Well, as the police may come to get Indiana Jones at any time, I guess I'll write my last letter. Unfortunately, last night, as I was driving over to the Marines' house to see a movie, a mad motorcyclist happened to be in his lane at the wrong time. Nobody and nothing was obviously damaged, but the motorcycle wouldn't start. (It looked like it had a lot of miles on it already.) The owner said he would bring me a bill today, so I don't know if he will show up with a Sheriff's posse or what.

There is a glimmer of hope though. John told me that people usually try to avoid the police, so hopefully it was just a loose wire and the guy will be satisfied with the cash I had on me last night, that he requested to hire a pick-up to get him and the bike home.

Anyway, went on to the Marines' house to see the movie "Ricochet" with Denzel Washington. Lots of gratuitous sex and violence, as advertised. The condemned man's last wish.

It's Friday, and Monday is a holiday, but there is some writing that I should do. We are supposed to take off in the morning to go to Mikumi Game Park for overnight. It has been raining for the last few days, so the conditions aren't the best, but it will be nice to have some different surroundings for a change. And maybe from there, I can get a train to West Africa, and smuggle myself aboard a tramp freighter headed back toward the Western Hemisphere.

We have been to the park and returned home in one piece. As it turns out, the vehicle lent to Dr.M. was a small bus, which was to have been at the hospital at 5:30am. We got up and left our house at 4:45, but it never showed up. At 6:30, one of the doctors showed up and took us to the car rental company, where there was still no car or driver. After a while and some rain, the little bus appeared. We rounded everyone up and got underway. Immediately, the light fixture over Mary's head let loose a shower, so she changed seats. About two hours down the road, I noticed my leg was wet, and mud was coming up through a hole in the floor. So we patched that with some plastic bags, with my foot on top.

The road was really pretty good, compared to the roads we usually travel on. We got to the park in the afternoon and drove around some. We only got stuck in the mud once, although there were a lot of roads we couldn't go down, because we didn't have 4WD. Anyway, I took lots of pictures. We saw giraffes, zebras, impalas, wart hogs, baboons, and elephants. And a lion on Sunday morning. I hope the pictures turn out well. We couldn't find any hippos and the rhinos have been wiped out. The weather on the way home was pretty dry, and I had a different seat. Haven't seen hide nor hair of the cyclist.

I wrote you about the safari to Mikumi in the last letter. We came back Sunday, and Monday was just rain all day, and today we had to go to work on the new road, because there is a lake where the old road used to be. The new road is rapidly turning into the Grand Canyon, on account of the rain, but we've still managed to get up it. I better take a picture of it; it would be hard to imagine if I hadn't seen it.

Also, there is a girl coming to Fort Worth next January, who is living here right now. She was wondering if a used Mazda or Honda would be cheaper there or Illinois, so send me some prices on 1988 or more recent models, maybe want ads. She is wondering about places to live around Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, and I haven't been able to convince her that all the bad neighborhoods are miles away, so if you would send me a FW map, with maybe something about apartments and places in the south of town, she would be eternally grateful. I know it is a nuisance, but maybe you can do it without too much trouble. Even though she is a Baptist, she is pretty nice. If you don't watch out, I'll tell her where you live.

Back to the events of the day. The hospital was pretty quiet, as no one came yesterday because of the rain. On the way home, it was really wet in our neighberhood, and the house was dark = no electricity. I guess there was some earlier, because the maid washed my sheets. They are still on the line, dripping wet. Doesn't look like they will be dry by bedtime.

Charlie and Jack went up the road to the gas station and got us some chicken and rice for supper.They said the restaurant was flooded, but at least they were open! And the water tank is pretty full, so I'll get a (cold) shower in the morning.

Did I tell you about the baby chickens? Gordon's chickens had some chicks about a month ago, but they have been penned up until last week, because he said the crows would eat them if they ran loose. So when he let them out from under the house last week, the ones that weren't black were bright yellow-green, and for several days, we tried to figure out what they had eaten, or what had made them turn green? Then, Mary asked Gordon why they were green, and he said he painted them, because that would scare the crows off. They are still green. I am a little curious what he painted them with. It must be carcinogenic to work that well. Bye for now.