Sylvia's Journal

It was a quick turnaround. The time between trips (originating in the US) has never been this short. I had only a few hours to take care of corporate requirements that relate to the annual performance review process, login glitches, emails waiting to be responded to and packing.

The packing was a little more complicated than usual because in South Africa it is winter, in Madagascar it is a little warmer though still cool in the morning and evening and in Holland it should be nice summer weather if it is not raining. I decided to travel with a suitcase rather than hand luggage, to spare shoulder and wrists joints.

The plane to Amsterdam was full but not full enough to push me forward for free. I had a good seat and decided to medicate myself for a short night sleep, and did so.

In Amsterdam I found out that there was a business class seat available on my connecting flight, requiring a payment of 150 euro and 35000 miles. It was a great investment for an 11 hour flight. Aside from catching up on Dutch movies, KLM has a new food service with an on-demand menu of wonderful small dishes after the initial meal. That meal included a delicious ‘rijsttafel’ option. There was even a supply of licorice, available at all times.

My seat mate came from Vancouver for her bi-annual artificial insemination treatment. It seemed a long trip for something that could be done in the US or Canada but she insisted that there was something about the quality of the donors and, besides, her wife was from Capetown and had connections. It was also an expensive trip as she had bought a business class ticket for about 6500 dollars. When I told her that, without using miles my upgrade would have cost 800 euros she thought that was cheap. I suppose it was, compared to 6500 dollars.

Across the aisle were two (older?) ladies from California, one of them drinking one Heineken after another, stating loudly to the steward how light Dutch beer was compared to what she was used to back home. Just before we landed one of the crew remarked to her she was not a frequently flyer and would she like to join? She declined saying she could not be bothered by that. The world is so full of characters whose stories I would love to know.

While transiting in Amsterdam I learned that Mohammed Ali had died at the age of 74. I had traveled to Kabul in 2002 on the UNHAS flight and he was on it too, visiting Afghanistan as a kind of peace ambassador. One of the NYTimes articles includes a picture of him with a small school girl in Karte Sei.  It was a small plane and we all got to shake hands and have our picture taken with him. He was already in a far advanced state of Parkinsons. I had not realized that at that time he was only 60. He looked old and needed several handlers to take care of him. Parkinsons is a horrible disease.

Reading the statements from Obama and Trump about his death, I am amazed how united people with such radically different outlooks are about what made this man so great. Who could have imagined that back in the 60s and 70s? It seems that, in the final tally, we all do value people whose behavior is guided by principles, even if we don’t agree with them or with each other.