Conversation with mother, Egor is 3-4 years.

Once, the student friends of Valery, Egor's dad, have presented him the African adventures book by d-r. Grzhimek with black-and-white photos. Little Egor did not lose this book from hands since his two. It was its first look in the world far away.
"When I become adult, I'll go to Africa."
"Poor boy, you never can go to Africa."
"Why???"
"Because nobody from our country can go to Africa."
"But why?"

News. April, 2003.

As of now my vacation pay has run out (so I'm officially out of the still twitching corpse of Eyematic; Malsburg can pride himself on pulling out while it was still alive, so he had nothing to do with the death of the company).
I've decided to use the money for an actual ultimate vacation, the only one that is worthy of the wasted years. At the end of April I'm moving out of my apartment (so that I save on rent) and go for a month-long AFRICAN SAFARI. I'm going to see Victoria Falls, descend the Ngorongoro crater and scale the heights of Kilimanjaro. This should be a good punch line to my worldwide adventures of the past few years.
What's next? Is there life after Eyematic? I really don't know, but I'll find something worthy of my time and experience. Or not. Why should I care about this today? I'm busy extending my passport and collecting all the visas for my upcoming African journey in May. And this is going to be the biggest thrill of my life, no matter what follows. If all goes well, the next news issue will come out in June, have more on Peru, tell you about the official end of Eyematic (the JAFCO deal is scheduled to complete by April 23rd), and possibly have some more clue about what I'll be doing after Eyematic and Africa.

News. May, 2004.

The Ngorongoro crater from a distance looks like a long mountain range that disappears into the clouds. In fact, it is an almost perfect circle 20 kilometers in diameter, with its own ecosystem inside. To get inside the crater we went up the jungle-covered mountain, and reached the clouds, when I noticed a monument we passed without stopping and asked Baba what it was.
"Grzimek monument. He was a German explorer..."
"Wow! Grzimek! Go back!"
Baba pulled back to the monument, and I took a picture while Baba explained to my uneducated companions who that was.
"Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael made the first aerial study of the area using an airplane they bought and learnt to fly for that purpose. Tragically, Michael's plane crashed when it collided with a vulture. He was buried here, on the rim."
"You heard of this guy?" Lisa asked me back in the car.
"He made me come to Africa."
"You probably read his book, 'Serengeti shall not die'." Baba said.
"No, my wish to come to Africa formed before I was able to read. I saw the pictures."
It is impossible to describe the beauty of the Ngorongoro Crater for there is nothing one can compare it with. This wonder of the world must be seen to be believed. This is what Grzimek said, anyway, and I agree.

The message. January, 2th, 2007.

I'm back. Happy 2007!
JP is running for mayor of Salt Lake city. I bought him a domain name (http://www.jphughesformayor.com) and helped hire people who will put up the conent. The elections are in November 2007. He announces his candidacy January 4th (the Statehood day, i.e. that's when Utah became a state in 1800s.) I won't be there in person, but I (along with many others) proofread the speech he is going to deliver and made content suggestions (my biggest one was to NOT mention that he is a RECTAL surgeon, although this would also eliminate a very funny joke from the speech). I don't know how many suggestions he will follow, but it is his election after all. He will not be taking any new patients this year and hopefully by December will be in politics full time.
No new kids were born at the Hughes this year, but two of the grandparents died and the other two didn't look good (they're 89). John and Jay Hughes are still not married. At the Vosses, the youngest daughter (Steph) who last year married a German guy had a boy who was named Noah (yes, the Biblical person with the Ark). He can't walk yet. The other daugther Julie who married a guy from Uganda had a daughter.
They still haven't had a wedding ceremony in Uganda because the guy wanted to run for president of Uganda and the current government doesn't like him anymore. However, apparently the family ties won in the end and his tribe somehow made his visit in the coming year possible. So we are planning to go to Uganda to have a wedding ceremony there in June 2007.
Julie's father declined the invitation (citing his old age, shortage of cash and fear of malaria) so she asked me to "give her away", i.e. perform the duties of the bride's father at the wedding. I don't know what those include in Africa, but of course I unconditionally accepted.
Apparently there will be a hunt before the wedding, to which I am also invited... This should be VERY interesting.
Egor

Uganda. April, 2007.

From the Memory of Julia. May, 2007. Salt Lake City, Utah.

My husband has an orphanage in Uganda, in the village where he is born that he takes care of. We told Egor that we were going this Spring and he said he wanted to come. We were going to have a special traditional African wedding celebration for David and me. Egor was going to go and represent the family and give me away to David, this is what Egor wanted to do. While there at there, at the wedding celebration, Egor said many wonderful things about me and also he talked about our friendship (Egor and me). I will never forget the feelings I had that day. I was so honored and thankful for him. I felt so excited to have him there. I was honored to call him my brother everywhere we went. Not just on this occasion, but all the time I have known him, I would refer to him as my brother to all my friends. We had so much fun with him! He made the trip such a blast with his help, comments and attitude. He fit in there so well! He even went and bought a book on Swahili before we left America and he was learning the language! He and David's brother Richard spent a lot of time together traveling around. In the village, we are building a clinic and it is ready to open now. We wanted to put a water tank in next to the clinic and when we went to town to purchase it, Egor surprised us by insisting on buying it for us! Egor was so generous and the people in David's village will always remember him for this generosity.

Julia has decided to adopt the girl whose mother has died during the childbirth delivery in the Ugandan hospital in April 2007. The papers registration took one and a half year. Now Liz has a younger little sister. The Voss family has accepted the babe with a great pleasure.