Dear Friends, Here I am, four days before I leave Kenya to return to the USA for three and a half months. I fly out of here on Thursday evening, cross the desert of the Sudan and Libya and Mediterranean Sea up to Amsterdam (7.5 hours), have a three hour layover there in the early morning hours, and then fly about 8 hours straight into Detroit. It is a long, long trip!! I will arrive at 1:10 PM in Detroit, but for my body it will be 8:10 PM when I arrive. I know I will have slept maybe four hours or so on the plane, so I expect to feel pretty numb and sleepy when I arrive. Why am I returning to Detroit for so long? First, I will have finished my first three years here in Kenya this coming August and so I am eligible for a home visit to see family and close friends. But I am using much of my time to continue the fundraising efforts I began a year ago last spring. I am about 35% done with this project and hope to God I can wrap it up or come close to that on this year's trip. It is not easy work and is not my work of choice. One great moment I am anticipating is meeting for the first time in late June the two newest members of my family: two adopted children, a boy now 10 and his blood sister, 8 years old. The courts took them away from their parents who are incurable alcoholics and in and out of jail all the time. The children are delighted to have a stable home and lots of love. They now belong legally to my niece and her husband in Charleston, SC. The big news around here is the sighting of a lion about five days ago (reported on local TV) and then the claims of hearing the lion roar about two days ago. Paw prints near our front gate and our fence damaged by the animal have been evident. We suspect it is an older lion, rejected by the harem and so now on its own to survive. It is still dangerous. We think it hides during the day and comes out to hunt once the sun disappears. It roams to other parts of the area and would love to get a dog. I guess they love dogs for their mealtime, not as guests but as the main course! Ha! We have three goats and a sheep on our grounds, and that lion would love to have any one of them! Next door are horses and cows. What a meal any of them would make. So all are vigilant in this area, and the Wild Animal park rangers are hunting for this animal, not easy to find since it is hiding during the day and roams at nighttime. The murder of the four nuns, Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa of Calcutta's group), in Yemen a month ago continues to be a conversation piece here. Most of them received a major phase of their training here in Nairobi, and some of those of the nuns here in Nairobi I know and they know one or more of the nuns who were murdered.) It is said the assassins got access to the nuns residence and work place through the appeal of a young boy who came to the door and said he wanted to visit an elderly relative he claimed was in the home care of the nuns. The nuns opened up and behind him rushed in the four solders of Al Quaida. then they hurried into the room where five nuns were serving the elderly in what could be called a nursing home. One of the nuns hid behind the door as they rushed in and pushed back the door. She was the lone surviving witness to the horror of all of this massacre. Two Muslim women from the local area, confronted these soldiers, said they loved the nuns and what they were doing, but then they were shot and killed. The Salesian chaplain, a diabetic was whisked away and is supposedly still being held and was not crucified on Good Friday as some had claimed was to happen to him. One wonders whether he has gotten his medicine for his diabetic condition. The soldiers shot up the place, destroyed anything religious. The priest was supposed to have gone to the tabernacle right away and swallowed hosts in large numbers. After this was all over, one police official, a Muslim, entered the building, found a crucifix on the wall, took it down and while holding it is reported to have said, "all this happened because of this (holding up the crucifix)! I have to go. I am falling asleep on this Sunday evening and am ready to lay down my body and float off into lala land. Goodnite! Bernie Owens.