Would you like to help my granddaughter?

Jamie’s Conference

 

My granddaughter Jamie lives in Mojave, California.  She is an exceptionally bright sixteen year old, who goes to Rosamond High School.  Recently her parents received a notification that Jamie was nominated by one of her teachers to attend a National Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, DC during July 2013.   

A year and a half ago, Jamie’s father was injured at work.  He’s had one surgery and very soon he will be having neck surgery.  Her father will be out of work for at least another six to nine months.  With her mother being the sole supporter of the family of three children, there is no money to send her to the conference.  They are barely making ends meet even with the support of family. 

As Jamie’s grandfather, I can provide some of the funds but it would be greatly appreciated if others could donate to Jamie’s Conference.  Jamie is applying for scholarship money at the conference, but at the most that would be a couple of hundred dollars if she receives it.

 

Cut and paste and click onto:

http://www.youcaring.com/tuition-fundraiser/youthleadership-conference/46074

Thank you in advance for considering to help Jamie. 

Joe

Struggles

Sitting at a picnic table underneath a tree, each man begins to enjoy his lunch.  Hamid is deliberately delaying starting the conversation to build up Jean’s anticipation.  He wants to maintain control of this conversation.  Halfway through his sandwich he starts, “Can your friend Bob provide passports?’

“I thought you had a passport to get onto the island.”

“I do.  What I want is to have another passport to use for an entrance into Cuba without using my own.”

“Cuba, why do you want to go there?  The island’s economy has been falling apart for years.”

“I want to write about the island and not have the US know I entered the country.  They frown on their citizens going there.”

“I can ask Bob if he can handle this.  I’ll have to get back to you.”

“There is more, I want to meet the forger myself.  I am willing to pay you and Bob whatever fee is involved but I insist on handling this myself.”

“I don’t know if that can be arranged.”

“I also want the new passport in three days.”

 

“You don’t want much, do you?”

Cement Facility Tour

The tour begins where the limestone is delivered from the quarry to the plant in humongous size vehicles .  The stone is dumped in huge hoppers and from there begins a process of reducing its size into smaller units and passed onto a kiln with tremendous heat to treat it for the manufacture of concrete and cement.

The whole tour which covers all of the processes from the exterior of the plant takes close to two hours.  At the end of the tour the driver returns to the visitor parking lot and tells Jean he will look forward to seeing him another time.  Jean merely nods his head in acknowledgement. 

“Where do we go from here?  You said shipping was next on the agenda.”  “Yes, but first we must have lunch.  Do you like steak, I know of a great place?”

“Is this another personal home or a tourist place?”  “A tourist place but we need to get there before noon or there will be no seating available.”

“It sounds good to me, while you drive I need to make some notes about the tour.  Another question, I noticed yesterday and today, there is quite a bit of devastation done to building and some trees.  Was that due to a hurricane?”  “Yes, we had a terrible one two years ago and the island is just starting to recover from it.”

Questions

Neither Jean nor Hamid said a word for the first fifteen minutes in the car after leaving Bob and Jeanette.

Not able to remain quiet any longer Jean says, “Did you enjoy the lunch?  I thought you would enjoy talking to some regular islanders besides all of the tourist hype.”

“Lunch was fine.  Bob and Jeanette seem to be nice people.  I learned about working on the charter boats.  It will be in my book.  I wonder though how the two of them can make a living working the way they do.”

“I’ve known them a long time and I know Bob has a lot of connections he seems to be able to come up with almost anything.”

Hamid thinks a few moments before answering Jean’s statement.  “What do you mean by connections and able to get anything?”

“You know like if you want some weed or maybe some pills or a woman?”

“How long have you two been working together?  It looks like a nice fit where you move the tourists around and he supplies their desires?”

Before he replies Jean thinks about his response.  “We don’t work together I merely want happy customers.  Customers who can go home saying they had the best vacation.”

Sure-Sure, thinks Hamid.

“Well I’m not into weed or pills nor do I want to rent a woman.  I might need another kind of service but I’ll have to think about it before we discuss it.”

 

“What kind of service?”

Jean Boris

Hamid rose from the lobby chair as Jean Boris entered the hotel.  Jean was prompt.  He was dressed in a multicolored shirt hanging out over his khaki shorts.  His sun glasses were positioned on his head for easy access.  He recognized Hamid very quickly and they shook hands.  Jean asks, “Where do you want to start?’

“I thought I would leave that to you, since you’re the expert here,” states Hamid.

“Is there anything special you want to see first?”

“Not really I need to get a good feel for the island and its people.  I rode around on a moped for a couple of days but felt I wasn’t accomplishing what I need to do.”

Turning around towards the entrance doors, Jean says, “Okay I’ll play it by ear and as we talk I will have a better feel where to take you the next two days.”

They exit the Comfort Suites and Jean directs Hamid to a new model Lincoln Town car.

Hamid thinks to himself, it appears this guy’s business must be good, looking at the car.

On the Island

Following the early evening meal, Hamid heads into George Town to find a bookstore. Remembering seeing the sign he heads towards the main square.  There is a parking space directly in front.  He checks the sign on the door for evening hours.  There are two hours left to find what he wants.

The first item must be a current world atlas.  One of the clerks directs him to the proper aisle.  Hamid stands in front of the shelves and looks up and down the aisle. On the third section of shelves he finds exactly what he wants.  Pulling the book from the shelf he takes it to an area set aside to browse books.  Hamid checks over the European coasts and the Middle East coasts and finds the atlas has detailed information.  He brings the atlas to the counter and asks the clerk to hold it while he continues to browse.

 

Next item must be maps of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Seas.

Late Sunday Afternoon

Early the next morning Allison McDonald asks her secretary to call Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv to speak with Ariel Wattenberg.

When Ariel is on the line, he says, “I received a message you called previously.  I’m sorry I was unable to return your call.”

“No problem, actually I’m glad you didn’t return my call while you were probably away from the office.  Do you have some time?  I need to discuss a very interesting incident?”

“Right now I’m about to head into a meeting, let me call you back in say about an hour.”

“Thank you, I’ll wait for your call.” 

*     *     *   

At nine in the morning Hamid is standing outside of the bank that his funds are deposited in.  He patiently waits for someone to open the doors.  The front door is unlocked and the five individuals waiting outside enter the bank.  Hamid walks over to the information desk and asks to meet with a bank officer.  The receptionist tells him someone will be with him momentarily.  She asks if he would like coffee.   He declines and takes a seat.

Hamid’s wait is only five minutes.  A young man approaches him and invites him into his office.  Hamid is impressed the employees of the bank are all dressed in colorful outfits.  This is totally different from banks in Iran.

The young man directs Hamid to a seat in front of his desk.  “What may I do for you, sir?”
 

Hamid hands him the account number.  The young man brings it up on his monitor.  Hamid can tell the officer is impressed with the balance by the look on his face.  “May I see some kind of identification, please?”  Hamid passes over his passport.