Day 5163: Mission Kenya 2026 & Lost elephant doesn't sleep alone.

"Impact": photos, junk papers collage.

  

Want music?

   Click: Chaka Khan, What Cha Gonna Do For Me?

2GN2S

 

And in Kenya ...

   

About 8 years ago at church, they had pictures of children available for adoption through Missions of Hope International, an organization founded in 2000 starting with 50 kindergarten students. Through partners sponsorship the ministry has now grown to 25,000 students in 35 centers. Bassel and Erin adopted three for their own three children. I wasn't going to, it requires a reasonable support payment monthly, but then I saw MaryAnn Akoth Otieno and I adopted her.

                             To be continued ...

An orphaned elephant at Kenya’s Sheldrick Wildlife Trust does not simply have a place to sleep — a human Keeper sleeps beside it.

At the Nairobi Nursery, a Keeper bunks with each infant, providing companionship, care and reassurance throughout the night. This close bond helps replace the family and herd the calf has suddenly lost.

In the wild, young elephants sleep protected within their herd. At the Nursery, rescued calves receive constant human companionship, along with specially prepared milk feeds every three hours. The Trust says the elephants know when feeding time arrives and may wake their Keepers when a feed is due. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

In November 2025, Muridjo, weighing about 700 kilograms, was reported using a remarkable method to wake her Keeper: she pushed upward against his raised bed. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

As the elephants grow, they progress from the Nursery to communal nighttime stockades and gradually become less dependent on milk and human care. Their journey back to the wild can take many years and, in some cases, more than a decade. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

For the youngest elephants, recovery can begin with something remarkably simple: the reassurance of not having to sleep alone.

  

 

A  1+ min. funny commercial, Kona Kitchen, Seattle, here.

 

Just because ...

Scaly breasted munia

Tuesday's Smiles ... 

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.

  

Day 5162: Digital Photo Collage & UPS driver saves dog.

:Katherine": old photo, junk papers, digital collage.

  

Want music?

Click: De Barge, I Like It.

Bassel, Erin, Tinna, Larry

The  Eastside Mission Safari Group safely landed in Nairobi near Midnight Monday, they are 10 hours ahead of us here. Just as I was going to bed I got a text from Erin (WW) ...

                                                Stay tuned ...

2GN2S

Since I have a fairly large collection of old photos from family and some lonely ones I adopted from flea markets, I am no longer allowed to get more. This will show a step-by-step process on one of my favorite adoptee photos that I named Katherine.

I love this original old photo, as is. But the lovely thing about the computer, I can add and play with it without damaging the original. So I can play. I started by adding three dissimilar layers.

then ...

                 and finally ...                   

               after many auditions at each level, I decided on this ...

"Katherine": old photo, junk papers, digital collage.

   Katie Newhouser is a UPS driver in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and whenever she pulled up to the apartment where Leo the Pit bull lived, he would always start barking and say hello as she pulled into the condo complex and then jump into her truck when she stopped.

But then she heard some sad news. Leo's human had passed away.

Katie had just returned from vacation when she learned the news. She decided to approach the woman's son, who is a Marine (and couldn’t give Leo a home), and offered to foster Leo. He agreed and when she brought him home to meet her other dogs, they hit it off so well that she decided to make the arrangement permanent.

It was a bit confusing for Leo at first, but he adjusted quickly. He has become especially close with his brother Moose, and the two are now inseparable. Although his sister Bailey took a bit longer to warm up to him, they’ve since started playing together, and Katie says that once Leo joined the household, the entire atmosphere of the home changed.

She says that when she first brought Leo home he would whine and be a little bit sad, but he has gradually become one of the family and is happy with them.

Sometimes, the bonds we form in the smallest, everyday moments turn into something life-changing, like giving a dog who lost everything a second chance at love, and a home where he truly belongs.  

  

 

A 1+ minute video, Wildebeest, here.

 

 

Just because ...

Orange-breasted Bushshrike

Monday's Smiles ... 

 

Hoping you see all the good things in your day.