Travelling abroad

 
I every now and then do some business consultancy abroad as an expert and sector coordinator of PUM Netherlands Senior Experts. This organization of volunteers - I'm one of them - advises businesses and relevant organizations in developing countries and emerging markets. I recently completed a series of workshops at the Chiang Mai University in Thailand, where I worked for the Faculty of Economics.
Now, travelling back from Chiang Mai I had a peculiar experience: some guys from the University had dropped me at the airport, I checked in and went to the business lounge. When I was sitting there – I was the only passenger at a certain moment – I went to get myself a drink and a snack, and when I came back to my table I spotted a large bag and a bunch of flowers on it, but no one there. A minute later an elderly lady came by and she started talking to me. Something like: ‘Hello sir, I don’t know if you fancy to have a chat, but I always like to talk to people when I’m travelling, but, please, just tell me if you don’t want to be disturbed.’
 
She turned out to be a Scottish eighty year old widow who stayed somewhere in a Chiang Mai hotel for two months, which she did every year since her husband passed away a few years ago. And now she was travelling back to Scotland, where she lived in a very small village south of Ullapool in the North West of Scotland.
Well, to be short, we started talking - actually she did the talking; I only made a few comments and nodded friendly, listening to her - for more than three hours. She told me the complete story of her life which she enjoyed very much telling and she told about all the adventures she and her husband had experienced during their professional life as well as their holidays abroad. She was a teacher and her husband used to be a lawyer. She told stories about them being accidentally present at a funeral in Sulawesi, about them sailing in the Hong Kong area as a member of the Royal British Hong Kong Yacht Club , about her even older-than-she-was neighbour who was a very stubborn prawn fisherman, now making advances to her, which she firmly rejected. About her eldest son who started late to have children, but had a lovely daughter of two now, and about her youngest son’s wife who had decided that having children was not her cup of tea which the old lady very much regretted. She told me the story of her husband who died from a heart attack on the beach of the village where they lived and about the policewoman who came telling her husband had died. Actually the policewoman said he had an accident on which notice she reacted a bit angry, because she had to leave by car and do some shopping, assuming that he had a minor car accident. She talked about Japanese people which she did not like at all, and about Java: her advice is to rent a car and get out of Djakarta as soon as possible and wander around in the magnificent rural areas of that part of Java. And she talked about gardening, because she was a very keen gardener, which allowed me to say something as well: she realized that I also was very much interested in both gardening and in Scotish gardens. So we found ourselves talking about some gardens in her country which the both of us had visited in recent years.
Then we arrived at Bangkok airport and said good-bye.
Her name was Sheila King.
Remarkable story isn’t it?
Travelling from Bangkok to Amsterdam my neighbour was an unpleasant, blunt and ugly guy from Holland: we did not speak a word!
 
Jan Boeren
 

Diez iez Vietnam

This book is about the story of life of prof. Adrie van Gelderen. I met him on one of my PUM missions where he was a local representative of PUM. Adrie told me he had a manuscript of his story of life and asked me my opinion about publishing it. I promised to read it and give my comments. And indeed I did: I told him that his book would not be a profitable cash cow, however, publishing your own literary thoughts will give tremendous satisfaction, it's fun to do and it's not expensive at all.

Now Adrie was seriously ill at that time and unfortunately he passed away before we could take his book into production. So we, being Adrie's friends, decided to publish the book posthumously and donate all the refunds to his 'affiliate-foundation'.

'Diez iez Vietnam!'  is written in English. A copy can be ordered by clicking the link.