Rib Day - 2 Year Anniversary Celebration!

Two years ago, on October 17th, this happened...

Long story short, I got knocked off my motorcycle by a drunk driver, and then a different vehicle, a large Toyota Landcruiser (SUV) promptly drove over me, right across my torso. I should have died right then and there, and many other times in the minutes and hours that followed. But for some reason, God chose to keep me around here on this earth a bit longer. Those were tough days on my family. Joy and the kids carried a HUGE burden in making many decisions related to my care, that could literally mean the difference between life and death. The family was split between the hospital, the home in Uganda, and eventually the U.S., after I was later flown back there for further care. Many of you chipped in to help us in so many different, practical, meaningful ways during that tough season, for which we will always be grateful!

In some ways it seems so long ago, and in other ways it seems like it just happened. But yesterday was the two-year anniversary of "The Squishing". In addition to our strong faith in Jesus and his sovereignty in our lives, our family also has a bit of an odd sense of humor, something that really helped us through some of those tough days. So it's not too surprising that we came up with a bit of a weird, new family tradition last year (on the 1-year anniversary of "The Squishing") to commemorate the event. Rib day! 

Along with many, many other broken bones and serious injuries, basically all of my ribs were broken, either in the front, or back, or both. Therefore, we thought, what better way to remember and commemorate the event, and God's miracles, than to enjoy some racks of ribs every year on the anniversary? And thus a new family tradition was born. Rib day! :-)

Right now, for a variety of reasons, our family is actually scattered all over the world again. Hudson and I are here alone in Uganda, so we had our own small rib party. (By the way, I noticed later, after I took the selfie, that I was actually wearing a shirt that my sister had given to me, which says "Unbroken Bones are Overrated". I didn't plan to wear it for this on purpose--but it's a comfy, old t-shirt that I often wear around the house--and pretty good coincidence to be wearing that specific shirt on Rib Day evening, don't you think?"

Joy and the younger kids are in Oregon, USA, right now, where Joy is getting some much-needed medical attention and also taking care of some adoption stuff for our daughter, Sanyu. So they got together with the grandparents and cousins there for a big rib party! Thanks guys!!! Wish we could have been there too, but so fun to see you all enjoying some ribs together. :-)

I noticed that in the nice picture they sent me,  below, that they had a green vegetable, green beans. That did make me feel a bit guilty. I need to start feeding me and Hudson some more healthy veggies. We did have coleslaw with our ribs, baked beans, and fries. Does coleslaw count?

Meanwhile, Britton was chowing down on ribs over on the East Coast of the USA. 

He happened to be hangin' with his really good friends, the Morris's, who are a blast, and so kind and generous, and apparently whipped up some really awesome ribs for the occasion. Thanks guys!!!

Hannah is at University right now, so she is stuck with whatever they fed her there. But next time we get together with her we'll have to try to make it up to her. :-)

Meanwhile, this past week was Hudson's 'fall break' (even though there is no autumn season here) from school, in Uganda. So he and I enjoyed a few excursions out of the city, to get some much-needed soak-up time in Nature. One thing we did was a birding cruise in a small boat through a swamp on the edge of Lake Victoria. It was so much fun. We saw a ton of different birds, including several of the elusive, and very strange looking Shoebills, which are currently listed as vulnerable, and declining, on the IUCN Red List. Maybe when I get a chance to look through my photos I can share some of them here on the blog.

We also did a few days of camping up in the remote Kidepo Valley National Park. The weather was insane--tons of rain and horrible roads--but that is a story for another day. Most of the park was cutoff from vehicle travel due to flooding and/or overgrown nature that has been claiming back the park in the many months that Uganda has been 'locked down' due to C-19, without any foreign tourists. It is just starting to reopen, so hopefully things will improve in that regard. However, we definitely had the campsite all to ourselves--well, at least as far as people go. It didn't look like anyone had camped there in a long, long time, and the animals seemed to be very comfortable just sort of meandering through our camp at any time of the day or night. All kinds of animals...

... including many buffalo and yes, even a pride of hunting lions. But that's a story for another day as well. All I'll say for now is that it definitely gets your blood pressure going when you're sitting in the dark by the campfire, just you and your son, (at least you think it's just the two of you) and then you hear a strange noise and looking around with the spotlight you realize that there are dozens of buffalo all around your camp--in between you and the vehicle, less than 15 feet away, staring at you. But that was only the start of an exciting evening. Shortly thereafter we heard the loudest lion growl/grunt, and the closest, that we have ever heard. And within seconds they started to appear inside our camp, including a huge, maned male who walked right in like he owned the place, and was really not happy with us, or afraid in any way. There's a lot more to the story, but that's for another day. I'll just show you a picture, below, of us just after we transitioned from our hammocks that we were planning to sleep in (and had slept in the night before) to our new sleeping quarters inside our vehicle. And yes, the lions continued to roam around and through our camp, making lots of noises throughout the rest of the night. :-)

We discussed the option of leaving early the next day, and abandoning our last day in the park, but decided to stay, despite (or maybe because of) all of the lovely wild creatures that were sharing our camp with us. However, we were a lot more cautious the rest of the time there. ;-)

Here's a parting shot of us standing on the 'lion rocks' late one afternoon. Just behind us, down in the grasses, you can see a bunch of black spots, which are buffalo. In the background, the blue mountain is in South Sudan. 

Some day maybe I'll show you some of the photos of the flooding, muddy, horrible roads, and some of the amazing animals we saw up close and personal during our little camping trip. Good memories!

Our Summer Plans up in the Air... And a Motorcycle Adventure from Late Last Year

I mentioned in a recent letter that we sent to many of you, that you should check this blog for the latest updates regarding our plans to be in the U.S. briefly this summer. Well, as you can imagine, those plans are totally muddled right now because of all the Covid-19 related travel restrictions, both here in Uganda, and around the world. What is clear is that our plans will not pan out as we had originally intended (we would have been leaving for the U.S. this weekend, but everything is still closed here.) So for the time being we are stuck here. When we know more, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some fun photos from a little motorcycle adventure I did with some friends a few months ago (seems like a lifetime ago) back in early December. Motorcycles are a great way to decompress in my opinion (so long as you don't get knocked off by a drunk driver and subsequently run-over by a Landcruiser, in which case you can become quite literally 'decompressed'.) You get to enjoy the open road (which can be tough to find in much of Uganda), feel the wind and sun on your face, and feel like you are a part of the world around you, rather than staring at it through the tinted glass of a car window. Plus, motorcycles are very cheap to operate here. Mine only sips about 1 liter of fuel for every 30-40 km. We had 4 guys on this trip... (above, from right to left) one each from Uganda, Scotland, the U.S., and Canada.

We took a 4-day weekend to ride to the far northeastern part of the country, which is one of my favorite parts of Uganda as far as scenery goes. The wide open vistas remind me of the American west and southwest. I love the huge skies and mountains and grasslands and acacias. And the animals... see the elephant in the background of the picture below?

Of course, when you have a group of dudes itching for adventure, riding smaller bikes designed for 'off-road', you sort of seek out the rougher, muddier trails, just for fun.

On our way back to Kampala we took two days to ride through Karamoja, in eastern Uganda. Below is a very typical scene in that part of the country--absolutely beautiful in my opinion. Please pray for the people of Karamoja. Not only are they dealing with all the hardships of the Covid-19 lock-down and loss of income (very difficult for people who live hand-to-mouth day to day) like so many others here in Uganda right now, but on top of that they have been dealing with extreme weather swings, from droughts to flash floods (depending on the area) and even massive locust swarms that are threatening their crops. It's a tough place to live!

Of course, one of the 'fun' things about a long motorcycle ride like this (we clocked 600km or more on unimproved roads and trails) is the inevitable breakdowns. This one, below, was just a simple flat tire (one of several on the trip), which ironically happened shortly after we reconnected with the modern, paved roads after two days of rough stuff.

This one, below, was a bit more serious. Despite having two aircraft engineers (well, three if you count me, but I don't really work on the 'fixing' of the planes anymore, so I don't really count) with us, and a lot of motorcycle repair experience among us, we were never able to get the bike going again. It just suddenly decided to quit running and that was that. We worked for hours, and had some local guys trying to help (who work on the local variety of street bikes) but all to no avail. Eventually, well after dark, we loaded the bike in a passing truck and our Ugandan friend went with his bike to the next town, where they were able to repair his bike a few days later.

This was the sunset we enjoyed as we worked on the bike. It was a classic Karamojang sunset. However, it was a bit of a mixed blessing, because as we watched the sun set, we knew that we were in for some really hard riding in the dark. The three of us who had to continue, still had a LOT of riding to do before we could stop for the night (we had to be back in Kampala by the following day so we could be at work the day after). Our stopping point was on the far side of one of the worst/notorious long sections of road in the country. And to make matters worse, a huge thunderstorm came through just after dark and absolutely soaked that entire area. We started riding again about 9 p.m. and didn't arrive at our destination until about 2 a.m., utterly exhausted and covered in mud from head to toe. (We had started riding the previous morning at about 8 a.m.--a very long day, but still fun!)

The next morning (or more specifically a few hours later that same morning) we woke up to this view, below, of Sipi falls, which you can see in the distance on the right side of the picture. We only had a few minutes to enjoy it before the early morning fog rolled in off of Mount Elgon, and totally enveloped us. From there we rode the rest of the way back to Kampala, and back into the choking dust and city traffic, refreshed (sort of... but at least with a good adventure fix under our belts) and ready to start a new week of flying and wrenching for MAF the next day.

Here's a final parting group shot, taken somewhere near Kotido, in the heart of Karamoja.

Still Here... Again.

Folks, I'm still alive! I don't just mean that figuratively, I mean it literally. It seem like I've made a lot of excuses on this blog over the past year, for the chunks of time where I seem to disappear for a while. Well, this time I really had a good excuse! 

Last October I had a bit of a 'mishap' while riding my motorcycle. That sort of put me out of commission for a while. But now things are back to normal. (There's a lot more to the story, but if you don't already know it, and want to hear more details, then write me an e-mail.) 

Here's our latest family photo, taken in April.

Since I've been gone from the blog for so long, and wasn't flying for a while, I thought I'd start by showing proof that I'm back in the saddle again. :-)

A huge thank you goes out first to my wife and kids, and our families back in the U.S., who've been such a huge support and encouragement throughout this 'stretching' season in our lives. And second, we'd like to thank my amazing DPT, Nicky, who gave SO many countless hours helping Joy and I to retrain my body to do what it is supposed to do, and in the process has become our great friend as well! And of course my brilliant surgeon, Dr. M. in the U.S. who did wonders to fix some seriously busted stuff. And all the other docs and nurses who helped in so many ways. And of course our MAF team here in Uganda and around the world, and so many others here in Kampala and elsewhere who encouraged and prayed and helped in practical ways. We are so grateful for all of you!

But make no mistake, I am here today ONLY because of God's grace. I should have died... several times. But for some reason, that only He knows, I'm still kicking. And not only that, I'm back to 100%. A lot of people deserve credit for helping me get here, but ultimately, all the glory and credit belong to my Creator and Healer!

It's been great to see so many friends, like Celestino in Yambio, South Sudan, after being absent for so long. He, and so many others like him, were praying for my family and me a lot over the past months.

And in case you're curious... yes, I'm riding my bike again. That was a given. I was already riding several months ago. And yes, Joy is fine with it. The truth is, Joy, understandably, did have quite a bit of emotional trauma to work through as a result of all of this. And I certainly wasn't going to push her to let me ride again soon. But she also knows me well, and she knows that I don't live my life in fear of what might happen, or what did happen. Life if far too short for that. Plus, I love riding... been riding motorcycles since way back in flight school twenty some years ago. And a little knock-down ain't gonna change that. There's more to it than that, but for now, you can just believe me when I say that Joy and my kids are all fully supportive, and I'm so glad to be back on the bike again. :-)

(Incidentally, I've gotten a lot of flack from a few people--even to the point where some have indicated that they feel betrayed, or even angry at me, for riding again after they have prayed so much for me to recover. It's like they take it as a personal offense that I would have the gumption to ride again--like I take all of this for granted. I don't. But there's more to it than that. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but if you're upset at me for riding again, it's not going to do anything to change my mind. I am sorry you feel that way, but I don't live my life, however short or long it might be here on earth, trying to make others happy with me. I am definitely concerned what my wife and kids think, but aside from that, I do what God gives me peace to do. And that's basically how I role. I hope you can understand.)

In other news, a big congratulations to our oldest, Britt, who graduated yesterday from HIS (Heritage International School) in Kampala, Uganda. We are so proud of him and can't wait to see what God has in store for him in his future!

Britt will be starting at Liberty University this fall, majoring in Zoo and Wildlife Biology.

Over the next few weeks I'll try to fill you in on some of the other things that have gone on over the past number of months.

Trekking With My Son -- The White Clouds Wilderness Adventure (Part 4)

Here's the final post from my trek with Hudson in the White Clouds Wilderness of Idaho. Below, a panorama from my iPhone, looking down on the Four Lakes Basin from the pass between there and Born Lakes.

I think I mentioned it before, but there was some smoke the first day, lingering on the edges of the mountains, coming in from a distant forest fire. We were concerned that it might wind up really obscuring our views. But in the end, it made for some dramatic skies the first evening, and after we crossed the first high pass, we left the smoke behind for the remainder of our time there, until the last evening when we made our way back out again.

Here's another shot from the first evening--the smoke lingering in from the West (left) while the blue skies persist to the East. This is the trail through Ants Basin, towards the Born Lakes. That mule deer we saw (that I showed you last post) was enjoying the green grass of this meadow, on the edge of those pines in the distance.

Here's a shot of the sun sinking through the smoke over Fourth of July Lake, on our last evening before leaving the White Clouds Wilderness.

The rest of the time we enjoyed views like this one below. This is a shot looking down from the 10,150' pass above Headwall Lake, Scoop Lake, and Hummock Lake, at the upper end of the Boulder Chain Lakes area.

Here's a shot looking down on Quiet Lake, as we were descending from the Four Lakes Basin.

This was the view form our tent, the first night when we camped at one of the Born Lakes.

And this is the following morning, another one of the Born Lakes reflecting the deep, brilliant blue of the sky.

Here's an iPhone panorama looking down on the Born Lakes region.

And here's a shot looking down on Emerald Lake, Rock Lake, and Glacier Lake, with the upper end of Cornice Lake just barely visible on the left. These lakes (of the Four Lake Basin) were absolutely unbelievable crystal clear.

This was the sunset we enjoyed on our last evening in the White Clouds Wilderness. We ate our dinner that night while sitting on a rock on the edge of this lake, watching the sky change colors as the temperature dropped. A deer came out of the woods and walked almost all the way up to us, before shying away only slightly. We watched her until it was almost completely dark, and then retired to our campfire.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed some of the photos and description of my trek with Hudson into the White Clouds Wilderness. It was an epic and wonderful adventure for us. We bonded and made memories that will last a lifetime.

Trekking With My Son -- The White Clouds Wilderness Adventure (Part 3)

As promised, in this post I'll share with you some of the natural beauty--flowers and animals--we saw along the way. We definitely went at the right time of year for wildflowers! Below, Hudson catches his breath as we scale a flower-covered pass with Castle Peak visible in the distance.

It seemed like everywhere we looked there were wild herbs and flowers of every kind. The fragrance was amazing!

Smoke from a distant wildfire lingers over a high meadow full of flowers, on our first evening in the White Clouds Wilderness. After crossing the mountains that you can see in the distance we left the smoke behind, and didn't see it again until we left the area five days later.

The colors were amazing!

I mentioned that I would also show you some of the animals we saw. We saw lots of small animals--squirrels, gophers, chipmunks, etc., and plenty of amazing birds. But I don't have any pictures of those because I was never able to get my camera out before they fled.

Probably the animal we saw the most of was fish--trout to be specific. Beautiful, back-country trout swam happily in many of the crystal clear lakes. We had a lot of fun fishing--catching and releasing many beautiful trout along the way. Here's a shot of Hudson, casting his spinner into the cold waters of a high alpine lake.

And another, wider, shot (can you spot Hudson on the far bank?) to give you perspective of our gorgeous surroundings here. The entire White Cloud Peaks Loop could be done comfortably in three or four days. However, we took five days to do the full loop, pushing hard on some days so that we could enjoy some side excursions and fishing on other days. Near the end of our time we took one full day to rest and enjoy some fishing and camping at the Chamberlain Lakes, below. They were absolutely incredible.

We both caught dozens of trout, but Hudson caught the biggest one, a beautiful cutthroat that put up a tremendous fight. At the beginning of our trip he really didn't know how to even cast a line. By the end, he was a pro, having cast and reeled hundreds of times into holes where you could see the trout pursuing the spinners and spoons all the way in until they struck. I haven't enjoyed good fishing like that since my childhood in Brazil, when my own father used to take me into some remote rivers in the Amazon, and we pulled out peacock bass one after another (along with the occasional piranha.)

Here's a few more shots of us fishing, surrounded by God's beautiful creation.

Can you spot Hudson in the photo below? He's standing on a rock, in the sun, on the far bank of the lake. Our camp was just inside the trees on the right hand side of the photo. Not a bad place to spend a night or two!

After I did the trek through the jungles of Borneo, with my oldest son, Britt, back in late 2012, I made a "Man vs. Wild" style home movie about our adventure. It's nothing fancy, but I took video shots all along the way, and then threw it together with some music and later we watched it as a family and had some great laughs and fun as we watched the the memories unfold. For Britt, it was great fun to re-watch the adventure he and I had from the comfort of the living room. For his mom it was a chance to freak out at all of the "horribly dangerous things you guys did that could have resulted in death..." (but all the while beaming with pride and love, on the inside, for the courage and accomplishment of her 'boys'.) And for Britt's younger siblings, it was a great opportunity to celebrate with (and be a tad jealous of) their older brother, while at the same time looking forward to their own future adventures with their dad. 

Well, in that movie , Hudson saw his older brother jumping into all of the rivers and waterfalls in the jungle, at every chance he got. To be fair, it was very hot and humid in the jungle, and we were constantly sweating and stinking there--so it was only natural to want to cool off in any and all leech-infested water we found along the way. But conditions here in the Rockies were not the same--we spent much of our time above 9,000 feet, and the temperatures were cool to cold. All of the water was freezing cold! However, Hudson, not wanting to be outdone by his older brother, was determined to jump into the lakes to prove that he was just as 'tough' as Britt.  Of course, that meant that I had not choice, but to also jump in, as I wasn't about to be the only one chickening out. 

So, one day we chose a very deep, very cold, very clear lake at almost 10,000 feet of elevation and stripped down to our birthday suits. Sorry if that's too much info, but that's part of the story. We wanted to have dry clothes when re-emerged, freezing cold with teeth chattering. Haha. Anyway, the funny thing is that, there we were, standing naked on a large rock in the middle of nowhere, building up our courage to jump into the icy water, when Hudson suddenly points to the other side of the lake and gasps. My first thought was that he saw people--we hadn't seen anyone in the past several days, but that would be just our luck to have someone walk out right about then. But it wasn't people that Hudson was pointing at. It was mountain goats. I don't know how he spotted them, as they were incredibly camouflaged against the white granite rocks. But there they were--about eight of them, not more than a hundred yards away. I think they were as startled as we were--but probably slightly more appalled at seeing us in that state, than we were of seeing them. Haha. I wished I'd had a longer lens with me, but this is the best I could do with what I had. Anyway, we enjoyed watching them for several minutes as they drank from the lake, before heading back up the rugged rock cliffs behind them. Can you see them in this shot? They are right in the middle, just below the cliffs, and just above that large, flat rock. Trust me, they are there... just incredibly well camouflaged.

We also saw a nice mule deer buck one evening. Again, I wished I'd had a longer lens, but still I think you can spot it right in the middle of the shot.

Aside from that, we saw many fresh tracks of Elk, more mule deer, and even wolves. We also heard some wolves howling, but we never saw them.

And one evening as the sun was setting, we had a deer visit our camp, staying just five or ten meters away for about a half hour as we quietly watched.

Check back soon for one final post where I'll share some parting shots of our trek into the White Clouds Wilderness of Idaho.