Costa Rica Easter Week at Wal Mart

These 3 photos are of Hipermas, San Jose, Costa Rica.  Wal Mart bought it out.  Even though this is a Wal Mart store, the liquor is covered up during Semana Santa, Holy Week, Easter Week.

Wal Mart Costa Rica Undergoes Changes

Wal Mart Costa Rica bought Hipermas.  Hipermas was a large Costa Rican grocery chain.

In April 2011 there were a lot of changes made such as the orange signs posted and many rows were rearranged.  One of the store managers told me that there would be employee training to improve service.

Costa Rica Wal Mart

Wal Mart has quite a presence in Costa Rica.  The top 2 photos are just outside of a Wal Mart not far from where I stayed in Barrio Aranjuez.  It is called Hypermas.
The bottom photo is from Mas pro Menus which means More for Less.  This store is in San Jose's downtown.

Thanks to PublicDomainClipArt Website

Many thanks to

December 12, 1911 Mona Lisa Recovered

December 12, 1911

The world famous Mona Lisa painting was recovered in Italy. Thieves, dressed as Louvre janitors stole the painting 2 years earlier.

I saw the Mona Lisa when I was in Paris. It was not easy to see it as there was a crowd of people surrounding the masterpiece.

Thanks to the website classroom clipart.com for the Arc de Triumph graphic (left) which is not far from the Louvre Museum.

Helene with 2 Burmese women -Anne-Marie and Aye Aye Thant Sept. 1988

The above photograph is myself and my Partner in Best Burma Fair in Bangkok's English Newspaper, The Nation in 1988. We are seen giving the check to Aye Aye Thant. We are standing next to a photo of her father, U Thant, who was UN Secretary General in the 1950's. A brief explanation of the fundraiser is in this morning's blog post.

This photo was given to me by my dear Burmese friend, Anne-Marie Tresham in 1988. See the previous post about Burma.

I Was in Burma Long Before Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton was in Burma this week. I was in Burma in December, 1987.

It was rough. There was almost no bottled water. The bathrooms in the guest house where I stayed smelled so badly I almost couldn't take it.

Travelers were only able to get a 7 day visa but I met an Israeli traveler who told me how i could extend my stay.

People who needed to get to parts of the country 10 hours from Rangoon, stood in vans and held on to a railing for the entire ride.

I kept asking myself "How can people take it?". I received my answer a few months later when people began to protest peacefully in the streets of Rangoon. The government shot some of the protesters and people were dying in the streets and the hospital hallways. Aung Sun Suu Kyi made her speech at that time.

I was back in Thailand and a Burmese friend of mine and I organized a Best Burma Fair fundraiser where we were working, in the Phanat Nikhom refugee camp. With the help of Save the Children, who gave us their building and others who were working the camp, we raised over $1,000 and got the money to Aye Aye Thant, a Burmese woman living in Bangkok who was somehow able to get medical supplies to the Burmese.