I spent 15 of my first 17 years in Africa, with missionary parents. I always loved Africa, and still do. That is the background for the images I do of African subjects. I came to the US in 1965 after graduating from high school at a mission-run boarding school about 50 miles from Nairobi. Prior to that (up until 1960) we lived in the (then) Belgian Congo, in the foothills of the Ruwenzori range that runs between Congo and Uganda, but had to evacuate and move to Kenya when Congo gained independence and became politically unstable. I was in the 8th grade. My father was born in Kenya in 1910 at Rumuruti, among the Masai, where his parents were missionaries. He returned as a missionary in 1933, and he and my mother were married in Kenya in 1942. His father came to Kenya in 1903, and married my grandmother there in 1906.
A few shapshots from the family albums:
|
Mom and Dad (hamming it up) preparing to embark on their honeymoon. Kijabe, Kenya 1942. |
 |
Yours truly and guardian at Oicha, Congo, early in career. |
 Hunting trip on plains below Bogoro, Congo, 1956 with Ugandan Kob. |
 Waterbuck |
 |
 Two paintings Mom made at favorite camp sites from Congo, in the '50s. |
 |
With 65 lb Nile perch. (the big ones are around 200 lbs) We lived for several years on the shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Picture taken in 1964, I was 16. |
 |
Kilimanjaro, Gilman's Point, 1965 |
