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i had long ago suspected that your need to have a patriotic family-name if you whish to work for the swiss diplomatic corps:
-there is peter SCHWEIZER who was embassador in ghana during the time i was there. (i will never forget the days i lived at the embassy-compound in accra).
-his brother, niklaus SCHWEIZER, who is also a good friend of the family is swiss consul on hawaii.
-the consul on bali is called ZUERCHER (from zurich)
-and number two at the swiss embassy used to be urs BERNER (bern=swiss capital).
i remeber urs berner from cuba very well. he had offered to supply swiss wine for the opening celebration of our photo-exhibition in habana in 2000. back then fabio, my brother, and i presented our photographs from cuba at the national theatre.
today i received an email from the swiss embassy in kinshasa with travel informaiton, i had requested earlier this week. i was happy to learn, that urs berner seems to be working for that embassy now. the world is really small, sometimes.
this morning i received my DHL parcel with the new spare parts from germany. this, however, only after a small-scale battle with the customs officials who wanted me to pay 100% import tax on goods AND the DHL transport fee. i finally managed to get away without paying anything by presenting my carnet de passage, proving that the parts were for export.
after that the weather was kind enough to wait with its daily downpours until the new gaskets were safely applied. all that reamins to do is the servicing of the breaks tomorrow and i will be ready to leave.