Incredible Story





In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University .


On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.


He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.


Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.


Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk gently around Peter legs, lifting him carfully then slammed his stupid ass against the railing, killing him instantly.


Probably wasn't the same elephant.

Ogola said the same, dramatic change is happening in several other African countries. "We are now allowed to use American money to treat tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS with large sums coming in. This year alone, we will have sums coming in to put 45,000 of the 200,000 Kenyans with AIDS who require anti retroviral drugs on treatment."

Ogola said the same, dramatic change is happening in several other African countries. "We are now allowed to use American money to treat tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS with large sums coming in. This year alone, we will have sums coming in to put 45,000 of the 200,000 Kenyans with AIDS who require anti retroviral drugs on treatment."

...

After mass and briefly greeting the sisters, we went to St. Monica's Hospital and visited the sick. Father Lewis prayed with people of every denomination - protestans, muslims, Assembly of God - and gave Communion to the Catholics. In one of the sick wards, I caught and crushed a lingering mosquito with a swift one-hand grab. When I opened my hand, it was covered in blood that the mosquito had apparently just drank.

If you are in a matatu and it wrecks, and you are covered in other peoples' blood, you stand a 50% chance of contracting HIV. In a hospital ward where the people are dying of AIDS, the risk is probably 90-100% if you are exposed to their blood. Chances are that the blood smeared on my hand was HIV-infected.

Only drink water that you know is safe. Don't drink tap water or brush your teeth with it, stick to bottled or canned drinks - well known brands are safe. Have bottled mineral waters opened in your presence, and regard all ice as unsafe. Alcohol does not sterilise a drink!

St. Martin de Porres, a man of mixed blood and culture, is a most appropriate patron of the Dominican house of Kisumu, Kenya. Actually situated in Swahili Village in an area called Mkendwa, the Dominicans live amidst Muslim descendants of the East Africans who built the railroad from Mombasa to Kampala, Uganda. It is not uncommon to be praying the Divine Office or to be celebrating Mass, while the local mosque is calling the local Muslim community to prayer and chanting verses from the Koran. The Swahili people mix with the largely Christian members of the Luo, Luhya, Turkana, and Kalinjin tribes in their daily activities. The scene is a generally peaceful one; but there are some underlying cultural and religious tensions grounded in history.

20040923 Thursday 16:23

Wazungu Warriors Reporting In
From the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria

Since our last email episode we have traveled from the magnificent shores of the Indian Ocean, where our Oscari (bodyguards) carried poison-tipped arrows, we treaded on ancient coral reefs, and explored Fort Jesus, learning about its 500 years of bloody history. The stones over which we passed have been marked with the blood of countless Christians and Muslims as they fought the same fight we fight today. [http://www.museums.or.ke/regftjes.html]

Fort Jesus controls the Indian Ocean, and looks out over Mombasa, which is the gateway to East Africa. Our Muslim guide took us through the streets of Mombasa, which is almost entirely Muslim. As we walked in the shadow of the mosque, he warned that we would do well to leave this hostile area before dark. Above every doorway was written a passage from the Qu'ran that said "Verily we have come, and clearly shown great victory." It was eye-opening, and luckily our mortar-dodging skills had been honed, and we kept safe.

From Mombasa we traveled back across Kenya to Nairobi, or Nairobbery as it is sometimes called. Our tour guides for the Safari that we were about to embark on, two more Kenyan scouts, were waiting for us in a large vehicle. We had brought adequate supplies of Tusker from Mombasa, and thus were entertained (and were entertaining) on our ride out that night.

Soon we were driving down the Eastern wall of the Rift Valley. The Italian road, constructed by Italian POW's that the British had put to work in their then-protectorate of Kenya during World War II winds its way to the valley floor. A Catholic church, which we stopped and visited, stands alongside the road, calling out to the pagan Maasai that live and work on the valley floor.

For the next several days we were riding through the vast plains of the Maasai Mara and the Serengeti, within Tanzania. We got as close as humanely possible to four male lions in the wild: about twelve feet. They only ate one of us. (Sorry, Mr. Mcglaughlin.)

We also saw several prides of lions, the females and cubs and young males. We observed cheetahs in the heat of...nevermind. We saw male and female cheetahs.

We also saw the game animals. We drove through the wildebeest migration, where there were an estimated 2.5 million wildebeest. We also saw Topi (big gazelle), huge buffalo, Thompson gazelles, thousands upon thousands of Zebras -- so many that we got bored with them, herds of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, ostriches, hyenas, warthogs, gnu's -- you name it, we saw it, except for rhinos (of which there are only twenty left in the Mara because of poaching), and leopards, which don't like to be seen.

After our safari adventures, we drove back to Nairobi. After one more night in our mansion on the hill, the Highpoint Hotel, we flew to our new home with the Dominican fathers in Swahili Village, above the city of Kisumu, just West of the Nandi hills, on the banks of that famous expanse of water, the world's second largest inland body of water, Lake Victoria: the source of the Nile.

God Bless,
Don & Hud