The following was written by Mark's dad, Dale, prior to Mark heading back to the states and home to his family and friends. Mark has arrived safely home now and once again does what he does best; helps others. There had been a fire in the building where he used to work and he's joined in the fix-up to get the place open again. WELCOME HOME, MARK!

February 27, 2008

Mark has been busy, and at 10:45 AM this morning (8:45 PM) Nairobi) was preparing to board a bus to Mombasa. One final holiday before preparing to head home! As I write this. Mark and Marica should be back in Albuquerque in 172 hours. They traveled to Uganda and Rwanda the week before last. They left Rwanda, the day before President Bush arrived. They said that there were a lot of American flags in Kigali. They witnessed the motorcade for Secretary of State Condelesa Rice. The genocide museum was slobbering. In one churchyard, 5000 people were hacked to death in 3 hours! Almost one million people killed. There are around 200 memorials in Rwanda. If you look on a map, you will see it is not a very large country. They did not have time to visit Burundi. We've not heard much more about it, but I'm sure we will when he returns.

He apologized when we spoke to him yesterday for not having gotten an update to everyone. As for the lack of an update, apparently Marica's computer was infected with a Raila Odinga Trojan/virus after visiting a cyber-cafe. Mark, being handy with computers was trying to clear her computer of the virus, and somehow infected his. A Google search for Raila Odina virus will find several pages about what it does. It is a very large annoyance. He will try to work on it during some free time in Mombasa. He ought to enjoy the Indian Ocean instead. :-)

There are members of the family that are going to Mombasa for a wedding. So they are getting the room at the rate for the wedding guests. So what is the first thing he wants to do when back in Albuquerque? Visit the Frontier Restaurant. I've been on the Northwest flight that from Minneapolis many times, and it gets in around 11:00. The Frontier closes at 1:00 AM. It used to be open all night, but they changed that just recently. In reality, he has sounded home-sick of late, or maybe his mom and I are just reading that into what he says. Or maybe it's just the food and his friends. So, the Frontier is the first stop. Then, I imagine, a lot of sleep.

I talked to Ann a couple of weeks ago. She said that Mark has a Kikuyu name, as do Stephanie, and Marica (and maybe June too). It is quite an honor to be accepted into a family as they have been and given a name. We have not been told what it is.

He says he is returning in 2009, and he wants his mother and I to come and visit him. We'll see.

As I write this, I await a text message. He said he was going to text me when they arrive in Mombasa. Lucky dog!

(My Thanks to Dale for keeping us all informed. I'm sure they all appreciated your prayers, too.)