Pray for me

I'm starting to work again. It's been a long road of recovery and rest from years of being a reporter. It's time to start back up and get back on the road.

I'll be doing my first story assignment in a couple of weeks. I'll be traveling to Africa for two stories: 1. female circumcision and a fight to better the lives of girls; 2. a water project that brought water to 4,000 people.

Pray for me as I get back into the flow of work. Pray that my creative juices are still somewhere inside of me. Pray for our safety.

Check out this website!

Hey

Check out this new website for some great stories on Africa. www.africastories.org

A Big Thank You

Hey -- I just wanted to thank you for thinking about me while I was visiting in Kenya.

Most of you know that I've been in the States for about a year. After covering some pretty crazy things as a journalist, I just needed a break and a safe place to hang out. You can't get any safer than southwest Kansas -- ha-ha!

My trip to Kenya was good. It helped me remember how great Africa is, especially when there's no blood shed. The trip went so well because many of you were praying for me and I just wanted to say thanks!

I still don't know when I'll be heading back to Africa or if I'm heading to another destination. After so many years living in Africa and travelling the world, it's kind of crazy to think of doing something else, but who knows? I'm just hanging on to see what the next step is.

Petting Day

My time home in Kenya is coming to a close. I leave for the States on Friday. So today, I took some time for fun. I took a couple of friends to do some "touristy" things around Nairobi.

We started the day at the Giraffe Park -- one of my absolute favorite places. There's a platform built so you are eye level with the giraffes and there's buckets of food. The giraffe walk upto you and you feed them. The giraffe come from the neighboring game park.

The really adventurous, like me, put the pellets in their mouth and allow the giraffe to take it...so, it's a nice juicy, wet giraffe kiss. Oh so cool!!!

A family of warthog came to play below the treehouse like platform.

Then, we rushed over to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphange to watch the babies play. These elephants are all rescued from the wild. They are nursed back to health and taught how to live in the wild. After they turn three years, the elephants are released back into the wild.

There was a brand new baby elephant that was just a couple months old. He arrived last night. He fell in a well and they couldn't fid his family group. It was quite fun watching him playing with the other elephants and trying to "earn" his way into this family grouping of orphans.

After the baby elephants left, a two-month-old Black Rhino came out to play. He was so cute and so small. He didn't even come up to my knee.

Our day ended at the Animal Orphanage. We pet some four-month-old cheetahs.

Then, we pet a hyena (a first for me). It was a good animal kind of day.

At the Lake

Spent the night at a friend's house. They live on the lake. We sat on their back porch this morning watching the giraffe, impala and zebra graze while drinking tea. I fell asleep last night to the sounds of hippos mulling around and chatting with each other.

This morning on the drive back to the main road, we stopped to watch a herd of giraffe play. Teenaged boys will be teenagers, no matter what -- they spent the morning wrestling with each other. This consists of leaning on each other; shoving each other with their weight; and head butting each other.

More Safari Photos

Kenya Game Park

Went with a friend to a game park at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was the first time I've used my camera in about a year. Here are a few of the photos of animals. I'll post moe tomorrow. Uuuuugh! I'm a bit rusty and my cameras are sooo dirty (no place to have them cleaned in Nairobi).

New Nigerian Helmet Law

NIGERIAN BIKERS WEAR SHELLS TO AVOID LAW
Police in Nigeria have arrested scores of motorcycle taxi riders with dried fruit shells, paint pots or pieces of rubber tyre tied to their heads with string to avoid a new law requiring them to wear helmets. The regulations have caused chaos with motorcyclists complaining helmets are too expensive and some passengers refusing to wear them fearing they will catch skin disease or be put under a black magic spell. The law came into force on January 1. (Reuters)

Flat Stanley in Western Kansas

Flat Stanley came to visit my family in Satanta. We had fun hanging out, but he sure kept us hopping.

Like very resident of this small town, Flat Stanley became an honrary member of the Kiowa Tribe. The town was named after Chief Satanta. A Native American who loved the flat lands and plains.

Flat Stanley was blown away by the wind several times. His little paper legs churned in the 40 mph wind - it was hard to catch up with the olympic sprinter.

We checked out some other local sights. Flat Stanley skipped down the yellow brick road and visited the Land of Oz at Dorothy's House in Liberal. He met the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, Dorothy and even Toto. Flat Stanley was surprised that he was even shorter and smaller than the Munchkins of Oz.

Flat Stanley experienced a winter snow storm. Since Flat Stanley has a lot of energy, he insisted on going outside and playing in the white stuff. We built a "Stanley-sized" snowman before he went back in the envelope to return to a second grade classroom in Missouri.