Giraffe Story from Lori

"I was working in the clinic and this cutie pie was crying after having her blood drawn. She smiled so big when I offerred her "KC", the giraffe that Kass (my daughter) had supported."
Lori

Giraffe Story from Nancy

"I met this little girl at a Masai village we visited. She was with her grandma I would assume and she was just watching me and just had a look of an open sponge, just needing information and love to absorb. She obviously had no toys or anything special, so I felt the need to give her my giraffe for her to keep and take care of.

She just held onto it as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, I am sure she had never seen a stuffed animal before. Anyway I told her to keep track of "Mac" and that God was with her and watching over her. Not sure she understood but I did."
Nancy

A Beautiful Serengeti Sunday Morning

Arising before the sunrise on our Sunday morning in the Serengeti, I set up one of my cameras to capture the morning light coming through the gnarly branches of the Acacia trees outside my room.

Then I took my other camera to the lookout above the Serengeti - Tom ended up being a wonderful addition to the photos of the sunrise from the rocks.

Back at the room as I started to put away the photo gear a hot air balloon floated into view.

I grabbed my camera and quickly ran back to the rocky perch (and the multitude of rock hyrax) to capture the balloon as it started it's airborn safari across the Tanzanian terrain.

It turns out it was a pair of balloons on safari together.

The Serengeti Wildlife Lodge at Seronera is beautiful as it is built around large rock formations. The shadow from a "candelabra tree" is cast on the large rock at the center of the lodge.

With all the rocks, there were Rock Hyrax everywhere around the lodge. (For more information about the Rock Hyrax see the previous post.)

Our devotions for that beautiful morning took place in an open area of the lodge.

We all gathered around as Doug and Elsie led the group.



As we concluded, we gathered and prayed - a beautiful Serengeti Sunday Morning and a wonderful start to our day and the week of traveling ahead.

Rock Hyrax

The Rock Hyrax is so unlike other animals that it is placed in a separate order (Hyracoidea) by itself. It is said to be the elephant's nearest living relative. This is true to a certain extent, but misleading since the relationship stems from a remote ancestor common to hyraxes, sea cows (dugongs and manatees) and elephants. These three are unlike other mammals, but they share various if disproportionate physiological similarities in teeth, leg and foot bones, testes, and other more obscure details.

The rock hyrax has three resting patterns consisting of heaping, huddling, and solitary resting. Heaping occurs when hyraxes sleep on top of one another in their hole. Huddling is like heaping but takes place out of the hole. These behaviors probably serve to help regulate body temperature as hyraxes' body temperature fluctuates with ambient temperature.

I Missed this Photo OP!

This shot was in a group of pictures that Jim recently downloaded to his Shutterfly album - Hey Jim, did a specter get in your camera?

Safari Pix from Elsie

Jim and Erika, Efriam, Jan, Elsie and Douglas.

Efriam, our driver is a wonderful young man with an eagle's eye for spotting many elusive animals as we bumped along on unbelievable roads while on safari! We lost count, but feel we saw everything except the elusive rhinoceros - perhaps on our next trip!

Jan was especially delighted to see the flamingos since she missed seeing them when she and Kari were at Arusha National Park several weeks ago.

The beautiful black feathers are a striking feature that is only visible when the Lesser Flamingo is in flight or spreading its wings.

One animal or bird in the wild is exciting, but seeing flocks and herds is even more than one can take.

Surely God has given us all an amazing gift of these wondrous creatures - how sad that so many of them are disappearing from the earth!!!

Giraffe Stories

Bette is shown here giving her giraffe, Tootsie, to a little girl who had been brought to the clinic by her father. The girl had a severe burn on her scalp as result of an IV treatment (she is mentioned in Dr. Powell's post below).

The little girl seems delighted to have the giraffe, a small token of love, care and prayer for this little patient who is very ill.

We each brought a plush giraffe with us to Tanzania to give to someone we would meet during the trip. These are the prayer giraffes that we had friends and family sponsor and pray for. Some of the giraffes have wonderful stories like Tootsie's, and we have been able to share here on the blog. Others have been showing up in pictures in the arms of their recipients - the one above is being held by a little girl along side of the dance venue at the Sukuma Museum.

This giraffe is comforting a small child back at the clinic during an exam.

Do you have a giraffe story to share? We would love to hear it and see how giving a plush giraffe can not only brighten the recipient's life but also connect people from the US to Tanzania through prayer.