December 1985

Jambo,

Well, folks, if you just haven't gotten around to making that trip to visit us in Africa that you had intended, you blew it.   After 8 years on this continent, we have decided that it's time to leave and return to the mainland USA, a place which was becoming more of a vacation destination for us than a home.  So at the end of June, we will close up our house, sell what we don't need, ship the rest to storage, and purchase a Volkswagen camper to spend a year of touring all the places in the US that we have always wanted to see but never had the time to.  We figure we'd better get this idea out of our systems before we grow up and settle down.

The past year has been quite eventful.  We did a lot of camping to get a real feel of Africa, and in the process, we almost pitched a tent in the mouth of a lion, were nearly trampled by a herd of elephants while we were eating a picnic with friends on the banks of a river, and Sharon managed to pick up a case of malaria (what people will do to experience the REAL Africa!).  We also traveled to Tanzania for the first time, staying with friends in Dar es Salaam, the capital, and also spending a few days on the island of Zanzibar.  For many years closed for tourism by a paranoid leftist government, Zanzibar is now beginning to modernize and open up its doors to visitors.  The tourist infrastructure is still rather primitive though, or rather, run down -- our hotel, for example, suffered from terminal cases of paint putrefaction and carpet cancer which had left the walls peeling and the rugs as masses of decayed and badly stitched quasi-organic matter.  The smell was...well, let's say "different."  At any rate, we enjoyed our stay, learned a lot about the history of East Africa and the horrors of slavery, and came away with an appreciation of how lucky we were to live and work in Kenya instead of the Socialist United People's Republics of  Tanganyika and Zanzibar.  By the way, if one ever wants to see the difference between capitalism and socialism -- at least on the Third World level -- we highly recommend a trip to Tanzania and then to Kenya.  Vive la difference!!

Last summer, we returned to the US for schooling.  Ken took guidance and counseling courses at the University of South Carolina to help prepare him for his new job as counselor at ISK, and Sharon began a Specialist Degree program in library and information science at the same institution.  As always, we combined study with a lot of fun, and since classes only met 4 days per week, we had many 3 day weekends to explore the coast of South Carolina and the beauties of the mountains of North Carolina, which will someday be our home.  We finally went whitewater rafting, strolled through one of the few virgin forests left in Eastern America, and discovered winding country roads and hospitable inns for the night's lodging.  After 5 weeks in Columbia, SC, we rented a cottage in the Smokies with Ken's parents and lazed about in the woods, trying not to think about returning to work.

Upon our return to Kenya in August, we soon realized that it was time to go.  The work, although different, was becoming a burden.  In truth, we felt burned out, exhausted, spent.  Frustrations which formerly would roll off our backs became major crises without solutions.  So, one day, we just looked at each other and, as so often happens, we were both in agreement that we'd have to cash in our chips and move on at the end of this year.  Now, we're as excited as ever, reborn with the hope and mystery which unplanned destinations and un-thought-of adventures hold for us.  A year without work, a year to go wherever we please.  Ah, FREEDOM!  And then what?  Back to school.  It's about time Ken got his doctorate, and don't forget that specialist degree for Sharon.  We figure it will take about 2 further years for us to finish our degrees -- in fact, it's all set up, and we have even been guaranteed assistantships by the Dean at the College of Education, University of South Carolina.  After that, we'll just have to see what opportunities come our way.  We've never missed yet!

So, there it is, another year under our belts and we are both on the threshold of 40 years old...middle age.  Arghhh!  But it will still be a Merry Christmas -- which we hope we will be wishing to you all from a cottage on the slopes of  Mount Kenya this year -- and a Happy and Adventurous New Year for everyone.