The Commonwealth graveyard was immaculate, and the graves were identical to every other war grave we have visited in Belgium or France. It is so touching to see the way that ythe graves are maintained- we should be very proud.
To start- it begun at 9:00 - (too hot later) we sat in the open air, with huge fans blowing on us,.
There were parrots in the trees
the mangoes were nearly ripe and hanging on every tree (well every mango tree)
the Whydahs were whistling and calling
the dragonflies (size of your hand) and swallows (yes swallows) were swooping all around us (are these the same swallows as were in our garden in Monmouth in July?)
It was 33c (at 9:00 am.
BUT
wreaths were laid by the Indian, Canadian, British consuls and the United Nations representative and navy, army and airforce officials
the last post was played
We all wore poppies
We all said, " They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. age shall not weary them. nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them"
We all cried.
After the service, we all retired back to the High Commissioner's residence and had a very nice cocktail party and lots and lots of Gin and tonic (notice a pattern here? but it is purely medicinal to keep away the effects of the malaria).
While we were there, we were chatting to a friend who asked what the Reddington Hospital was like now (where Carl had his operation) we said great, but don't know if I would like to be really ill there. He replied that he was in the Reddington for about 10 days, when he was suffering from ARSENIC poisoning!
His secretary felt spurned by him (he asked someone else to make his coffee and she was "in love" with him) so she started to dose his coffee every day with arsenic. When she was arrested, she said it was a Ju Ju love potion but the doctors said it was pure arsenic! - it all happens here.
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