It has been a week of farewells for us, one planned and one unplanned.

Our farewell gift from Kindle staff, a wooden giraffe with an inscription carved into the body
Our farewell gift from Kindle staff, a wooden giraffe with an inscription carved into the body

The planned farewell was with the Kindle Orphan Outreach management team yesterday, because of my official step-down from the position of director as of the end of February. Everything is now in the hands of Joseph Kandiyesa and the rest of the management team. But it wasn’t really the end of our working with Kindle. They know that they can still contact me as needed; I’m still working on building the new Kindle website for the next couple of weeks; it’s possible that I’ll be invited to join the board of directors; and Penny is still working on getting cervical cancer screening and prevention started at Kindle’s Katawa Community Clinic.

 

The unplanned farewell was to our beloved Border Collie, Shep. She was a comforter and confidante. She faced down black mambas and puff adders, which was very helpful, and she protected us from hedgehogs and crows, which was not as helpful. She would grab lit bottle rockets and send them flying at the house or into groups of people, singeing her whiskers off in the process. She chased packs of baboons off of the farm and went head-to-head with bulls. And in the end she succumbed to a tick bite. We miss her loving care, and our guards miss her vigilance. Goodbye, Shep, we love you!