My Portfolio

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Golfing Where and When You  Can Living and working overseas does not mean that you have to give up the pleasures that you enjoyed back home.  Playing golf was a pleasure that was not available...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   I is for India   A hundred people in a banyan tree? The banyan tree in India is many times larger than this one While watching a sci-fi movie in which three young adventurers were...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   W is for Wales Wales has a special place in the dreams of the Footloose Forester .  It’s mostly  about flying.  Ever since the first time he left the ground in a flying machine, the Footloose...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   To Russia, With Gloves When we think of Siberia, we imagine a cold and desolate place, but nothing shocked him as much as seeing frozen streambeds in the middle of October.  Flying over Siberia was...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    H is Honduras     After getting a small grant to research a few selected teak plantations in Central America, compliments of the Organization for Tropical Studies, the Footloose Forester chose Costa Rica, Panama, and...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   H for Hungary   Most people wonder about where they came from, or where their grandparents came from. The Footloose Forester was no different in that regard. In the case of his grandparents on his...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek        M is for Mali Going  to Timbuktu was perhaps the first reference that the Footloose Forester ever heard about an African city, when he was still in knee pants. That is because his mother kept repeating...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Let’s Go Shake The Mango Tree   Mango cubes in his breakfast cereal were more tastebud satisfying and aromatically pleasing than sliced bananas ever were. It took decades of taste testing, mixing of ingredients, and...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Dominican Republic     As a country right next door to Haiti, and occupying about 2/3 of the Island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic was also a pleasure in contrasts.  The Footloose Forester went there...

  On the road …again!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   M was Macau These fleeting decades after Macau had been absorbed by the People’s Republic of China, one wonders if the map makers made it easier or harder to find that former Portuguese enclave...

  On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   On Growing Things   Some farmers around the world think of themselves as unskilled peasants.  On the other hand, some city dwellers think of farmers as providers of the riches of the land.  The...

On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   G for Greece Greece was on his bucket list of places to see well before the popular concept of “things to do and things to see before one kicks the bucket” was made into a...

On the road…again!  Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   M is for Madagascar   Madagascar is so puzzling as a nation that even the people who live there generally acknowledge t hat it would be meaningful to divide up the island into four distinct regions....

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Canyon on the Feather River     Of several trips to the large property on the Feather River, one of them turned into a real adventure.  A land owner wanted his square mile of land...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Northwest Frontier Provinces Pakistan On a trek into the Northwest Frontier Provinces of Pakistan, the Swat valley he believes it was -- Footloose Forester arrived with Peace Corps colleagues John Harper and Jerry Jensen at sunset. We...

  On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Horses and Mules   Once in a while making a trip by horseback was preferable to walking, but not always.  The Footloose Forester was only a sometimes rider, so never got comfortable enough around horses...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   G is Guatemala   The people of Guatemala have always been a personal attraction because of their cultural distinctiveness.  A mixture of Mestizo, Indians, and European-looking classes have ensured that in any given place you...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Softball Overseas Part II   Within a year of completing the Cape Verde assignment, Footloose Forester was selected to serve as Senior Forestry Advisor for a USAID project in Haiti. His interest in softball came...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Softball Overseas Part I They say that when you go overseas you should plan for downtime by developing hobbies. Softball was not exactly a hobby, but a sport that enjoyed wide popularity around the world and...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Getting The Most Out Of Coconuts   Seeing a coconut lying under the tree was always a reason to smile. Wife Thu and Footloose Forester were fortunate to live in Hawaii where coconut palms are abundant,...