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Early 2000…. Talk and attention turned to “Safari”… Dick and Shirley Hazel (a college fraternity brother of Rustys) live in Lagos, Nigeria. Rusty offered to come visit them about a year ago… shortly after their assignment there. The invitation was declined! – The reply indicated it’s not exactly a “vacation” location. At that time I think “safari” was mentioned for the first time. For the Isler-Wojecki connection it then became BOLD ink on the list for adventures. We have kidded that we have ended up stuck in the A’s…. It was Arizona when Andrew left for college, Australia, when he was an exchange student, Arkansas for a little trip for Stacey, Alaska for a BIG trip with Stacey, (Arizona thrown in a few more times for “graduation”) and now AFRICA… How far we’ve come…. Oops… gone!! The Hazel’s middle daughter Lori had graduation slated for December of 2000. Her “wish” to celebrate was on Safari…. So hence the REAL planning began. The African Adventure Company was selected and then the correspondence began to flow and the trip began to take on personality and detail. The group rounded out to a full eight required when Andrew joined in the plans… So, it was to be Dick and Shirley, Laurie and younger sister Linda, (oldest daughter is gainfully employed and would not be available), Rusty with college freshman daughter Sherry, and Jane with son Andrew – a graduate student at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. Everyone is now back home in his or her respective places reminiscing on this trip except for Andrew …. Who should at this moment be on the 3rd or 4th day of his Mount Kilimanjaro climb. Thinking of him daily keeps me in Africa rather than “out” of Africa. Now… back to my “dreams”… Friday is Malaria pill day. We all started them on the same day of the week one week prior to departing. We thought it would help us all remember the schedule that way. I returned to Shreveport on Friday morning with a good case of jet lag. After checking in at school I came home to take a “long winter’s nap.” Sometime later I remembered it was pill day…. So I took Larium for the first time at bedtime. Even taken in the middle of the day with a big meal my side effect has been DREAMS… It’s been quite fun and interesting thinking about my dreams and I certainly now wish I had written them all down. They continue a little less vividly each day of the week until the next dose when they become more vivid again. We will take the medicine for four weeks from return to ensure prevention of malaria. I feel like it’s a sequel and I look forward to the next episode each time. Many times on safari they were often continuations of our game drives- bouncing along with scenery whizzing by on the sides and beautiful animals anywhere I cast my eyes. So the trip begins: The Hazels left Nigeria on December 1 in order to be in the states handling details with daughters- especially moving Laurie from Baton Rouge and attending graduation. Andrew started out on December 6 – arriving in Nairobi prior to the rest of us so he could explore and visit a university friend from Kenya. Rusty’s adventure started December 16 – to drive to North Carolina to pack up Sherry’s belongings from Western Carolina University. They drove to Atlanta on December 18 – the day I flew out of Shreveport at 6:30 a.m. Rusty and Sherry and I met in the Atlanta airport about 3:30 p.m. after they had parked the car in the airport there. Our flight was for 11:00 p.m. heading for London… Jane Wojecki |