A Father's Playground

Facebook

2009-03-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

Okay now I have joined the 21st century by getting on Facebook. At first I was admonished by my children for even thinking about getting on Facebook, Mallory told me she would be totally embarrassed if I joined and then a short year later she was wondering why I wasn't on it. I guess enough of her friend's parents had joined that it became okay for her Pops.

What an interesting experience. After giving some info and joining you are infiltrated with requests to become your friend. Some of these requests come from current friends, some come from old friends, some come from very old friends, some come from friends of friends and some come from people who you don't have an inkling who they are. In a mere week I have 126 friends, imagine that.

All and all this social networking thing is pretty cool. I would suggest that if you are not on Facebook give it a try but becareful what you put on your or someone elses wall, everybody who is your friend can read it.

Pictures

2009-02-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

We have been adjusting to the New World again. It was really hard to go back to driving on the right hand side of the road again. After a week and a half I think we are almost back to normal and I have had an opportunity to upload some pictures.

Actually, I put the best of them in a book. You can see the book at this address www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf/bookviewer.py?d=tq%3Ey-cppl%60je%3E3667162
The order id is M1010145 and the password is 1468202. I have also uploaded a bunch of pictures on a web album http://picasaweb.google.com/fathers.playground. You can see the album in the right hand corner of the blog. Click on it to see a larger slide show.

Ernie

2009-02-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make my last African blog about a really incredible man that we met during our African journey, Ernie Thomas. Ernie and Lois hosted us at their home in Vipingo. This week we found out that Ernie had passed away.

He had battled throat cancer and had lost his larynx a few years ago. While we were at his home he was going through some tests because they had found a spot on his spine. Apparently the cancer came back and claimed his life.

Ernie was one of the most incredibly gentle men I have ever met. Since it was difficult for him to talk, you knew when Ernie said something it was worth listening to. Lois and him were so happy living in the little utopia they had created on the coast of Kenya. I know she must be devasted.

Lou and I are blessed and honored that we had the opportunity get to know Ernie and spend the quality time that we had with this wonderful man.

I have not uploaded any pictures of our trip on purpose. I have almost 2000 pictures of our African journey and I really want to cull and create an album or a book that documents one of the most incredible experiences we have ever had. To share all the pictures before the journey was done would be like having dessert before you have finished your entree but I do want to post a picture of Ernie so all of you can see the amazing smile of our good friend Ernie Thomas.

Off in Style

2009-02-15T06:55:00.001-08:00

We ended up our African adventure with a bang on Valentine's Day. Paul and I served Sue, Tamia (Sue's friend) and Lou a seven course meal out on the lawn right beside the lake. It was a beautiful evening, a candles all around and a million stars. Lots of brownie points here.

When we started this trip I really wanted to get a feel of the culture, something you don't get when you stay in a hotel. We certainly got a taste of the culture and so much more. We feel like we have become part of the neighborhood. We have fallen in love with Africa, Vipingo, White River and the neigborhoods where the people have welcomed us with open arms. We have a whole new set of friends within the communities of Vipingo and White River. It has been a truly amazing experience. I highly recommend the home exchange experience. Lou and I could definitely live here, the biggest obstacle is that we could not leave our girls.

After our morning coffee and the usual conversations as the neighborhood stopped in at Zannas Louis and Paul drove us to the airport, in a 1933 Rolls Royce! Louis has a car museum with some amazing cars so he decided to make our last drive in Africa a memorable one. After breakfast, off we go sitting in the back of this classic car with Louis as our chaffer and Paul following in our little rental car.

We felt like royaly as we drove up to the airport in this beautiful car. It was really funny to watch the security guys, they all pulled out their cell phones and started taking pictures. It is the first time I have been to an airport where they let you park at the dropoff you checked your bags. Lou and I went in to check in and when we came back Louis was letting these guys enjoy a few minutes in the back of the car. What a great end to an incredible journey as we left Africa in style.

Hands at Work

2009-02-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

Before Lou and I came to Africa I reached out to two organizations to see if we could get involved in some service work and as possible Dustin’s GreenHouse destinations. The first was the Vipingo Village Foundation (VVF) in Kenya and the second was an organization called Hands at Work www.handsatwork.org here in White River. Both work with AIDS affected children.

I didn’t really have anything concrete set up with Hands, I just hoped I could get up with someone when we got to White River. On the flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg, Lou and I were not able to get seats beside each other. It was the only flight in the 19 flight segments we have taken on this trip where we were not beside each other. I asked the flight attendant if there were any extra seats if she could try to get us seats together.

The gentleman beside me, said he would be happy to change places once the plane got up into the air. We started talking about our trip and I mentioned that we were hoping to get up with Hands at Work. He almost fell out of his seat, because he was the director at the bible school where Hands at Work originated and is best friends with one of the directors, Marc Myburgh. Amazing!

Through him we were able to set up a meeting with Marc and Vivienne (his wife) to learn about the amazing things they are doing in Africa. What started as a local outreach program to help the community has grown into an organization that is in seven African nations and helping over 20,000 AIDS affected orphans.

Hands at Work works in villages where the incidence of HIV/AIDS, orphans and poverty is the highest and the support structure is very low. In such areas, institutional models of care, such as hospitals and orphanages are overwhelmed and unable to cope with the sheer volume of needed care. There are 2.5 million orphans in South Africa. In the war torn country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the population is 55 million over 4 million people have died leaving an orphan population of 4.2 million children. That means orphans make almost 10% of the population of the DRC.

Hands at Work goes into communities and teaches the community how to provide for the orphans within their area, providing them a safe and secure environment. They do not feel their mission is accomplished until the can provide three basic services for the children, food, shelter and education. Most of these homes have children as the head of household with younger siblings under their care; children taking care of children. Many are taken advantage of by men, trading sex for food or shelter.

Hands at Work sends community volunteers out to orphan homes to feed and check on shelter and heath care needs. They work to have community centers built in these areas so younger siblings can be cared for while the older children go to school.

Hands at Work, like VVF have no paid administrative staff so over 90% of all donations go to helping children. By 2010 their goal is to have 100,000 orphaned children under their care. Next month they are launching a program where you can support a child for a month with just a $15 donation. This is a wonderful organization that is doing incredible things to address a problem that is a true crisis. This is a crisis of momentous proportion and to stand back and watch while millions of people die is not an option.

Golf

2009-02-14T06:44:00.001-08:00

I couldn’t get out of Africa without testing their golf courses. I hadn’t played golf for over two months so I was dying to chase the little white ball. John, Paul’s father in law invited me to play at the White River County Club. It is the local course and it reminded me a lot of Jamestown’s course, a fun course but nothing to get too excited about. The price was amazing, to be a member it is $80 per year and $3 per round, as a guest I paid $13 and played like a dog.

Good thing I got in a practice round because Paul had a cool surprise for the next day, Leopard Creek. Leopard Creek is the Pebble Breach of Africa. By many it is considered the best golf course in Africa. The course is a private course that borders Kruger Park, so while you play golf normally you can see wild game on or near the course.

If can find someone to get you on, a round normally costs about $200, which is expensive by US standards and is out of sight for most in Africans. Paul’s Austrian friend, Ollie, who owns a beautiful restaurant and a five star hotel, got us on for free.

What an absolutely stunning course. Set among the escarpment and along the Crocodile River, beautiful running streams, rolling hills and every tee box has a bronze statue of a leopard doing something. As you progress through the holes the bronze leopards go from rest, to stalking to catching the impala. They told us each one of the statues cost in excess of $5000. As you arrive at the course they serve you a chilled fruit drink on the front steps, your chilly box (cooler) is stocked with drinks, after 9 holes they give you a cold cloth and serve you scones and tea.

We saw hippos, monkeys and waterbuck during our round. None of us shot a great round but we had tons of fun. Paul, Ollie, Mandler (one of Paul’s managers) and I laughed hysterically as we plopped ball after ball in the lake trying to hit the island green on number 18. When we were done we added up the lost balls on just the final hole, the total was 11. Good thing there wasn’t anyone in the clubhouse watching.

I finally found my game on Friday when I played again with Paul’s father-in-law. They have a small 9 hole tournament on Friday’s called the Meat Tournament. The winners get different types of meat. The winner gets a leg of lamb, I came in third and carried home a big piece of biltong. Biltong is like gourmet beef jerky. I’ve taken a pound of Mikey and Brads flesh and some of their money on occasion but never won meat on a golf course.
We finished the night with a delicious dinner of ostrich at Ollie’s.

Mozambique

2009-02-11T08:40:00.002-08:00

Lou and I were really excited; we were headed for Maputo the capital of Mozambique for a night. We have been told that it is a really interesting city with a heavy Portuguese influence and only about 3 hours from White River. So we made reservations at a nice motel and headed out yesterday morning.

After a couple of hours of driving we reached the border. The first thing the border guard asked was for the proper papers that allowed us to drive a rental car across the border. We didn’t realize that we needed some sort of permission. When we called Avis they told us we could not drive the car across the border.

Not to be deterred Lou and I decided to park the car and try to get a taxi to Maputo. The taxi driver wanted $110 to take us into town and back the next day. We felt like we were getting the American rip-off price so Lou suggested we go into the customs office and see if we could bum a ride with someone. Who would have ever thought I could leave Lou in the African bush by herself or that she would come up with the idea of hitchhiking to Maputo?

As we entered the customs office we noticed a couple of older gentlemen and I suggested that Lou use her womanly influence to see if we could get a ride. These two guys were absolutely wonderful, they said they were not originally planning to go all the way into Maputo but they would take us into our hotel. They helped us through the process of getting the proper stamps and visas.

Along the way we learned that they were crocodile farmers. They owned a farm in the Nelsprit area and one outside of Maputo, harvesting almost 20,000 crocs a year. Their skins are exported to Mexico to make handbags, shoes and belts.

We were about to get our visas, the last step of the process, when the border official stepped out and told us we didn’t have enough room in our passports to paste the visas. We pointed out that there was one page and the very back page but he said he needed two blank pages and he could not use the back page or put the visa over another stamp. He handed the visas to the clerk and told her to give us our money back and walked off.

These poor guys had walked us through the whole process, waited almost a half an hour for us and suddenly our trip to Maputo was dead. As Lou and I walked out of the border office back towards the South African border we were totally disappointed. We ended up making a day of the drive back to White River and enjoying the African countryside.

White River Social Life

2009-02-11T08:40:00.001-08:00

The neighborhood that Paul lives in is beautiful but isolated. It is a gated community with an electric fence surrounding the neighborhood and security patrolling. Even with all the security there has been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood. Paul’s house has a gate on the steps that go to the second floor that they can lock at night incase of a robbery, it will keep the intruders downstairs.

Many of his neighbors have their own personal helicopters, which they takeoff and land in their backyards. A trip to the local coffee shop is traveled by helicopter. This morning I was woken up by our next door neighbor, Jack, taking off for his morning coffee.

Morning coffee shop and the local gossip hole is Zanna’s. Lou and I have become regulars along with the rest of the neighborhood. Everybody knows everybody, it is similar to Sedgefield, lots of incestuous business relationships and local scandals.

We have become friends with many of Paul’s friends and neighbors. Louie is the perpetual bachelor. He is a really delightful person and seems to have his hand in almost every pie, he owns the local shopping center, a local magazine, a local radio station and is building a local hotel, with Jack as his partner.

Jenna and Dex are a very interesting couple. Jenna is one of the more famous jewelry designers in South Africa. Her line, Jenna Clifford www.jennaclifford.com, is as popular or more so then the David Yurman jewelry in the United States. They came over for dinner the other night for some chili. It was really neat meeting a local celebrity.

As Dex and Jenna arrived, Jenna was carrying her poodle and the aura in the room immediately changed. She set the dog on a chair and for the rest of the evening the dog sat without moving or making a sound. She is a very ethereal person and within minutes of talking to Lynn and Lou had pegged both of their personalities. Lynn and Lou were sold, this is probably going to cost me money, it already cost John. A couple of days later when we came into the house and a gift was sitting on the counter from Jenna wrapped in a beautiful bow tied with roses on top. Help!

South African People

2009-02-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

The African people are an extremely interesting culture and South Africans are no different. Here the Zulu people who run the ANC (African National Congress) basically have run the country since the abolition of apartheid and the fall of the DeKlerk government.

Many here are very concerned because national elections are going on right now. The candidate for the Zulu party is Zuma. The president has been Mebeke, also a Zulu, for the last xx years. Zuma has been accused of taking bribes and corruption. Mebeke pushed to have a complete investigation of Zuma’s dealings which caused a split in the ANC and the removal of Mebeke as president.

The other day Zuma was taken to court to set a trial date with huge crowds outside the courthouse protesting. Of course the trial date was set to occur right after the election. So theoretically Zuma could become the president of South Africa and then pardon himself. Now people are questioning why Mebeke was removed from the presidency with no due process but the majority of the ANC wants to make sure Zuma gets a fair trial. Key figures like Desmond Tutu are talking about boycotting the election because they are disgusted with what is happening.

The white community is really concerned that the result could be a disaster for the country. If Zuma is tried and found guilty it could cause huge unrest within the country and violence between tribes. If Zuma is not made accountable for his actions then the graft and corruption will continue and could get worse. They only have to look north to Zimbabwe to see a democratically elected official, Megabe who turned into a tyrant and ruined the country.

The AIDs problem is not an epidemic, it is a pandemic problem. Early on the Africans wanted to believe that it was a white man’s disease but as more black people died it became apparent that it had to be addressed. Now to be diagnosed as HIV positive is like having leprosy, if your family or neighbors find out you are an outcast within the community, shunned by society. So naturally people are reluctant to be tested and when they test positive will deny their illness. When death occurs the family almost never admits that their relative died of AIDS, it is always for another reason, flu, tuberculosis or some other malady brought on by their depleted immunity.

The medical community has done amazing work with ARV’s in suppressing the illness caused by HIV but first people need to admit they could be infected, then get tested and then take the ARV’s on a regular schedule. If you skip your medication or don’t take the ARV drugs at exact same time everyday, the HIV becomes resistant to the drugs and the carrier begins to spread a drug resistant strain of the disease.

The African people are heavy believers in superstition and witchcraft. People believe strongly that illness or death can be caused by disappointing ancestors, having a spell put on you by another individual, tribal leader or medicine man.

Paul told us a story about an employee who came here from Zimbabwe. He was a great worker but the other African’s mocked him and made fun of him because of where he was from. One day he was threatened by someone who said he would die if he didn’t go back to his country.

The man started a downward spiral. Within a very short period of time he was unable to talk, then he couldn’t walk and finally he stopped eating. Paul took him to several doctors, including psychiatrists but nobody could find a physical malady. Paul was certain that if he didn’t do something quick this guy would die soon. As a last resort he loaded this man who was basically an invalid on an airplane back to Zimbabwe. Within a matter of weeks the man had totally recovered.

Funerals are big business here. We have been amazed with how many tombstone stores there are around the area. We were told when someone dies the family is expected to make a big show about the death. Everybody is invited to a wake/party that can last for days even though the family can’t afford appropriate shelter or food for their children. People believe that if they do not put on an appropriate funeral their ancestors could become displeased and it could result in their own death.

Elephants and Chimps

2009-02-07T00:28:00.000-08:00

The next morning we headed for another elephant sanctuary, Elephant Whispers. Unlike the David Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary in Nairobi whose goal was to reintroduce orphaned elephants back into nature, this was a collection of elephants were marked to be culled and instead were sent to Elephant Whispers to be trained for a tourism attraction and other useful purposes.

Culling elephants is another word for mass extermination of a group of animals. Elephants eat almost 300 kilograms of vegetation each day so there is a natural limit to the amount of elephants a park like Kruger can accommodate. During the summer (Nov-Feb) months there is plenty of vegetation but in the winter months (Jun-Aug) the amount of vegetation is drastically reduced leaving elephants foraging for food. When elephants find themselves without enough food they get very destructive and dangerous. This leaves game rangers with the task of reducing the elephant population.

They have tried elephant contraception and vasectomies but it involves darting the elephant from helicopters a huge process that is very costly. They have transported elephants to different areas but elephants are very social animals and they generally have to transport a whole family which is even more costly. So most culling that is done right now is done with a gun. Since elephants are extremely social and a death in a family can create extreme sadness, emotional problems and dangerous animals, they kill the whole family at one time, sometimes as many as 60 are killed in a matter of minutes.
Elephant Whispers is using the elephants to teach the public about these gentle giants and now are training them to track scents. During a visitor’s time they let you feed, ride and inspect the whole anatomy of one of these incredible animals. It is a really cool learning experience. An elephant’s sense of smell is 14 times better then a dog’s and their memory for a scent is incredible.

They do a trick at Elephant Whispers where they allow an elephant to smell 10 to 12 visitors as they hold a hat and say the person’s name. Then they take the hat and throw it on the ground and ask the elephant to take the hat to one of the visitors by using their name. The elephant has associated the name of the person with their scent and picks up the hat and hands it to the correct person.

Louie was telling us he had been to the sanctuary about 6 months before and was back for a visit. When they did this trick while he was there they introduced all the new visitors but left Louie out of the introductions. The groom asked the elephant to take the hat to Louie even though he had only related his scent to his name once, six months before. The elephant picked up the hat and brought it to Louie.

They are starting to use elephants to track poachers. Recently they found a dead rhino in the park and brought in an elephant to track the killers. The elephant went directly to the culprits, even though they had used extreme measure to cover their tracks.

Since an elephant can be ridden across rough terrain this makes it the perfect tracking animal for certain applications. They are teaching them right now to find land mines in war torn African countries.

Who knows you might find one in the airport one day sniffing your luggage; then again maybe not, they do have to eat 300 kilograms of food per day and they leave a huge mess behind them.

We also had the opportunity to visit, Chimp Eden, a Jane Goodall chimpanzee sanctuary. Chimpanzees have 97% of the same genetic makeup that humans do. These guys were amazing to watch as the keepers talked to them like humans and they reacted with very human behavior.

Chimps have become an endangered species because of the deforestation of the African jungles, hunters killing them for bush meat and the pet trade selling them on the black market. There are only about 70,000 chimps left in the world and they are dying at a rate of almost 10,000 a year.

Most of the chimps at Eden were rescued from pet owners who had them locked in small cages in deplorable conditions. Some so badly abused they have brain damage and will never be able to be returned to the wild. You can hear their stories on the Chimps of Eden show on the Animal Planet.

Kings Camp

2009-02-06T00:23:00.000-08:00

We got up early this morning and headed towards Kings Camp, back to luxury. Our room is huge. We were all pretty dirty after spending the night in the blind so we headed for the shower.

The room is huge and beautiful. This is the first room that I have ever been in that has three showers and a claw foot tub. Two of the showers are out in a courtyard next to a small garden with a wall around it that prevents anybody from looking in. It is kind of crazy going outside to take a shower. Should you put on sun screen before or after your shower?

We headed out on our first game drive at Kings Camp and saw some amazing stuff, five young lions that had taken down a large Kudu. Most of the Kudu was gone but the lions were kicked back and enjoying their meal.

We found a young leopard relaxing in a tree, our first really good leopard sighting. We finished up the drive with a pack of wild dogs, our guide (Patrick) said it is very rare to see wild dogs, there are only about 160 left in the park. This was a pack of 17 dogs, which represents about 10% of the total population within the park.

The next morning we headed out at 5:30am in search of the pack of dogs. After some time we found them lounging around in some grass. We wanted to see them hunt, since Patrick told us that they are one of the most feared animals by their prey. These dogs will chase an animal for more then 5 kilometers. Since they run in a large pack, the younger dogs will work to tire the prey while the older dogs circle around and are ready with a fresh pair of legs. The result is the highest kill rate on the savannah, about 80%.

We sat and watched these dogs for over an hour hoping they would go on a hunt. Finally they got up and started out. They move quickly, sweeping the landscape and covering a large swath of territory.

After another hour of following these guys they decided to settle down again, so we left hoping to pick them back up on the night drive. Late that afternoon we picked the dogs up again but they were fat and lazy, obviously they were eathing their lunch at the same time we were eating ours.

We worked the area finding the usual cape buffalo, kudo, impala and a lazy rhino. Checked on the lions still working their kill, by this time it was really ripe and difficult to watch them eat with a zillion flies and the stench of decaying kudo.

As we headed back towards camp we came across another rhino. We watched him grazing, about the time our wild dogs came along. The dogs thought they might have rhino for dinner, the rhino had different plans. The dogs would swarm the rhino and the rhino would turn a charge the dogs, this went on for a few minutes, with a lot of whining by the dogs and hoof scratching by the rhino. It became a game once both animals realized neither one of them was going to win the battle, but it was an incredible interaction between the species that is very rare to see.

The food is awesome here at Kings camp, breakfast is after our 5:30am game drive, lunch around 2pm and dinner at 8pm. Before dinner each night the guests get together in the bar and share animal stories.

Early the next morning we hit the trail again. It looked like it was going to be a slow day, no sightings for the first hour and a half. Finally Patrick tracked down a 10 foot croc that was sitting on a nest. We were out of the Land Rover and on foot when Patrick said to look to the right there was the crock about 20 feet away. Being between the croc and the river was a bit scary knowing that at any time the croc could have jumped off that nest and had human kabobs.

At one point the crock started to move and Patrick suggested that if he started our way, where we should run. I probably wouldn’t have mattered much since a croc can move at 40 KPH for short distances. There have been several local incidents of people being killed or maimed by crocs.

We picked up the tracks of an elephant and started tracking it. We spent about 30 minutes searching and were just about to give up when another safari group told us the elephant had just crossed behind our vehicle. The sneaky devil had backtracked on us.

When we drove up on this massive beast he was taking a bath in a mud puddle. Patrick kept creeping closer and closer. We ended up so close you could have reached out and touched him. He was busy spraying mud and water all over him and did not pay us much attention. We were so close the mud was flying all over us. Patrick said it was as close as he had ever been to a large bull elephant. It was fascinating being that close to one of the largest mammals in the world. As we continued on we came across another incredible scene, a large male leopard eating an antelope just above us crouched in a tree.

Next it was a family of elephants grazing with two babies. The babies were very curious about four Americans in a Land Rover and would come right up to the vehicle. I guess they had never seen Southerners before. One came so close, when it stuck out its trunk Patrick grabed him. The startled baby took a couple of steps back and decided he was no longer impressed with our group.

As we were coming back to camp they radioed Patrick and told him that the wild dogs had just killed an impala right in our camp. We raced along dirt roads and into the camp to find all 17 dogs eating their evening meal about 30 yards from the front door of our room.

Wild dogs are one of the few species that share a kill with their young before the adults eat. It was a flurry of activity as the dogs consumed the impala in a matter of minutes. As we took our shower outside we could still hear the dogs whining and yelping as the meal was finished. Wow!

Our last game drive we found one the male leopard's children, a young female leopard eating an impala while mama looked on. A hyena wandered by the bottom of the tree and the young leopard decided it was time to take its meal up to a higher limb. It was quite a sight to see the cat grab the carcass in her jaws and move up the tree. She did not do a great job draping the kill and it fell out of the tree, prompting the leopard to jump down, grab its kill again and ascended the tree in a matter of seconds.

The really cool part of a private game camp is how close you get to the animals. We have been within feet of lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, cape buffalo, and wild dogs. All of these could have attacked maimed and eaten us with ease but you are instructed to remain still and not to make loud noises or quick movements so the animals look at the Land Rover as a large unit and not a bunch of human meals.

Leaving Kings Camp we headed out with our route planned through the mountains, the escarpement and the Blyde River Canyon (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyde_River_Canyon). The scenery was beautiful as we winded through shear cliffs and the third largest canyon in the world. One of the lookout points called the Three Rondavels was just breathtaking. We stopped at Gods Window and the small gold town of Graskopf and back to Paul’s house where Sue had a wonderful meat pie waiting for us.

Olifants/Letaba

2009-02-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

After our morning game drive we packed up the car and headed north. It took us 6 hours to drive from Lower Sabie in the southern part of Kruger to Olifants in the north. The park speed limit is 50 KPH which is about 30 miles per hour so it was slow but beautiful. The landscape is amazing how it changes, from savanna, to forest, to highlands.

On the way we saw a lot of giraffe and at one point we saw a family of over 100 elephants. There were a couple of fights going on within the herd. I never get tired of watching wildlife. These elephants would go tusk to tusk, trunk to trunk for a while, then break for a snack, then back at it again. You could hear the crashing of the tusks together as they rammed each other, Tyson Hollifield on the African savanna.

The view from our bungalow at Olifants is incredible. We have an overlooking deck about 100 feet above the Olifant River. The river winds like a snake through the African forest, you can see for 20 miles. Over the roar of the rapids you can hear the grunts of hippos and we can see a giraffe chomping it’s leaves along the river bank. Wow! We took in the African sunset and then sat back as John cooked a wonderful dinner.

The next morning we headed north again to the Letaba camp. This is the first camp that had waterbuck and Vervett monkeys roaming around the camp. The waterbuck were really cute, there were probably about a 100, all very small. It was like having Bambi around every corner. Lou went one morning to read while overlooking the Letaba River and a monkey came up and sat beside her. I think she is trading up on her companions.

Letaba has Elephant Hall, a tribute to the Magnificent Seven, the seven largest elephants in Kruger Park. Some of these elephants had tusks that were eight feet long. They are all dead not, some shot by poachers, some died of old age and one was skewered through the head by another elephant. These were truly magnificent animals.

God must have had a lot of fun creating the animals here, the giraffe are like floating flowers, the lions hold a majestic power, the elephants are graceful giants, and the zebra are just thrown in to change up the game. Africa gives you the opportunity to experience nature like no other place that I have ever been, up close and personal. This is a great time of year to see baby or juvenile animals, the young are so full of spirit and playful.

The Blind

2009-02-02T05:27:00.000-08:00

One of the things I have been most excited about during our trip is a night in a bird blind. As the park gates close, you lock yourself into a small wooden building with a viewing window that looks somewhat like a old WWII pillbox, overlooking a river. You are in for the night, just you and the animals. Leaving the blind during the night is not recommended. There is a small boma, (a round area for a fire and a grill), where you cook your own food, fold down beds from the wall and a chemical toilet. Here is an account of our night in the blind.

4:15pm – We just arrived and a giraffe was walking away from our lovely accommodation for the night. As we entered the blind there is a pod of hippos playing in the river, opening their mouths and play biting each other. It’s like you are watching two of your children playing in the swimming pool.

6:00pm – John and I left the women watching the kids in the pool as we went to get provisions, Paul is bringing the food. The park supplies mattresses, water, a gas lantern and cutlery. Who would have ever thought that Lou and Lynne would be okay with being left alone in the African wilderness? We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Paul, Jason and Daniel.

6:45pm – Paul and the boys just got here. They are amazed, Paul and all of his friends were not aware that you can sleep in a Kruger bird blind. We are all watching the kids in the pool, a croc has joined the group. We are settling down for a fun evening.

7:30pm – It’s dark now but we bought a good spotlight and we are watching a couple of hippos fighting in the river for dominance.
Paul is telling us stories; at one time he owned a bakery and was vying for the concession for all the baked goods for Kruger Park. Running behind, he was in a rush to make the interview, threw on some dress pants and headed out. This is a big deal for him and his bakery.

After the interview he was trying to get back before the gates closed and gets stopped by the police. The cop is ready to write him a ticket when he looked down and noticed that Paul’s zipper was down. He started laughing about the zipper, and then he looked down and saw that Paul had on two different shoes. He was laughing so hard he decided not to give Paul the ticket. Paul ended up winning the business in spite of an open zipper and two different shoes for one of the biggest interviews of his career.

10:30pm – We got the grill and fire started and dinner was started. The only problem is that we were attacked by stink bugs. Stink bugs were in our hair and going down our shirts. If you kill one it puts off a terrible odor.

We started grilling lamb machonchos but they kept getting stink bugs on them, what started as a nice barbeque became a race to eat meat and no bugs. We had a salad but we felt it was a lost cause to try to eat a salad with all the bugs. We can hear hyenas calling as they smell our food cooking. We cooked steaks, instead of putting the steaks on a plate we just ate them as steaksicles on the end of a fork.

We can hear the great hippo battles going on in the river but our wonderful 2 million light candle spotlight just died on us so we have continuously take dashes to the car to charge the light with the cigarette charger hoping we don’t become a lion’s next meal.

11:00pm – The campfire is blazing, everybody is having fun. We started making smores, they are delicious. The boys are having a blast, the hippo battles continue on the river, most of our flashlights have died, but so far so good, the lions are still hungry.

1:00am – It’s just Paul and myself still standing, everyone else has gone to bed. I just thought I heard a lion but realized it was just John snoring. Wow, can that boy snore. As Paul and I jumped into bed it sounded like we have two of the three bears, papa bear (John) and mama bear (Lynn) snoring away. Paul and I fell asleep to a chorus of grunts from hippos and the two bears in the African night.

2009-01-26T23:37:00.000-08:00

Kruger National Park is one of the largest parks in South Africa, the size of New Jersey. As we drove into the park we were reading the rules. The number one rule is that you are not allowed to leave your car outside of established camps. Apparently one of the game rangers stopped to relieve himself one day and never got his zipper up before a lion made him a quick lunch.

Before we got to our first camp, Lower Sabie, we had seen elephants, impalas, kudos, giraffes, hippos, wart hogs, and a huge lizard. You have to make it into the enclosed camps before 6:30 or you get locked out. The idea of four of us sleeping in an SUV along with our luggage was not appealing so we made sure we got there in time.

Each camp is surrounded by an electric fence which keeps the animals out. Correct that, most of the animals out, while I am writing this, two big baboons just walked by (about 10 feet away) off our back porch, turning over trash cans and getting a quick snack as they went.

Lower Sabie is along the Sabie River. Most of these camps have a little grocery store, cafeteria and other services, much like you would find in a US national park. Lynne and John are staying in a tent and Lou and I are staying in a bungalow. Both accommodations have a nice bathroom, beds, dressers, and a back porch or deck. The porch has a sink, two burner stove, refrigerator, patio table and a grill. Our bungalow is air conditioned.

During the night you can hear the hippos grunting in the river and each morning you awake to a chorus of birds. Yesterday we saw four cheetahs all standing together. They crossed over the road a couple of times before they disappeared in the bush. From a blind beside one of the rivers there was a pod of hippos, grunting and playing about 20 yards away.

One thing that has really added to this trip is Ashlie's collection music that she downloaded on my I-Pod right before we left. Last night we had an outdoor barbeque under a million stars, with James Taylor for entertainment and a menu of ostrich pate and grilled wildebeast.

We did our first walking safari in Kruger this morning, we were up and gone by 4:30am. On the way to our starting point we saw a leopard just standing on the side of the road. We had two armed rangers with us as we walked for about 2 1/2 hours across the African savannah. Africa is truly amazing!

White River

2009-01-26T23:36:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Kenya was good, we met our driver Francis at the airport and he took us to an Ethiopian restaurant. We have never eaten at an Ethiopian restaurant but it is a unique experience. Your meal is served on a big pizza pan with a sheet of fermented rice covering it. It was like having a large tortilla covering the pan but thinner and spongier.

We ordered a beef and a fish dish which came in bowls but were quickly dumped in a pile on the rice sheet. You got no silverware, the idea was to rip off a small sheet of rice paper and pinch a piece of your meal or just eat with your fingers. It was quite tasty and fun trying a new experience.

One more night at the Fairview Hotel and then it was a very early flight to Johannesburg. Before we left I did get some more good news, Carolina lost again, this time to Wake Forest and Duke is #1 in the ACC. I think I saw UNC was #4; I had to break out my Carolina blue crying towel.

We arrived at Paul’s house (our second home exchange) in the afternoon and it was like catching up with a long lost friend. Their guest home is beautiful, right on Longmere Lake. Paul broke out multiple bottles of wine. Paul, John, Louie (Paul’s next door neighbor) and myself stayed up most the night (until 3am) talking and laughing. Lou, Sue (Paul’s wife) and Lynne were the smart ones by cutting out early for bed. Actually Lynne went to bed early but then got back up and joined our group because we were so loud sleeping was difficult.

One of the highlights of the night came when Paul started explaining the inferiority complex he developed while taking showers as the only white guy on a South African soccer team as he was opening a bottle of champagne. Just as he was at the peak (or climax so to speak) of his story the cork of the champagne bottle shot up in the air and we heard it land of the roof of the house. The timing was perfect. Now we know, not only are we worthless jumpers but also severely underdeveloped.

Madison and Sue are awesome! Madison is just short of two years old and is cute as a button. We all were enamored as this darling little girl imposing her charm on us. Lou and Lynne are obviously ready for grandchildren. Sue missed out on the trip to the US but didn’t miss a beat with our group. What a lovely family! We are going to have a lot of fun in White River.

This morning we had breakfast with Paul’s family and it was off to Kruger.

2009-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be our last day in paradise. Lou and I have fallen in love with Vipingo, the people, the incredible view, the cool north breeze that blows all day, our walks on the beach, and the Tuskers beside the pool. We will truly miss the wonderful friends we have made here. Tonight I haven't been able to sleep at all, my has been racing with thoughts about the day, the places and the people (Lois and Ernie have been amazing.

Here I sit in the dark laying down my thoughts in the blog so I won’t lose them. I’m so glad that I learned to type on a keyboard in high school by feel and not by sight. Our typing class had those old clanky typewriters where you felt like you were pushing stones through the floor to get the key to strike the paper. Clank, clank, clank and a zip at the end of the line as you whipped the carriage return back to start a new line. Some of those early lessons come in handy throughout your life.

I sit up at night with a new kind of stress, a feeling that somehow I can fix the world’s problems. It’s a guy thing, when we see a problem we try to fix it unfortunately we screw it up more times then not.

When you see what we have seen, you know something is broken, so much poverty, so much pain inflicted on children, so many people dying of treatable illnesses. One of the major killers in this country is due to dehydration from diarrhea.

Today we took the first school pictures for the Future Hope Nursery School. Another one of my bright ideas; that we could take individual school pictures of each child in the nursery school, we would upload the pictures onto the internet and Carol could print them giving these children their first school picture, a permanent record of their childhood and for many the first time they have seen their own image.

Carol and Peter could also use the photos to put faces with the kid’s stories too help in fundraising for the Vipingo Village Project. By the way I was a little early in publicizing their website, they should have the website up in a week or so. Lou and I intend to put this on our list of worth charities, Carol and Peter are doing wonderful work.

We headed over to the school for our photo project. The kids were out doing there physical education (PE as we used to call it). Most of these children get no physical exercise at home, they have no toys, no balls no bats. Since there is no electricity the day ends when the sun goes down. Most parents do not engage or teach their children anything but survival.

After a short wait, here came the troops, 35 cute little faces walking down the street. The first order of business was to feed them breakfast, they get two meals a day at the school because for many it is the only food they will get all day.

The children were herded into a small mud hut, with two grass mats on the floor, “the school cafeteria”. The meal was being prepared in the backroom, a grey type of porage. Each child was given a cup of water that they downed and then their cup was filled with porage. Breakfast lasted a few short minutes and then it was back to the classroom.

Carol and I set up a makeshift photo studio beside the road as Lou brought the children two at a time. I don’t think the kids had any idea what we were doing. It was my Carol’s job to make them smile while I took their picture.

First we had to get them to sit in the chair which wasn’t easy for all. One little girl just started to cry when we sat her in the chair. As hard as we tried we couldn’t get her to stop crying. You can’t take a school picture of a crying kid, can you? Well we did, but we got another one later once she calmed down.

Carol would stand behind me saying, checker, checker (which means smile in Swahili). Most of these children did not or would not smile. I understand, they had nothing to smile about, a short life of pain and misery and a future full of more of the same. We settled on getting them to say banana which at least got them to open their mouths. Occasionally we would get a smile which was rewarding.

After our school adventure we had delicious lunch at Peter and Carol’s home and then back to our little paradise. When we got back I wanted to do the one thing that was still on my list while here, to go snorkeling off the beach. Wow!

I have strapped on scuba gear all over the world, paid big bucks to have a boat take me miles out to sea to see a fraction of the undersea beauty that is right off the coast of Vipingo. The water was only two to three feet deep but in a matter of minutes I had seen eels, parrot fish, butterfly angel fish, starfish, and sea urchins. I have only seen this kind of sea life in two other places, the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea. The Red Sea will not last long since families and children play right on the reef, slowly killing their golden egg.

I applaud the homeowners in Vipingo for creating their own marine sanctuary because without it the local population would do the same here. It never ceases to amaze me how the local authorities and population will squander their wildlife for a few shillings when tourists would pay big dollars to see the wonders in their backyard.

For years Africans hunted or allowed whites to kill their big game. Only in recent years have they figured out the game is worth more through the sight of a lens then the sight of a gun. Now if they could figure out the same is true in the sea, they would preserve another one of the natural wonders of the world.

We had another wonderful meal at Lois and Ernie’s. This time crab, lobster and shrimp wrapped in filo paper. I wish we could pack them both up and bring them back to America but I know they are very happy where they are. We will settle for a visit in the near future so all of our American friends can meet two absolutely wonderful people.

Driving in Kenya

2009-01-23T08:39:00.001-08:00

Driving in Kenya is a challenge that I have almost mastered. The first challenge is driving on the left side of the road, everything is backwards in the car, the steering wheel is on the right, the windshield wiper is where the turn signal should be and the turn signal is where the windshield wiper should be, the gear pattern is backwards, and it is really hard to judge where you are on the road. I keep turning on the windshield wipers when I want to make a turn. The other day I hopped into the car only to realize that I had just jumped into the passenger seat. How embarrassing; rather then getting out and walking around I just jumped across the seat.

The roads are narrow with a huge drop off on the shoulder of the road. The highway swarms with Africans walking, biking, pulling carts, and herding goats. The Matadas (taxis) are everywhere, starting and stopping, picking up and dropping off. Everybody is rushing somewhere with cars passing on these narrow highways, when an oncoming car cuts it too close you start flashing your lights as the car darts back into their lane. When a car is broken down on the road they walk off into the bush and cut down some limbs that they lay in the road like cones to make traffic go around. That is highway driving, driving in a city is even more fun. Many times when you come up to a stoplight it is not working so you just stick your car out into the intersection and play chicken.

Today we went to Malindi which is about 90 kilometers north of Vipingo. We saw a lot of things we really liked but most were too big to carry home. After walking around for a few hours and enjoying our afternoon Tusker we headed for a restaurant that Peter and Carol had recommended, that is right on the beach.

As we sat down I realized that I was short on cash but figured they would take a credit card. Wrong, the waiter informed us that they only took cash so I asked him where I could find an ATM. He said there was one just down the beach at the Driftwood Hotel. I asked if I should drive and he said, “No it’s just down the beach.” So I told Lou to order up a drink and I would be right back.

This guy must have been using some sort of African measurement because I walked over a mile before I hit the Driftwood. To top that off, they didn’t have an ATM, so I walked all the way back. By the time I got there Lou was understandably panicked and felt bad that I had gone so far for nothing.

We paid for her beer and headed back into town to get some cash. This time we just stopped at a local dive. We were apprehensive about the cleanliness but when we got our meal it was awesome. Lou got lobster and they gave her two whole lobsters. Warm water lobsters are much smaller then Maine lobsters but it was an awesome meal for about $12.

2009-01-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Obama Night

2009-01-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

For the inauguration but we got together with Lois, Ernie, Peter, Carol and Mary and fixed a large meal of steak, lobster and shrimp. We watched our new president take the oath of office in a strange land with new friends.

I think Obama has done some good things since being elected. When have not seen much of the news except that there was an airliner that crashed going from NY to Charlotte where no one was killed, (yeah) that Carolina lost to Boston College, (yeah) and the inauguration speech (words are cheap now show us the money!)

Here are things that I will expect to see that he said in his speech:

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.
We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

Now Obama be a leader and be a doer not just a talker.

It was really neat enjoying an evening in a Kenyan home, Lois, Lou and myself working to put the meal together, Ernie working the grill, it ended up being a lovely evening.

Police Problems

2009-01-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today we headed out with Pepe towards town. As I mentioned before Pepe has definitely lost most of his pep, the tiny little Toyota with a zillion miles on it has seen it's day. Once upon a time it was a white car, now it is gray from dust and dirt. The interior doesn’t look much better, a darker gray but pretty dirty and dusty. We just assumed all rental cars in Mombasa looked like Pepe.

As we headed down the road there was a police officer standing on the side of the road. He selected us out of a line of cars and flagged us down. As we stopped he stepped to the window and told me to get out of the car. I had heard about all the graft and corruption so I began to wonder if this was a shake down and how much it was going to cost.

The officer explained to me that the tread on my back left tire was too low and it was a violation of the law. Now I’m wondering how he could have possibly seen the tread on my back tire from the front of the car at about 40 miles per hour. This guy had really good eyes.

I took a look at the tire and I had to agree with him, you could see the cord coming through the tire but I told him that it was a rental car. He looked at me suspiciously and told me it didn’t matter, I was driving the car so any problems with the car were my problem and he would have to write me a citation. I asked if the rental agency would reimburse me for the cost of the citation, he said he thought they would but if I didn’t pay it I would go to jail. Oh boy a Mombasa jail cell that sounds like fun.

After looking at the tire I was concerned about two things, how to deal with Barney Fife and his citation and driving a car on Kenyan roads with a bad tire. So I pulled out the rental agreement and Barney started to believe my story. I asked if I should drive directly to the airport and exchange the car. He thought that was a good idea and after some more dancing, Mr. Fife decided to release the criminal American with no penalty.

He said this time he would let me go but to get the tire taken care of. So Lou and I drove to a little Italian restaurant and decided to have lunch while I called the rental car agency to see how they wanted to handle the bald tire. They told me they would send out a guy with another car. About 30 minutes into lunch, here comes Frankie with a new Toyota. Immediately it is obvious we have been upgraded, the new car is larger and much newer.

As Frankie was checking out Pepe to make sure we hadn’t added any new dents, he asked if we had filled the car up. I responded that we didn’t know we were turning the car in so we had not filled it up but the we had only used a little more then ¼ of a tank of gas.

He decided he would drive it over and fill it up and bring me a receipt but wanted the gas money up front. I felt this was a fair deal so I asked him how much I should give him (gas here is 78 KSH per liter which is about $4 per gallon) and he said if I gave him 2000 KSH he would bring change and the receipt.

About 10 minutes later Frankie comes back with a receipt but no change. He handed me the receipt and told me it took exactly 2000 KSH (about $26) to put a little over a quarter of a tank of gas in a car that is smaller then a Toyota Corolla, almost 26 liters. Wow, I wonder how Frankie knew the exact amount of gas Pepe would need to fill him up? I figured someone was going to get me today, instead of Barney it ended up being Frankie. I called back to Budget and let them know, we’ll see if it makes any difference. As we pulled out of the restaurant the car squeaked loudly (I think the fan belt is loose), at least now we have a lot nicer car, Squeaky.

Environment

2009-01-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

It’s funny how quickly you become a product of your environment. Last night Lou and I couldn’t sleep so we got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink. Someone called an ant convention to be held in our bathroom. The large ants were everywhere, all over the bathroom floor and the toilet. As Lou stepped out of the bathroom, she just casually mentioned the ants, no big deal. When I went in I couldn’t believe that Lou sat in the middle of an ant convention to pee. I got some bug spray and ended the meeting.

A couple of minutes later I was pouring some soda
when she said to me, “Martin, there is a giant roach out here do you think I should kill it?” Now normally a giant roach in our house would solicit a whole lot more excitement and concern.

I told her she should probably kill it. She said, “too late it’s already gone.”, So I asked where it went? She replied in again in a gentle relaxed tone, “Oh it headed down the hall towards our bedroom.” Lou has definitely become a product of this environment.

The openess of the homes here is great, the breeze blows through the house all the time but nature is up close a personal.

2009-01-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

Last night Lois and Ernie invited us over for a curry. Ernie makes one of the best curries I have ever had, he has baked us a couple loaves of bread too. We might have to pack Ernie up and bring him home with us, I wonder if he weighs too much to be checked baggage?

Lois was telling us that even though the Bush administration spent billions on African aid (much of which went into politicians pockets), they withdrew any funding for family planning because most family planning included abortion as well as pregnancy prevention and aids protection.

Ignorance is the lock and education is the key to most of the world’s problems, it is no different here. Ending family planning education ended teaching people how to be responsible adults. The result was an explosion of little mouths to feed, many HIV positive.

Peter and Carol have started a nursery school to prepare some of the poorest children in Vipingo for primary school. Today we had to opportunity to go to the school, The Future Hope Nursery School. Most of these kids are HIV positive and many orphaned by AIDS. The school was a one room school house with kids from ages 3 to 8, about 35 in the classroom. The teacher was Montessori trained and seemed to be excellent, she had a great command of the classroom and was teaching the kids numbers through a neat little song. The kids were so cute in their little blue uniforms singing their number song.

Here are a couple of their stories:

Age 7 years, Chonyi tribe, her family is Christian. She tested positive for HIV in 2005 after both parents tested positive, she is on ARV's (retroviral therapy). Her father died in April 2007, her mother is sick and on ARV and TB drugs and is unable to work. She has two other siblings, Pransicah is the youngest.

Age 4 years, Choni tribe, his family is Muslim. His father died of AIDS in 2007, his mother has tested positive for HIV but is in denial and therefore not yet started ARV. The children have not been tested due to the mother's denial of her condition. He has a 10 year old sister, an 8 year old brother and a younger sister, 1 1/2 years old. The mother looks after the family by selling palm wine, a wine (sap) that comes out of palm trees much like you tap a tree for maple syrup.

Age 6 years, tribe unknown, her family is Christian. She was found on the streets of Mtwapa. Silviana and her siblings were Chokoraos (street kids) for two years. The mother is HIV positive, a drug addict and a prostitute. The children are now living with their step-grandmother. The grandmother is not working and relies on her eldest son to provide but he doesn't want the kids in his house.

Get the picture of what these kids are dealing with here???

We can feed starving African children until the cows come home but the problem will only be solved through education. Peter and Carol are doing a wonderful job with the nursery school through their fund the Vipingo Village Fund (www.vipingovillagefund.org). They are similar to Dustin’s GreenHouse in that they fund all administrative costs personally, so 100% of all donations go to educating and feeding these kids.

Sunday Brunch

2009-01-19T06:13:00.001-08:00

Sunday Brunch

Today we had brunch with a couple of friends,
one thousand eight hundred, from beginning to end.
I’ll never forget, forever amazed,
not the Ritz not the Carlton, this time just maize.
They came from the village, near and afar,
all came by foot not one by car.
They stood there like soldiers, the mild and the meek,
waiting their turn for one square a week.
No words for the server just waiting their turn,
no words of praise, so much to learn.
The menu was rolls, beans and some rice,
if this was our entrée we would not be so nice.
We waste so much, there’s plenty around,
but these left nothing but an incredible sound.
Standing in line again they know,
a drink, a banana and flour to go.
Gone as fast as they came,
waiting till next week to march again.
The world just watches and continues to soar,
one thousand eight hundred there are millions more.
How can we sit by and let this go on,
for these friends are just children who have nothing at all.

Today Lou and I experienced a Sunday lunch that we will never forget, something that will be burned in our soul. The lunch was for 1800 malnourished and starving children. Each week the local Hindu community holds a lunch for the local native children, some walk ten miles or more for a meal, many carried their infant brother or sister on their back, all carried a blank distant stare.

As we drove up to the location it seemed like the line was endless, each waiting their turn, like a cattle round up. Each child washed their hands in a trough as they stepped up and were divided into fours; a pizza pie plate loaded with four rolls, rice and beans and off to their corner to eat their one square meal for the week. Some ate with family, some with friends, sometimes it was just luck of the draw who you had lunch with today.

There were plenty of volunteers to hand out the food so I worked to document photographically the incredible scene; a sea of children from a few months to 10 years all starving. When I started taking pictures, they were very shy and would cover their faces. I started to show them their image in the view finder, for many maybe the first time they had seem themselves. They would all crowd around and laugh at their first opportunity to see their portrait or that of their sibling. Suddenly nobody was shy, they all wanted to have their picture taken. Their smiles like a crack in a stone wall, or a splash of water on the Sahara desert.

It was so organized with the big group of volunteers they managed to feed all 1800 in an hour and a half. After the meal, they all sang several songs. The sound was deafening as 1800 children sang in unison under a small carport structure with a tin roof.

As “Sunday brunch” concluded, the kids lined up again to leave, they got a cup of Kool-Aid to finish as they walked towards the gate, ten yards to drink their juice and drop their cup in a bucket, stop for a banana, a small bag of maize and the long walk back home. Some got a used pair of shoes, no check for sizes or style, they were happy with what they were handed. WOW!

The People of Vipingo

2009-01-19T06:10:00.000-08:00

Most of the people we have met in Vipingo are expatriated Brits. You can buy a three acre, beach front paradise for under $500,000. Many of the people here are retired and living on a fixed income. This is primarily a vacation neighborhood, Ernie and Lois are one of the few permanent residents. Ernie worked in insurance for years, Lois for a courier service, much like FedEx, they met in the Mombasa Club.

We have really enjoyed both of them, they have been wonderfully gracious hosts; introducing us to their friends and showing us around. Lois seems to be the mother of the neighborhood, watching over other’s property when they are gone, keeping the workers and natives straight and keeping eye on things. Ernie is such a gentle soul, he will pop over to help with something or to deliver some coconuts. They really make a great couple, like peanut butter and jelly or bacon and eggs, different but they come together to make a perfect harmony.

Our housekeeper’s name is Fenny a slight Giriama woman, never speaking unless spoken to, her kerchief on her head moving like a symphony continuous and beautiful in her own way. She works around the house in a silent frenzy, cleaning things as you set them down, washes your clothes everyday returning them like a good dry cleaner, folded and stacked perfectly, (Brad would love her).

Peter and Maureen are Lois and Ernie’s next door neighbors. Peter is on a quest to create his own little utopia. His life is consumed with building and improving his garden, personal compound and the area. The house was beautiful, with a full pool and gardens all across the three acres that were meticulously cared for; sidewalks wind all through the property and gardens to different spots that he has given African names. He has his own little construction crew that are constantly building and improving his home. He has enough water tanks (millions of gallons) and generators (over 60 KVA) to run a small city. It truly was amazing but I really like the quaintness and naturalness of Lois and Ernie’s place.

Peter and Maureen were good friends with an early pioneer in Africa, Michaela Denis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaela_Denis) Michaela filmed one of the British safari shows called On Safari. She worked hard for animal conservation and tried to help the indigenous people. They told me she encouraged the use of condoms in the villages to reduce overpopulation. She would go into a village and demonstrate the use of a condom by rolling it on a pole in middle of the town square. She assumed the men got the message but came back only to find the rest of the condoms rolled onto the pole and the men wondering why it wasn’t working. Michaela died another amazing African woman leader at Peter and Maureen’s home at the age of 88.

Everybody here seems to be really involved in the community in one way or another. The neighborhood was able to declare the reef right off the beach a marine sanctuary and they all pitch in to have guards make sure that people don’t fish the reef. They work as a community to protect the sea turtle population. With the help of neighborhood donors and much of their own money, Peter and Maureen started a local medical clinic. The expats here seem to get along very well with the local native community, providing much needed jobs, helping with service projects, supporting local businesses. Contrary to what most of our friends thought, there is very little fear of crime or violence in the Vipingo community. It is a different story in Nairobi.

Mombasa

2009-01-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Today Lois took us into Mombasa. We toured the old fort carved out of coral, Fort Jesus, like most old fortresses you had lots of canons, lots of portholes and lookout towers. There were only four entrance/exits, the main entrance, an entrance for bringing in ammunition, an exit where they took slaves out to sea, and the escape route for the Portuguese as the Arabs took over the fort.

The guide was showing us an Arab carving that showed unity and explained that they were a peaceful people and I couldn’t help but think; how peaceful were they? They had just taken the fort by force and wanted to ship the native people back to their homeland to be slaves.

It made me realize the oppression of the black man started early in history and continues today, even in Africa. There is a form of caste system even here in the black man’s native country where the Indians and Moslems are the upper classes and the black man again falls to the bottom. It is truly amazing that America elected a black man as the most powerful man in the world. I didn’t vote for him but he is my president and I will hope and pray that we have finally elected a leader, God knows we need one.

Later we walked around Old Mombasa, there is a huge Muslim population here. It never ceases to fascinate me to walk around an old city center, stepping back a hundred years, the sweet smell maize cooking on charcoal fires, street vendors hawking their wares, fruits and vegetables laid out like a rainbow across the sidewalks, the mosque’s call to prayer blasting on loud speakers, women avoiding your glance in their hijab, haggling over prices like a game of chess, when you reach a stalemate you walk away; you win if the merchant stops you.

For lunch Lois took us to the Mombasa Club, one of the original British bastions from colonial times. As we sat on the veranda having lunch and a Tusker (Kenyan beer) overlooking the old port it seemed like time was frozen, it could have been 1909, the scene, the people, the smell, the sounds would have been the same. Africa is like a time machine, you can actually transport yourself back a 100 years.

We went to a birthday party tonight, one of Ernie and Lois friends turned 60. The party was at a newly refurbished hotel across from the beach and the Paradise Hotel. I had never heard of the Paradise by name but by reputation. The Paradise is the hotel that Al Queda bombed in 1999. Our media always blows things so out of proportion, the story I heard was a tourist hotel was blown up in Mombasa.

Actually this is a very small hotel a short drive from the home we are staying in Vipingo about 30 miles north of Mombasa. Lois and Ernie were on their porch when the bomb went off and heard the blast. This is not an easy hotel to get to; it is all by itself, way down a bumpy dirt road. The terrorists targeted it because it is owned by a Jewish family and a lot of Jewish people stay there.

They had just gotten in a bus load of Jewish tourists and the Paradise greeted their customers with a singing group of local natives. The welcome had finished and most of the guests had gone to their rooms as the cowards drove up in their bomb laden truck and into the lobby of the hotel.

Although their goal was to kill Jews, they killed 16; 15 young Giriama singers and one Jewish boy who was slow getting to his room. At the same time they were bombing the hotel they tried to shoot down an Israeli plane leaving the Mombasa airport; they missed. I hope they are proud of themselves, I’m sure Allah is.

Living in Africa

2009-01-16T02:09:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to find out what it is like to live in Africa. Our short two days has given us lots of. Our little cottage is so cute but life is different here. Water is elixer of life, gold, here, each day you see people carrying water, on their heads or loaded down with 10 to 20 large plastic cans on a bike.

It is no different in our simple abode, rainwater is caught off the roof and feed into an underground tank. Every couple of days you have to flip a switch which pumps water from the underground tank to a tank on the roof. Water is gravity fed into the house. The other night I flipped the switch by mistake. Lou and I were in bed about to go to sleep when we heard what sounded like a heavy rain. The tank had over flown and water was running down the roof, not a huge mistake since it runs back into the underground tank.

Lou doesn’t care for ants, when she sees them at our home in Greensboro we call the exterminator. Huge ants are everywhere here, running across the counter while you are making dinner, bugs are just part of life here, no reason to get uptight. Last night while I was cooking dinner, I opened the silverware drawer and a lizard jumped out, he almost jumped on me, ran across the floor and into another cabinet, it scared me to death.

You can’t leave food on the counters because monkeys will come in a take it. At night you paddle lock yourself into your house, there are bars on all the windows and guards patrolling the property. With 80% unemployment, crime is an ever present concern.

Ernie and Lois introduced us to a couple of their friends today, Pete and Carol, who have been working with the local school system. Public schools are free but you have to buy a uniform before you can go to school. Of course the poorer you are the less likely you are to be able to ever afford a uniform. If you don’t go to K-2 then you can’t enter primary school. Over 500 children in the local town of Kilifi can’t afford the uniform so they never enter school. 1500 children are in the local school that has 19 classrooms, no books and a headmaster who beats the children who get to school late.

Africans come from one of hundreds of tribes, the Luo and Kikuyus are the largest. Obama’s father was a Luo, you can tell a Luo because their last names begin with an “O”. Last year they had their elections, the Luo supposedly won the election but the Kikuyus "stole" the election, I guess they had some hanging chads.

Violence erupted in Nairobi and Kofi stepped in with his plan, a Kikuyu president and a Luo prime minister. The government of Kenya continues to promise more but instead is sending a huge delegation to the inauguration on the taxpayers dime. 70 cents of every dollar sent for aid goes towards administration.

Lois was explaining her frustration that her workers would come to her and ask for money for a funeral after a loved one had died of a treatable disease but would not come for the loan to treat the malady. Most of the natives still believe in witch doctors or the village wise man and if it is declared that a medicine or modern way is evil the people will not use it.

Most if not all men have multiple wives or girl friends, almost none practice safe sex. If a man’s brother dies, he is expected to take in his wife and family both financially and sexually. It is not unusual for a man to have six or more kids with no way of supporting even themselves. Over 65% of the population is HIV positive but the government only reports 5 to 8%.

When a family member dies of AIDS the family is too embarrassed to admit the real reason for the death. Pete and Carol told us that the South African government sent thousands of condoms to the area recently. Each condom was stapled to a piece of cardboard rendering all the condoms useless.

Last night I couldn't sleep, believe it not I couldn't get a poem out of my head, all the pain we saw in Peru, all the starvation we have seen here and all caused by men. So here is my first atempt at poetry.

Ten

Ten little fingers, ten little toes,
Ten million people with so many woes.
Our seed is our blessing our seed is our curse.
Ten wives ten children, doesn’t make a man,
Conquering everything just cause he can.
How can we perpetrate so much hurt,
Murder and mayhem is the name of our game.
Yet we still beat our big chests and act like jerks,
Why do you love us, why do you stand,
God help us all understand.
Are we all equal, is this all planned,
Why have we turned a blind eye to the ten you command
Why am I so ashamed to be a man.

Why?

2009-01-16T02:06:00.000-08:00

Lou and I are sitting out by our own private pool, on a beautiful day, the breeze is blowing, the tide is out and the ocean is gorgeous. We have everything we could possibly want in life, two wonderful girls, good friends, and the opportunity and the means to experience things most people just dream about. Why me?

Just a short mile from here there are people living in mud huts, starving, trying to make ends meet by working the land or cleaning houses for less then most Americans spend on a Starbuck’s coffee.

How much in life is predetermined by God’s plan and how much is determined by our own will? How much is luck and how much is hard work? I don’t have any of the answers, I know that we have been very blessed in our own life and certainly some was luck and some was hard work, much was a blessing from God.

Why do bad things happen to good people and at the same time good things happen to bad people? Why do some, children suffer and others enjoy all the bounty of life? It seems like taking risks improves your chances of success or failure. Those who allow life or others to lead them will succumb to their surroundings, however rich or poor. Isn’t it better to have tried and failed then just hope and dream with no chance of success?

I know the Lou and I have experienced both success and failure, luck and despair, but we have learned so much.

Vipingo

2009-01-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

We arrived into the Mombasa airport and into a different world. After about 30 minutes our host, Lois showed up. It took another 30 minutes to finally get our rental car, a beat up Toyota with over 100,000km. I would call it Pepe but it seems to have lost all it’s pep. As we followed Lois to he grocery store and our home for the next week, the poverty along the streets just slapped you in the face. Makeshift squatters booths make from wood, tin, sticks, selling anything you can imagine, food, clothing, junk. Since there are no social services like garbage pick up, telephone service, etc., garbage was strewn all along the streets with people everywhere. Kids, old people, goats, cows, bikes, driving and dodging obstacles everywhere. Oh and we are driving on the other side of the road. This is a challenge! Nobody follows standard traffic rules.

The grocery store was surprisingly normal. Lou and I stocked up on produce, meat, cheese, paper products, etc. Lois then lead the way to our now home, down a long dirt road almost an hour out of Mombasa. The cottage is really cool, right on the beach, very private, about a mile of white beautiful sand beach 20 yards from our door.

Our own private lounging bed, beside the beach that hangs freely from four poles, our own private swimming pool, a beautiful garden surrounds our cottage, a beautiful veranda overlooking the incredible Indian Ocean.

Cooking our first dinner was a challenge, a strange kitchen, strange ingredients, a strange land. I cooked spaghetti, imagine that? Lois came over to have us come over to their house for a drink, the main house is right next door. We accepted and invited them back over for an Italian dinner.

This morning Lou and I headed out on our own after a walk on the beach, our destination Kalifi, a small town up the coast. Again we were overwhelmed by the number of small makeshift kiosks along the streets, people everywhere, it’s like trying to make some organization out of a bee hive. Crazy.

We finally settled beside a pool at a little resort to have a couple of Tuskers and some lunch. This must be a French resort, a older woman around the pool without a top, she really should be wearing one, most of the guys in wini bikinis. It reminds me of a joke I heard once, “How are women like furniture?” When they get older their chest’s fall into their drawers…this was a piece of antique furniture.

No day is the same in Africa.nice evening, Ernie and Lois retired to their little estate about 10 years ago, a very solitary but peaceful and beautifully simple existence. They are a wonderful couple, Ernie retired from the insurance business in Nairobi and found his utopia. They have a staff of six people, two housekeepers, two landscapers, and two security guards. So we have someone doing our laundry and housecleaning for 500 KSH per day. That works out to about $6. I wonder how many Sedgefield women would give up housecleaning,

NDII

2009-01-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

We finished up our time at Ngorongono with an early morning game drive and a couple of massages. One of the last things we saw as we left the park was a cheetah standing on a rock, majastically posing right beside the road.

Today we came back to Nairobi, we hit the Kazuri factory and saw how they made their famous beads and we made a small purchase, (get ready Fanny). Then it was on to the David Sheldrick Elephant Sanctuary www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org. Before we left Greensboro we sponsored an orphaned elephant for a Christmas present for our goddaughter Sarah. We arrived to see NDII, Sarah's first adopted child, a five month old elephant (born on Ashlie's birthday).

The David Shelrick compound was founded by Daphane Sheldrick after her husband David, a wildlife ranger in Tsavo for many years, died. While we were touring the compound I noticed Daphane off in a distance and we asked if we could say hi.

What an amazing lady, she is in her 70's, wearing a long flowing flowered print dress, the kind your grandmother would wear, and no shoes. She was dealing with a mess that a baboon had made getting into the elephants milk storage. She told us how 30 years had made the center the only place in the world that had successfully nurtured nursing elephants back to heath and then reintroduced them into the wild. In the early days of the sanctuary, many of the orphaned babies died until they perfected the formula for a baby elephant. Cow's milk did not work and they finally ended up with something closer to coconut milk.

The rangers sleep with the babies, many who have been orphaned, found in sewer drains or when their mother had been killed. She learned early on the the rangers had to change elephants every night or the elephant bonds so closely with it's handler that they can not handle any separation. She learned her lesson when she was sleeping with an elephant, nursing it back to health and left to help her daughter with her wedding. While she was gone the baby elephant died of a broken heart. Rangers sleep with the elephants for almost three years. Then they work to reintroduce the baby into an elephant family in the wild. The process takes five years.

They normally don't allow you to go into the stall with the elephants but the ranger agreed to let Lou and I into meet NDII. OMG, what a beautiful loving little creature. It's tiny little trunk probed Lou as we were experiencing our first time close up with an elephant. NDII is certainly one of God's incredible creations. Sarah we got some great pictures of your beautiful baby.

There have been some amazing woman who have changed the landscape and conservation of the beautiful creatures that call Africa their home, Dian Fossey, Karen von Blixen and Daphane Sheldrick top the list, over 150 elephants saved by this kind lovely grandmother. Another incredible day in Africa.

Ngorongoro Crater

2009-01-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

This morning it was time to move on; our destination, Ngorongoro Crater. Flying in Africa is quite an experience, small planes, dirt runways, and flight service that consists of a pilot who leans out of the cockpit to tell you to buckle up, that there is a barf bag in the back of the seat and offers you some candy out of a bowl.

We arrived at the Kilimanjaro International airport in Tanzania mid-afternoon and changed planes to head towards Ngorongoro. As the plane took off we flew by Mt. Kilamanjaro. I know Ashlie and Mike plan on climbing that thing one day, good luck Big.

Ngorongoro Crater is the largest caldera in the world. A caldera is a volcano explodedthat has caved in on itself to make a huge crater. It covers an area of 8,288 km² (3,200 square miles) - about the size of Crete.

Our lodge is on the rim overlooking the crater at an altitude of 8000 feet. Our room is one of the most uniquely beautiful, we have ever stayed in, complete with chandeliers, fireplace, a beautiful tub in the middle of the bathroom, all with dark woods and silk curtains. Wow again!

We had another wonderful dinner to head out this morning to the bottom of the crater. We added a number of animals to our list serval cat and herds of wildebeest, along with huge herds of cape buffalo and zebra.

We were following a lioness that was on the prowl for a zebra. It looked like a sure thing, the lioness had it choice of juicy zebra, probably 50 of them passed within 20 yards of the lion. We kept waiting for her to pounce. What we didn't realize was that this lion was totally inept and let almost all the zebras had passed and then they saw the predator and the game was over. Oh well.

When we got back to our room, our favorite drinks were waiting for us along with a bath drawn in the huge tub with rose petals scattered around. Unbelieveable!

Masai

2009-01-11T07:28:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we decided to start the morning with a walking safari, so we set out with a guide, an armed guard, and a Masai tribesman. It was good to get some exercise and we learned about animal tracks and dung. Not too exciting but interesting and we saw some huge hippos.

Later in the afternoon we went to a Masai village. The chief showed us around and explained some about their customs and culture. A Masai village is surrounded by a bush fence. Inside the fence is where the homes are, one for each wife and kids. In the center is another bush fence to keep the cows from danger at night.

A Masai boy goes through three periods, childhood, warriorhood, and adulthood. When he is 18 he is allowed to drink alcohol, but only if he shows his father an act of respect first by giving him a cow. Women are never allowed to drink alcohol.

The Masai men engage in a dance that includes jumping in unison as high as they can jump. Young ladies are attracted to the men that can jump the highest. I would be out of luck since “white man can’t jump”. Later in the afternoon we had a Masai with us on our safari so I challenged him to a jumping contest. Lou said I did alright, she was being nice.

The Masai are polygamists, and believe that a man can and should have more then one wife. The first wife is usually chosen by the man’s parents in an arranged marriage. The dowry is negotiated between the two families and usually costs the man between 15 to 20 cows. He must have a house built and ready for his new family before each new bride he takes on. Each wife lives in a separate house with her chidren and the husband makes his rounds moving from house to house.

Houses are made from cow dung, straw and mud. The house consists of three rooms, one master bedroom/kitchen combo for the husband and wife, one bedroom for the kids and the last one for the goats and sheep. Yep the goats and sheep come in every night to sleep with the family to protect them from lions or other predators.

When it’s time for the marriage the woman gets dressed up in a fully beaded outfit with a goat skin that is dyed different colors. Masai clothing is very colorful with a lot of red, because red is the color of blood and blood plays a big part in their rituals and ceremonies, cow’s blood that is. They drink it, either plain or mixed with milk, ummm.

Instead of rings the couple exchanges necklaces, the man gets a couple of long strands of beads and the woman wears a beaded colorful collar type necklace. The bride carries two large delicate gourds full of fresh milk during the wedding ceremony.

After the ceremony they walk to the newly wed couple’s new home, being careful not to break the gourds full of milk. Once at the new abode the bride shares her milk with all the children, crosses the threshold and must lie down in her new bed, where the wedding party puts a baby next to her.

She must stay with the baby for a period of about 30 minutes. I guess they want to start practicing some form of birth control early, nothing like having to stay with a screaming baby for 30 minutes during your wedding day.

When the man wants to take on another wife, again he must cough up some more cows but his first wife gets to choose any new wife from that point on. I wonder what kind of wife Lou would choose for me; I bet she would be really hot.

The Masai have practiced male and female circumcision for generations, but the introduction of mandatory education for children and help from missionaries has started a shift to stop female circumcision.

Sophy, our guide and a Masai woman, said educated children are moving away from arranged marriages and polygamy. Sophy has been great; she is 22, and so mature and knowledgeable for her age. She gave Lou and I Masai names yesterday, her Masai name is Nasurian (which means “peace”), Lou’s new name is Nashipai (which means “happy”), my new name is Saruni (which means “the person people come to when they need help”). I think we will officially change our names to Saruni and Nashipai Green when we get back. Maybe not…

After visiting the Masai village we did a night drive. We drove around for a while with a spot light looking for animals, primarily a leopard. Leopards are hard to find and the one we had seen earlier was almost totally hidden in the tree. It looked like we were not going to have any luck when we came upon a bunch of hyenas ripping a Thomson’s gazelle apart.

Sophy told us that something else had killed the gazelle and the hyenas had taken over the kill, because hyenas are basically scavengers and would not be fast enough to catch a gazelle. The high pitched screams the hyenas made as the fought over the meat and crunched on bones was amazing.

Undeterred and assuming that a leopard had probably killed the gazelle, Sophy searched on. We were about to give up when the spotlight landed on an animal about 100 yards away, it was our leopard. Quietly she maneuvered the Land Cruiser over to where the leopard was and we searched the woods until we found it. Leopards are beautiful cats and are particularly skittish, this one was no exception. I didn’t get a real good picture but observing the leopard was quite a treat.

When we got back to the lodge we were planning on just sitting down in the dining area for dinner. Priscilla suggested we drop out things in our tent, so we headed that way. When we got to the tent we realized the staff had set up a table on our deck, complete with linen table cloth and napkins, wine chilling in a ice bucket, and kerosene lanterns all over creating an ambiance that was incredible. This five course meal was served on the deck of our tent, what a surprise!

This morning we headed out again, this time with a British couple, Andy and Mo. Again the morning seemed a little slow, so we headed towards the dead hippo we had found two days before. The lions were still there, fat and happy, five male lions sleeping off two days of gorging themselves. The female lions were nowhere to be found, probably off shopping.

They had all given up their kill to the scavengers, hyenas, jackals and buzzards. What had started as two tons of hippo was now nothing but a rib cage and a foot. The hyenas had dragged off a big piece for their breakfast; the jackals were fending off hundreds of vultures, everybody vying for their “piece of the pie”.

Eventually the buzzards overpowered three or four jackals by shear numbers. When we left there were so many buzzards on the carcass you couldn’t see anything of the hippo but vultures fighting each other to get their meal. Africa is truly a place for the survival of the fittest, just like the big greedy American corporations, kill or be killed. Two tons of hippo gone in three days, the life blood of hundreds of animals, lions, jackals, hyenas and vultures.

Later we came across a family of elephants coming down to the Mara River. As they crossed the babies played in the water, rolling together, at times all you could see of them were feet and trunks. Mama watched on, eating her grass.

As we watched the fun could see 7 different types of animals all living in harmony, elephants playing in the water, hippos and crocodiles beside them, giraffe on the other side of river, and three types of birds around the little zoo by the river. Wow!

Andy, our new British friend was telling us that when he went to the other camp last night to use the internet, he was with a Masai guide (you always walk with an armed guide at night in Africa, because you are food to many of the animals). As he was walking across the lawn of the camp the guide told him to stop, as the Masai took out his peace stick; a stick about 1 ½ feet long, with a ball on one end and a beautiful beaded handle. All Masai carry a peace stick to be used in village meetings; no one is allowed to talk in a meeting unless they hold the peace stick, what a novel idea. This Masai guide had another use for his peace stick as he threw it across the lawn and hit a cobra right in the head and killed it. Eat your heart out Carolina, I heard that Boston College made the same kind of shots to kick your butt too.

Later in the afternoon we headed out again. This time we came across an elephant that had gotten into a fight with another elephant and gored in the side by the combatant’s tusks. The tusk had pierced his heart and he was dead, another example of the weak or unlucky ending up as food for the scavengers. The vultures wasted no time in making three ton elephant their next meal. Hundreds of vultures were all over the corpse.

Each evening as the sun goes down Sophy stops the Land Cruiser, pulls out a table, table cloth, snacks and wine as we watch the sunset. We continued on with a night drive, not much out this night but after about an hour of seaching we drove through some bushes and we came into a clearing where the staff had setup a African bush barbeque, bush bar and bonfire for the whole camp. Masai dancers doing their ceremonial jumping. What a way to end another great night in the Masai Mara.

Out of Africa

2009-01-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

I believe experiences are worth ten times the money spent on “things”. Things go away, are used up, break or are consumed, experiences stay with you forever, the smell and sounds of the Medina in Fez Morocco, the sight of watching the sun break through the morning clouds on Machu Picchu, the damp smell of the inside of a pyramid or watching the sunrise on the Masai Mara. Wow!

The camp is right where the movie Out of Africa was filmed. This morning we awoke to the most beautiful sunrise and chorus of hyenas calling and birds chirping, as the Priscilla, our personal waitress, brought coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice. Breakfast at the lodge came out on a big platter, yogurt, granola and honey, pineapple, mango, breads, cheeses. I think we might stay forever.

At 7:30am we headed out on safari again. One of the first things we saw was a leopard up in a tree, he was just chillin. In a tree about 100 feet away a half eaten impala was draped over a limb of another tree. The leopard had made it’s kill, eaten half of it and left it there for a snack later, then climbed another tree to rest.

We headed out driving across the African savannah, after a little while we came up on the Mara River and it was full of hippos, huge hippos, snorting and thrashing in the water. There were also a couple of crocks enjoying the water.

A short drive later we came across one of the hippo’s buddies, this guy was not faring too well. A pride of lions had nailed this poor guy and by the time we came up on him he was half eaten with two male lions enjoying their meal.

Sophy said there was no way two loins could have killed this huge hippo and sure enough after a few minutes, here comes a lioness to join in the meal. Loins will kill an animal, eat their fill and then most of the pride will go off to rest while a couple of them keep guard on the food. The jackals and vultures were waiting around the hippos carcass until the lions had their fill. We found the rest of the pride a couple of hundred yards away sleeping off their dinner under a tree.

One of the lions was feeling a little amorous and decided he liked one of the girls, anytime she tried to get up and join the rest of the group he got really upset and let her know she was his, anytime he tried to make his move she let him know that she had a headache. We stayed for a while but it seemed like a stalemate.

The day finished with a massage, another incredible meal, a glass of Baileys, and hot water bottles in the bed.

Hamsters

2009-01-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

I think anyone who has had a pet hamster has watched it run endlessly on its wheel, wondering how it can spend so much time doing the same thing, running and running with no where to go and no purpose. People are very much like hamsters, when they get in their box, doing the same thing everyday because it is what they have always done, never questioning why, hating their situation but never taking action to change. I feel like a hamster. Doing the same thing over and over and feeling like I am going nowhere. Every once and a while I have to get off the wheel, and see the world, learn how others live, take time to smell the roses.

Our morning in Kagali started at 2am to make a 5am flight. After arriving in the international airport inn Nairobi and transferring to the domestic airport we finally arrived on a small bush plane on a gravel landing strip in the Masai Mara (Masai after the indigenous tribe and Mara after the Mara River). We knew that this was going to be a special place when our plane came in and there were giraffes along the runway.

From the landing strip to the lodge we saw, elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, Thompson’s gazelles, topi, wart hogs, jackals, impala, waterbacks, baboons, eland and crested cranes.

You know you have hit a home run when you make your wife cry when she sees the room because it is so beautiful, and it’s a tent! OMG what attention to detail, the tent overlooks the most beautiful savannah of the Masai Mara. A porch with two large upholstered chairs, an absolutely gorgeous bathroom made of stone and hardwood floors. A couple minutes after we arrived they served watermelon slices with shots of gin to dip it in.

Lunch was served on a tiered platter, the top tier had cheese and crackers, the second tier had salad and the bottom tier had the main course, chicken and lamb curry. The lodge is incredibly decorated, with beautiful furniture, games laying around for you to engage in, people attending to your every wish.

On our first game drive we added ostrich, a cheetah eating a wart hog (amazing!), hyena, black rhino, hippos, an eagle, and more of everything we had seen before then you could count. The drive ended with Sophy (our guide) setting up a table on the savannah as the sun went down, with wine and beer, cookies, nuts, and other goodies.

Dinner was even more magnificent, a five course meal. The chef comes out to announce the meal at the beginning and at the end to see if everything was to your liking. When we got back to our tent, hot tea and Baileys were waiting for us and hot water bottles in our bed. OMG!

Hotel Rwanda

2009-01-07T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hotel Rwanda

It was an early morning drive back to Kagali. When we got into town, Moses dropped us off at the Genocide Memorial. Many years ago the Tutsis ruled Rwanda. The Hutus were the second class citizens, as time progressed the Hutus took control and the Tutsis took a back seat. Then in 1994 someone shot down the plane that the Hutu president was in triggering one of the worst genocides in the history of man.

You would think after the holocaust the world would have learned a lesson. The world sat back and watched as Hitler killed almost 20 million people and later we wondered why the rest of the world waited so long to act. The US only entered WWII after Pearl Harbor, the holocaust was well underway.

Pol Pot did the same thing in Cambodia and the world watched then again we watched as neighbor turned on neighbor in Rwanda, raping and hacking people to death with machetes and we all turned a blind eye. Now the killing field is in Somalia. Will we ever learn?

After an emotional time at the Genocide Museum, Moses took us to the real Hotel Rwanda, the real name of the hotel is Hotel Des Mille Collines. We sat and had a drink on the same veranda that turned into a safe haven during the killing maylee of the Hutu uprising.

It's funny how people can kill each other with total abandon and 14 short years later the same people are getting along as if nothing ever happened.

Bwindi

2009-01-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

After 5 days, 26 hours of flying, 6 hours of driving across bumpy dirt roads, and 4 hours of hiking through the Impenetrable Forest we got to see one of the things that was on my bucket list, mountain gorillas.

When we arrived, at the Bwindi Lodge yesterday after driving all day we got our first chance to rest a little bit. Our room is very quaint, kind of gourmet camping out, we have a little bungalow complete with a chemical toilet and a shower bag that the staff fills with hot water at your request. All drinks, food, and massages are included. So of course the first thing we did was head for the massage table after getting a cocktail, of course. When we got to dinner there was a African musician playing and a group from multiple places (California, Paris, Florida) that we enjoyed the evening with.

This morning we got up and were ready at 8am for some gorilla trekking. We were headed for the “H” group. As we set off in the forest our group consisted of a bunch of Auzzies, including an 84 year old grandpa and a mother who was wearing a long skirt.

My first impression was, OMG how in the world did these guys think they were going to make a trek like this. We all picked up a porter to carry our bags and headed out. After about 2 hours of trekking I was pretty impressed that grandpa and Heidi (my nickname for the Auzzie in the dress) were still with us. We had to stop and wait for them quite often but you had to respect an 84 year old gizzer hiking through the impenetrable forest. After about 3 hours I was wondering if we were going to see any gorillas and whether we would be taking grandpa out alive or dead.

I was way ahead of the group when we caught up with the tracker. Our guide told me to stick with the tracker while he went back to find the rest of the group, which was fine with me because it meant it was getting close to gorilla time.

The only problem was keeping up with the tracker who was moving at like he had to catch a plane. This guy was trucking, at this point I am soaking wet with sweat, no water (the porter has our water), the only good thing is that I have my camera with me. This guy is running me through all kinds of impenetrable things and I’m wondering “When am I going to see a gorilla?” Right about that time the tracker has said nothing but I look down the hill and there sits a 400lb silverback gorilla.

Now for a little gorilla education. Each family of gorillas travel together for life, occasionally females will switch groups and when a male grows old enough he will leave the group because the king silverback is the king daddy of a harem of females that he, procreates with. This family consisted of one big silverback, one smaller silverback, a couple of younger blackback males and several females who had youngsters from a couple of years to a couple of months. I think there were 18 gorillas total.

You are not supposed to be closer then 20 feet and you are supposed to get one hour with the gorillas. Gorillas are 95% vegetarian and eat like 20 kilos of leaves and green stuff everyday, that’s over 40 lbs. The lead silverback is the head of the group and everybody follows his lead, when he moves, everybody moves, when he gets upset, everybody gets upset.

What a sight! There sits a huge gorilla about 20 feet from me and my tracker friend just munching on some leaves. Around him are mostly females with babies riding on their backs.
We were there about 15 minutes before the rest of the group caught up. The gorillas would relax and eat for a few minutes and then move a few hundred feet and sit and eat some more.

You can’t imagine the feeling of being 20 feet from animals like these who could rip you to shreds in a cold second if they chose but they sat there and basically ignored us. That is until, yours truly tested the space limitation and got too close and the big silverback decided that it was time to scare the human.

He made a couple of grunts then got up showed his big pearly whites and charged me. Now standard gorilla procedure states that when charged by a gorilla, do not run, you are supposed to get into a submissive position and hope and pray. This guy stopped about 5 feet from me, I can’t tell you for sure because when I saw him stand up and show me those teeth and start my way, I was very submissive, my ass was down on the ground hugging some dirt.

What an experience! What was even more amazing was that Old Tom (or OT as they called him) made it for over four hours of trekking through a dense, impenetrable forest at the ripe old age of 84, and then another two hours to get out of the forest, I just hope I can be half the man that OT is if I make it to 84.

As we started out I started wondering because the trackers, the guide, the porters and the military escort seemed to be totally lost and confused about which was out of this forest. We finally made it out but there was a lot of foreign jabber and pointing in different directions before we made it.

When we got back to the vehicles there was a school that had organized some traditional
African songs and dance for the visitors, which really meant we were going to get a little show and expected to pay a tip for this unexpected entertainment, but I didn’t mind because I love kids and I am a sucker for cute kids dancing and singing.

It really is interesting observing the African people. Every once in a while you will catch someone’s eyes and see their soul. The adults have the look of hardship, pain and disappointment while the kids still have a look of excitement, joy and wonder. I guess we all harden as we get older, and our journey in life determines whether the hardness is like stone or like jello. I hope I never lose that wonderlust and sense of adventure because it is what drives me to clear the bucket list early.

Losing Dustin taught me that we have no idea what God’s plan is for each of us, but that we had better live everyday to the fullest because it may be your last. Today was one of those days. I got to see one of the most majestic of God’s creatures up close and almost too personal.

Then it was back to the lodge, another great massage, drinks and a wonderful dinner. We were the only ones at the lodge so Lou and got to eat dinner by the fire with a little vino and an early night. We know tomorrow is going to be a long drive back.

Kigali

2009-01-05T05:24:00.000-08:00

After another long flight we arrived in the Entebbe airport in Uganda, now in the US as you know this is a very simple process, not so in Uganda. First we had to wait in a long line, where Henry, the airport guy, wrote down everybody’s name and passport number, then he had to escort the whole group up past another security guard, then he took all of our passports to get our boarding passes, while this whole group of people sat and waited that Henry did not abscond with all of our passports. The process of changing planes took two hours, things are a little different here in Africa.

Another short flight and we were at our first destination, Kigali, Rwanda. Getting thought customs and immigration was a breeze here, the only problem, nobody was there again to pick us up.

As Lou and I stepped out of the airport a guy stuck a knife against my back and stole all of our money. He was going to kidnap us but he said I was too ugly. Ha Ha, that was for all of you who thought this was a dangerous place..

Really, we found a cab and started towards the Hotel Serena. Driving through Kigali I felt like Casper the friendly ghost in a chocolate factory. We were the only white people that I saw until we got to the hotel were there was one other couple in the restaurant. Lou and I had a little wine and hit the sack.

This morning we started out for Uganda. Moses our guide met us in the lobby and off we went, passing the Hotel Rwanda as we went. Kigali has come a long way since 1994 when the Hutu’s killed over a million Tutsis. Moses was telling me that when the genocide started the Hutus would just throw the bodies into the river and they would float over to Uganda.

The Rwandan countryside is beautiful, lots of rice paddies, sugar cane and tea fields. Lots of people walking along the road carrying everything imaginable, sticks, beans, rice, etc, on their heads. Every so often the children would cry out “muzungu” which means “white passing” or "I just saw Casper the ghost".

As we hit the Rwanda/Ugandan border we walked across while Moses did the vehicle paper work. As we were waiting for him I pulled out my camera and started taking some pictures. All of the sudden one of the guards looked at me and yelled out “Hey you come here.” When I walked over to him he wanted to know who had given me permission to take pictures of the border crossing. I told him no one and he said I was in trouble and they were probably going to confiscate my camera and I need to follow him to his commander. So off we went, as he chastised me along the way, “Who do you think you are taking pictures?” “Where are you from?” “Do they allow you to just take pictures in the US without permission?” He lead me into a small office where his commander sat behind a small desk. He saluted the man and proceeded to tell him that I had been caught taking pictures without permission. The commander looked at him and they both broke out laughing. So I traveled 6000 miles to have someone finally pull a practical joke on the practical jokester. We all had a good laugh but I decided to put the camera away.

Johannesburg

2009-01-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

A day of 12 hours of flying, thank god for Business Class. We left at 11am and got into Johannesburg. A relatively uneventful flight, good food, a couple movies, and more Gorillas in the Mist. We arrived at Jo-burg and it was almost like a ghost town. Of course our driver who was supposed to meet us there was not there, so we called the hotel, the Shanguni Lodge so the owner Luiza came a driver to pick us up.

The hotel was nice enough, it was like a little compound with 7 foot walls around the hotel with electric wires on top of the fence, after all this is Johannesburg the carjack, rape, and murder capital of the world, or has Nairobi taken over that distinction? We didn’t see the reception area until the morning which was really nice, a pretty little courtyard with outside tables, nicely decorated and clean. The room reminded me of a Days Inn room, small, clean and it worked fine for us, after all we were only there about 12 hours.

Lou got scared during the night as she heard strange sounds and dogs barking. Of course that means Martin gets woken up to look for a phone in case we need to call someone for help. That was when we realized there was no phone in the room, the only thing I found was some used condom wrappers in one of the drawers. Of course I didn’t say anything to Lou about that I would have just caused more problems. I guess I can see how they missed them when cleaning the room, at least the last guest used protection.

We met Beauty, the housekeeper in the morning, after Lou woke her up by setting off the alarm by pulling on the front door. She was very pleasant and fixed us a very nice breakfast. We basically spent the rest of the morning relaxing, reading and catching up on our rest. Then back to the airport and on to Kagali Rwanda. The real adventure begins…

New Years Eve in Paris

2009-01-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

Well the first leg of our journey is done, the flight from Detroit to Paris was a good flight much better then previous flights because we were in Business Class. I’m used to long flights in cramped seats with either a screaming child or someone who is somewhat intolerable. I remember when Lou and I flew back from Australia in the cheap seats we were stuck beside a cowboy who couldn’t stop talking. He had met his girl friend online well before online dating was the norm. It was a sad story, he had fallen in love with an Australian girl who had gotten cancer and passed away and certainly we felt his pain but he would talk and talk and talk and at times would wake up Lou by asking her if she was asleep only to talk some more. Eighteen hours of this in a cramped space will make you want to pull your hair out.

Business Class is a foreigner to us on our travels but it is amazing what frequent flyer points can do, the food is significantly better, free alcohol, multiple movies, Gorillas in the Mist and the space and ability to totally recline your chair made the 8 hour flight almost enjoyable.

When we arrived Lou had one of the worst migraine headaches she has had in a very long time. I have learned after many years that my headaches are like child’s play compared to her migraines. I have also learned that the best thing to do is pump her full of some drugs and get her to sleep, unfortunately we had to deplane, go through customs, get our luggage (which almost took an hour to come out) and find our way to our hotel in downtown Paris.

I knew the train system was not going to work so I grabbed a cab and we headed towards the Villa Luxembourg, a very nice hotel in Montparnasse. This one gets a recommendation from me for a nice clean hotel in a good area central to a lot of the sights.

First order of business was to get Lou in bed to see if she could shake her migraine before our New Year’s Eve plans. While Lou was catching a nap, I took a stroll down the streets, doing people watching and checking out some shops. I love to going into foreign stores and seeing what and how things are displayed. Unlike the Americans, the French like to separate things, so you have one store for produce, another store for cheese, and another dedicated to wine. In one quick trip you can buy food, clothing, fishing gear, tires, a hamster, get your eyes examines, a family portrait, and take out a loan all at your local K-Mart Super Store.

I stopped by for a beer and a sandwich at a local pub and some more people watching then returned to see how Lou was doing. She was feeling a little better and we were planning to visit an old friend for dinner who helped us set up our DGH Globetrotter trips to Ecuador.

Heather and her family are really great people, she runs CNH Tours, specializing in trips to Ecuador and the Galapagos, I highly recommend her if you would like to go to one of the most amazing places on earth. Her husband Marc works for UNESCO preserving World Heritage sites. The conversation was awesome, Marc is incredibly interesting, he had just finished doing a report on the gorillas of Bwindi and a colleague was working on one for the Masai Mara. They have two young boys Justin and Emil who are really great kids.

We jumped in a cab and arrived at Heather’s house just about on time and 20 Euros lighter. Heather had made a fantastic meal, which included smoked salmon, caviar and oysters for appetizers, tournedos of beef, potatoes baked with bay leaves, great veggies followed by a salad course, then a cheese course, then a chocolate fondue finishing with a sorbet. Wow!

The two times we have visited Heather and her family have been really cool to get a slice of Paris home life. Thanks again Heather!

As the night progressed Lou began to feel much better but was not up for a wild night and neither Heather or Marc were game for heading downtown so we just enjoyed the meal and company of two good friends.

Although not a wild and crazy night somehow the simplicity, great food, conversation and watching Heather fret about her best friend’s 15 year old daughter who was having a New Year’s Eve party two floors up made the evening one that I will not forget soon.

It was off on leg two of our long flights early this morning. This time we tested the train to the airport and did very well until we got to the airport. Charles de Gaulle airport is very confusing to me and there was little to tell us which terminal, and then which gate (the gates are as far apart as our terminals), needless to say the 3 hours we gave ourselves to make it early quickly melted away until we were running to make our flight. What’s a good trip without inserting some unneeded stress.

Well it’s off to Johannesburg, frois gras, lamb, cheeses, sorbets, I really could be used to Business Class.

The beginning of another adventure, destination Africa!

2008-12-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Those who know me know that travel is key to my life, Lou and I have been in over 23 countries. I believe that seeing, experiencing, and meeting people from other cultures gives you the truth about our world, not the slanted lopsided view that the media would have you believe. The world is full of wonderful, beautiful, compassionate people. Even in some of the scarier places we have been, Israel, Egypt, Morrocco, Jordan, you find people who just want to live their lives in peace, to provide for their families and a better life for their children. Our family started Dustin's GreenHouse http://www.dustinsgreenhouse.org/ to teach students that there is a much bigger and better world then they ever imagined, that tanyone can make a difference and that to be born an American is one of the greatest gifts of all.

Each time we go to one of these amazing places there is always some fear and trepidation of the unknown, partly because of the perception that others bring to the table, "You're going where! Are you crazy?". The answer is yes, I am crazy enough to think that God put us on this earth to see his wonderful creations and that we can make a difference.

We are 4 days from our biggest adventure. Lou and I have traveled the world but this time is truly the farthest out I have ever been. Our first trip to Africa about 10 years ago put something in me that is drawing me to return, like a magnet, I loved the wild wild west atmosphere, I believe there is much that should and can be done to save the children who are starving and dealing with an AIDS ridden world.

Our itinerary starts with New Years Eve in Paris, the plane has a 24 hour layover so we are going to take advantage of it. We are going to have dinner with Heather, with CNH Tours who worked with us to set up two incredible trips to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands for Dustin's Greenhouse, http://www.dustinsgreenhouse.org/.

From there we fly to Johannesburg for one night and then into Kigali Rwanda. A couple of days in the beautiful Rwanda and Uganda mountains making friends with the local Hutu's and Tutsis, then off to the Masai Mara in Tanzania. From there we go to Mombasa to stay with a Kenyan couple where we will do some service work.

On Jan 23rd we head back to Jo-burg and on to Kruger National Park, a week in Kruger then we do another home stay with Paul Bruce-Brand in White River, South Africa and do some more service work with an organization called Helping Hands. On Feb 15th we head back to the grind.

So you can follow us on our adventure, Ashlie created A Father's Playground. I will try to post our adventures as we explore a new part of the world. I hope you enjoy and that it creates a wanderlust in you, a desire to see and share.

Getting Started, A Christmas Tradition

2008-12-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

My family has a Christmas tradition that involves hand-making one of our gifts. Over the years I have painted pictures, sewn yoga bags, made bulletin boards, and designed cooking aprons (to name a few). This year I drew my father's name and almost-immediately I knew I wanted to make him a journal.

This "electronic" journal is intended to become a chronicle for my father's adventurous journies through life. He and my mom are leaving for a 6-week stint in Africa at the end of the month; if you want to hear about life in Kenya, trekking with the Bwindi Gorillas, or South African Safaris, stay tuned!