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Dave and I and a couple dozen other orientees finally pulled off the dusty, potholed road and entered Fisherman’s Camp along the shores of Lake Naivasha. We were about to begin our three-month orientation course, Kenya Safari. “We lived in our tent under shade trees: eucalyptus—heavy-scented, with clouds of billowy dark leaves—and umbrella acacias, with horizontal layers of airy, delicate leaves and three-inch needle-sharp thorns. I’d seen acacias only in exotic African photos, and then at Lake Naivasha I found myself living in a tent under those trees.” (from Grandma’s Letters from Africa , Chapter 1) Wattles, whistling thorn trees, umbrella trees, thorn trees—they’re all acacia trees, just four of more than a thousand species of acacias. The yellow-fever acacia, also known as fever acacia, grows at Fisherman’s Camp. Its smooth bark is bright yellow or greenish-yellow, and it appears especially brilliant when sunshine filters through the trees’ leaves. This link  will show you pho...

“Our group of fifty trainees and staff drove out of Nairobi, the capital city, in a northerly direction, into the Great Rift Valley, and eventually arrived at Fisherman’s Camp on the shores of Lake Naivasha.” (from Chapter 1, Grandma’s Letters from Africa ) Are you ready to start this journey around Kenya with me?  I’m excited to show you scenery along the way.  Don’t forget your canteen—filled with filtered water, not tap water! Remember to bring your own roll of TP! Toss your sunglasses, hat, camera, hand sanitizer, and insect repellant into your backpack, too. Before we set out, first I must make two confessions. First confession: I goofed in my book. I wrote that for the first phase of our orientation course, we camped at Fish Eagle Camp. Not true. We camped at Fisherman’s Camp. A wooden sign posted at the entrance says both “Fisherman’s Camp” and “Fish Eagle Camp.” Apparently, they sit beside each other. I suspect that’s why I got confused. Second confession: My husband a...

Last week I told you about how, in the years leading up to the new assignment my husband and I took in East Africa, all Wycliffe trainees had to pass a more-than-strenuous survival course called Jungle Camp. (If you missed it, click on Angst over anticipating our three-month orientation course .) What I didn’t tell you last week was the part of Jungle Camp that paralyzed me with fear. Each participant had to be prepared at all times for any eventuality because at a time unknown to them, one by one they’d receive a tap on the shoulder and be led away into the wilderness where he or she would have to survive, alone, for 24 hours or more. At the moment of the shoulder tap, whatever a trainee had—in his pocket, in her water canteen, tools or supplies he had (knife, compass, rope, etc.), whatever clothes she had—would have to suffice. Can you imagine?!  You’d have no way to get help in an emergency. Even without emergencies, you’d have to build a fire, catch and butcher and cook your ow...

September 9 through December 2, Dave and I participated in Kenya Safari, Wycliffe’s field orientation course designed to teach skills for living in remote settings. We had worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators in South America fifteen years earlier but, because we’d made a short-term commitment then, only three years, we didn’t need to take an orientation course. This time, though, in Africa, we’d made a long-term commitment and had to take the course. In South America, did we hear stories! Friends and coworkers told us about their orientation, called Jungle Camp, in a remote locale in the Chiapas area of southern Mexico. Jungle Camp was more than an orientation course—it was a survival course. They told me that participants who didn’t do well in the three-month course were disqualified as members of Wycliffe. They told stories of building their own shelters in isolated jungle settings, of making their own mud stoves, and of learning how to butcher whatever jungle critters they coul...