
Life Ain’t Fair, But Let’s Do What We Can to Make it Fair for Others: Africa Series, Part 9
Have you ever been to a lopsided basketball game when the refs were calling umpteen fouls on one team and none on the other? What do people yell at the refs? “Call it both ways, ref!” We want life to be fair, right? Did you know...

Traveling With My Heroes: Africa Series, Part 8
You know how dogs cock their heads first one way, then another, when they are confused? I’m told I have similar reactions to questions I don’t understand. Lately, people ask me when I’m going to retire and I first turn my head...

Finding New Things That Can Kill Me: Africa Series, Part 7
Christine: “Are we doing to do lots of hiking in Africa?” Me: “Um, nope. There are too many things that want to kill me that I can’t outrun; we are way down on the food chain.” In my childhood, the only three creatures I feared that wanted to do serious...

Traveling 3,000 Years in 30 Miles: Africa Series, Part 6
In a 30-minute drive in Africa, you can go a state-of-the-art shopping malls to a Maasi village that hasn’t changed much in 3,000 years. I often wonder who is better off; those who live with all the latest amenities or those who live with only the basics? ...

How My Childhood Nemesis Introduced Me to Int’l Missions: Africa Series, Part 4
Seriously, what kind of idiot literally pours a heaping tablespoon of salt into an open wound? Me. That idiot was me. I must confess I’m pretty stupid about who I trust sometimes. Take for example, Jeff Miller, my one-year-older-than-me nephew. If you’ve...

My Heart Headed to Africa (repost from 2013)
This post was originally posted on January 9, 2013. As I prepare for a return trip, I thought I'd repost this. January 2013: An adventure is something you sit at home in your recliner and wish you were having. However, when you’re having it, you wish you were...

(Repost from 2013) My Heart Aimed Towards Africa: Stories From a Reluctant World Traveler – Part 1
This post was originally posted on January 9, 2013. As I prepare for a return trip, I thought I'd repost this. January 2013: An adventure is something you sit at home in your recliner and wish you were having. However, when you’re having it, you wish you were sitting...

Why it Took Me 2 Years to Make This Simple Bowl
Why did it take me 2 years to turn this simple bowl on a lathe? Here's the back story so it all makes sense. My son, Isaac, turned me on to turning wood a few years ago when he brought a lathe to my shop and the tools I needed to turn a pen. I argued with him, told...

The One Lane Bridges of Kauai: A Photographic Journal
Kauai is not a good place to be if you like to hurry. Even if you are accustomed to a frenetic lifestyle, Kauai has a way of taking that out of you. And if you don't give it up willingly, it just kind of forces it out of you. One of the most effective ways is to slow...

Photographing Limahuli Garden: A Travel Journal of Kauai
What would you load in a canoe if you were crossing the ocean to a place no one had ever been before? Somewhere around 300 A.D., people in the Marquesas Islands far more brave and far less equipped than Christopher Columbus 1,100 years later strapped two hand-hew...