Why Africa?

Good question; not easily answered as there are multiple reasons that added up to go.


One is our desire to expose the kids to seeing how people live in other parts of the world.

Another is that Willa, ever since learning to talk, has, for some reason, asked to see Africa.

The timing was as good as it would probably ever be. Willa is still home schooling. Tias is motivated to go as evidenced by no complaints about having to do 5 weeks of his junior year school work ahead of time, not to mention taking 6 finals and 3 other tests during his last five school days to make up everything going on while he is gone. The unfortunate part of the timing is that Jessica could not go because of job interviews, one of which happens this same day I find myself writing these words.

Originally when thinking about travelling Africa, I thought to show my family the highlights of my bicycle travels back in '86. However, I've learned the truth of the saying that one can not 'go back.' Our dear friends, the Varnes-Epstein's are over in a small town in Sierra Leone right now, Lisa delivering babies, Michael working on a variety of projects while Kai, Haven and Ahmae helping where the can. They urged us to come share in their adventures. We jumped for this special opportunity to spend part of our time sharing an African adventure with the V-E's! This opportunity settled us as to the country of destination. We anticipate spending some time helping at the place where they are, and part of the time sightseeing around the country.


Linda took on the task of getting the family ready to go. She organized us for yellow fever shots, malaria and typhoid anti-dotes, obtained the visas necessary, found the airplane tickets, etc. Linda and Willa have studied the language (Krio) a bit, having some laughs over the phrases, sounds and in one case, a phrase we don't allow them to use here at home. Krio seems to be a mix of English and other languages.

Unless our internet experience changes, I'll likely be posting written material of this blog and add pictures later. Internet access is limited, and the speed is even more limited, making the handling of pictures difficult. If pictures do not happen during our actual travel time, I will add pictures after we get home.

We saw an opportunity to lay over a few days in Europe on the way over to give the kids an opportunity to have a taste of the Netherlands while getting to see our good friends Fred & Gerda Langendorff who visited us in Germantown back in 2002 during the big 100 year anniversary Nash meet. Also wanted to organize a visit with my friends Joost and Mary Kingma whom I have not seen since their wedding in 1989.









So that's the genesis of this adventure!