Many of the children at the hospital have their mothers stay in the room with them. And African culture is much different than American culture in many ways, but perhaps in no way more different than breast-feeding.

My experience with many African women is that they think nothing of having a conversation with you, and in the midst of that conversation, drop their blouse and began feeding their child. And that is fine; I am grateful for the differences in cultures.

But I am not comfortable being in full view of a breast besides my bride’s, so it causes me to do two things:

• I can whip my head upwards so fast that I fear I will need to be treated for whiplash.
• When I approach an aisle and I notice that something new has emerged, I can change direction so rapidly that, especially if many women are feeding their children, I become something akin to a human pinball.

I call it Feeding Dodging, and I don’t mind saying I’m getting pretty darn good at it.

Last year on our 14th wedding anniversary, I took Nan to the vending machine at the dorm we stayed at during orientation school and told her: `Honey, anything you want here you can have.’ We had meetings morning, noon and night, and we just had no opportunity to do anything else.

But on the 15th, you’ve got to do something special. And with the help of some friends who agreed to stay at our dorm all weekend, we got to go away to a very special place: the Mount Kenya Safari Club.

Normally, there is little chance that we could afford to go to a place like that. Prices are so high, and especially as a missionary, you don’t usually have extra money. But because we are in Kenya for a year, we are legally residents, so we qualified for resident rates that are a sixth of the normal rate.

American actor William Holden founded the MKSC in 1959, and it is lovely, with beautiful gardens and wild forests, right at the foot of Mt Kenya. The views are just spectacular, with both mountain and forest views. Some friends that we went with are birders, and they saw 70 different kinds of birds.

MKSC has an animal orphanage, and we fed ostrich, monkeys, golden crested cranes, and bongos out of our hands. At one point, a monkey was leaning on Nan, and holding her hand to get more food. He later jumped on the 125-year-old tortoise named Speedy.

We were able to go to a park nearby for the afternoon and see elephants coming in to drink and bath, a chimp conservatory started by Jane Goodall, and pet the tame rhino.

A poacher orphaned this rhino when he was six months old, and he has lived around humans his whole life, so he is considered tame. To reach him, you walk several miles to the open space in which he lives, and suddenly you are standing in front of a 1.5 ton rhinoceros. He really seemed like a big dog; he ate out of our hands, and he let you pet him. And it was one of those experiences that you never expect to have in life.

A guard with a large rifle always attends him, because poachers are such a problem in Africa. As our guide told us: we shoot first, then ask questions. Rhinos and elephants have been decimated by poachers, and if the economy continues to deteriorate, many fear it will get worst.

I never expected to celebrate 15 years of marriage in Africa, but it will be an anniversary we will never forget. The secret of a happy marriage is to marry Nancy Peifer. Since she is already taken, I wish for you that you would experience all the joys of the covenant that I have. It has been a rich and wonderful 15 years.

YP