While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and...

I know it’s been many weeks since we were on safari … but we want to share this giant audio journey of our time with lions, elephants, hippos, vultures, hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, wildebeest, zebras, and the rest of Creation. It’s a quick-moving yet ponderous 15-minute epic...

Earlier this week, we said goodbye to dear, long-time friends Alex and Sherilynn and their three kids as we left Tanzania.  In our last few minutes together, we had a frantic 10 minute dance party, took some crazy PhotoBooth pics, and sniffled our way through hugs and goodbyes.  Good times,...

  A shot from this morning’s Super Bowl viewing party in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Wake up call was 2:15AM … and the boys haven’t yet gone to sleep …. We watched the game in a State Department home, thanks to American Forces Network … which meant no...

I previously posted about meeting Pastor John Komanya and some of the ministries his church community supports. (Unbroken, Unmoved.) Yesterday, we drove outside Dar es Salaam to worship with that church community — at the Cathedral of Joy. Much of the experience was unfamiliar …...

48266 is the number once used by local operators to dial my father’s home in Shelby, Ohio. Dad shared that detail with me recently while on safari. We were standing next to each other one afternoon as our safari jeep rumbled along, with our heads poking through its roof windows. We...

Some friends passed along this poem from Sir Francis Drake for our journey: Disturb us Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we dreamed too little, Because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things...

(NOTE: That’s not an inappropriate finger thing going on. It’s the FOURTH finger, the ring finger, celebrating Eugene and Elaine’s engagement. They’re the fourth and fifth folks from the right.) Earlier this week, I was listening to a long-term missionary who’s...

Two reasons why safaris aren’t just about seeing the Big Five — lions, leopards, rhinos, Cape buffalo, and the African elephant. We met a couple from Wisconsin during our safari. They’d come to celebrate fifty years of marriage, having been on safari in Botswana years before...

A wonderful, global moment this afternoon in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A water slide. A handful of boys — from England, the US, Bolivia, and Malawi. Mud. Bathing suits. A hose. A new friend — a parent — who happens to know a former NPR colleague from college and time spent in...

We read the Creation story before embarking on the first game drive of our recent safari. I’d forgotten some of the details: we don’t read about LAND until verse 9, CREATURES and MAN come much later. Creation begins with LIGHT and the SEPARATION between Heaven and earth …...

  We were so grateful to spend time with — and go on safari with — Papa and Janet. Joyous hearts for the hello — and tears for the goodbye. What an incredible experience to...

This is what I had been waiting for, all Safari…a chase scene!!!

We have just returned from safari … with TONS of stories to pass along. This is our first: four lionesses struck down, then slaughtered, a young wildebeest outside our two, canvas Serengeti tents … as we “slept” inside. There will be lots more to say about the...

“I wish you could record smells…” Our middlest son expressed this as we stood in front of this flowering bush last night in northern Tanzania. We had followed its fragrance down a path and across lawn. Its scent was strong, sweet and wonderful. J and I resisted diving...

(Soldiers parade through Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara.) Some recent facets of our journey have been a bit heavy, dark. During our recent swing through Istanbul, three Kurdish activists were found dead in France. We were a bit oblivious to the developments … until we...

We went swimming in the Indian Ocean during our first afternoon in Tanzania. There were lots of jolts to our comfort zones: warm water clogged with trash and weeds, dozens and dozens and dozens of black bodies swimming in the surf around us, no other whites, lots of underwear instead of Eddie...

Today was like Christmas!  We spent the late afternoon gathered in a living room in Dar Es Salaam, soaking up love sent from friends at home.  The five of us took turns reading notes from friends out loud, sharing photos and hand-drawn pictures, laughing, sighing, and yes, even a little...