realize what I had accidentally discovered in Djibouti near the market. (I was looking for a bottle of water and walked into this place with a couple of large freezers and pointed and asked for a bottle of water, but when they opened the freezer it was filled with fish. The next day when I was hungry, I found this place again and ordered a fish dinner. When they brought it to me, the fish had been split and baked in coals, so that part of the fish was quite burnt, and when I took a bite, I thought of the tandoori fish I had eaten in southern India.) So I knew where I was going to eat dinner on Massawa Island.
Later I met an Italian couple and we agreed to meet at Sallam for dinner together. They were working and living in Asmara and had visited Massawa a few times before and had taken the bus to Massawa for the weekend. When I arrived at the outdoor restaurant, my Italian friend took me into the kitchen and helped pick out a good fish for me. It was a wonderful meal and more fish than I could eat (I think my stomach has gotten smaller!) and wonderful company.
There were lots of Italians and French on the Island for the weekend. (Lots more Italians than French). I understand there is a small barren island just off of Taulud Island where you can go to swim by catching a small boat from Dahlak Hotel. So far I have met no Americans in Eritrea. (Come to think about it, I have met almost no Americans on this entire trip.)
There was no line for my Saturday return trip by bus to Asmara, and I got a good seat with a window that would open to take pictures. Some of the best ones were during the lunch break midway.
Saturday night I was out of local currency and the restaurants would not take my dollars and the money changers were closed. I needed money to pay my hotel, eat, and pay for the taxi to the airport early the next morning. Finally I found one of the better hotels where they would change some dollars for local currency, but by then most of the restaurants had closed and I had a most unsatisfactory dinner.
The next morning, the taxi was cheaper than I thought it would be and I had money left over at the airport, but the money changer would not change the Eritrean currency back into dollars or Djibouti francs, which, after spending all that time the night before trying to get money changed the other way, resulted in some frustration.
Let me explain here the Eritrean currency regulations as I understand them. When you enter Eritrea you must declare all your foreign currency, both checks and cash, and list them on a form. Then each time you change funds you must have a receipt or a stamp on the form, where you deduct the exchanged funds from the amount on the form, leaving a new balance. I think when we visited Poland in the 80's they had something like this system in place because there was a large black market for US dollars. I think that Vietnam may have used currency controls back in 1992 and Russia used a similar system, and the system in Ukraine was changed just before I got there. It was a system the communist world tried to use but gave up on years ago.
When I first went to the bank after I arrived, I had to get permission from the manager to get US cash back when I cashed a $500 travel check and asked for $300 in US dollars. They made me change the entire $500 into Eritrean and then changed some of it back for the $300, thereby charging commission and fees twice.
I was not in Eritrea long enough to learn much about the black market exchange rates, but I found one good example. When I paid for my visa at the Djibouti Embassy I was given a choice of paying $30 US or 700 Eritrean. Since the official exchange rate is around 14.9 per dollar, it would have cost me about $47 US to pay for my visa in Eritrean. So perhaps the black market rate would be around 23.3 per dollar. This is the reason everything seemed so expensive, considering the quality of hotels and restaurants. So not only are the things the tourist or ex-pats need priced higher and taxed at about 25% on top, but the government gets another almost 50% from the currency exchange rates. In Djibouti the money changers would not buy Eritrean currency.
So when I arrived at the airport with some local currency left and the money changer refused to exchange it for any other currency, and after complaining and trying to appeal to any authority present, in front of the money changer I tore up one of their small bills, perhaps worth less than twenty-five US cents, and tried to explain to him that to me their currency was just like trash. Worthless. Well, people went ballistic. They took me and the pieces of currency up the ladder of command until I was sitting in the airport manager's office. He made we wait and sweat out whether I was going to be allowed to catch my plane or be thrown in jail. After sitting for quite a while and worrying about whether I was going to be released, I requested permission to call the American Embassy or Consulate and was denied any calls. I really didn't think he was going to make an international incident over this. Finally he called me into his office and informed me that it was against international law to tear up any nation's currency. This was news to me since I can remember people burning US dollars. But then how does one know what international laws are? He said that in any case, it was against Eritrean law, and I couldn't argue with that. He said it was disrespectful, and I explained I was not trying to be disrespectful to the country but trying to make a point that their currency regulations were not fair and made the currency that I had left worthless. He said he wasn't going to hold me and would let me catch my plane.
When I went through customs, they took my backpack apart, flipped through my books (looking for undeclared money?), opened all my pouches, containers. Wanted to know about my pills. Went through my waist pouch taking all of my money out and turning his back to me while he showed it to someone else, then threw it down and told me to check it to be sure it was all there. I think he palmed $20 but thought if I said $20 was missing he would accuse me of not having a receipt for legally exchanging it so I made no claim. Since I had an extra $300 from exchanging the travel check and didn't know how to deal with it on my currency form, I thought they would find the extra $300 and make a problem, but there was no question about why I had $300 more than on the currency form that they kept looking at. In my bag I had some 1 birr notes from Ethiopia which they made a big deal about when they found them. But then I pointed out that I had declared 1500 birr on my currency form and they didn't bother to count. Then they found my pac-safe, which is a bag with steel wires in the sides and a steel cable loop at the top that I use in my hotel when there is no safe. It was locked. And inside was a pouch, also locked, that I leave in hotel safes when they are available. They were sure that I had undeclared currency in the pac-safe, and gathered around as I unlocked it, and then when they found the locked bag inside, they were really excited. When all they found inside that one was a copy of my passport, they gave up and told me to repack and board the aircraft.
So while I tend to agree with many of their socialistic goals and objectives, I really felt robbed by their currency exchange regulations. I felt in the airport what others were trying to express to me about how the government affected them, especially the youth who didn't want to go into National Service and the guy that was still in National Service after 12 years. And the parents who were put in jail because their child didn't report for National Service. I felt subject to power without recourse to rights.
So do I recommend others go to Eritrea? No. But if you do, plan your money well in regard to the currency form, find out about the black market, spend all your money before you reach the airport to leave, and act polite in the airport. If left with any Eritrea currency, wait until you are outside the country to tear it up.
Perhaps at my welcome home party we can burn a few. Now does anyone know if it is against the law to tear up a US dollar? How about if it was printed in 2002? Is it against i international law to tear up any currency?
I think this all goes to prove that we need to put our faith in something other than dollars and plastic.
Love and miss you. On my way back home. See you soon.
Ron
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Last updated: 26 March 2006
