Retired Elephants

Retired Elephants

When a person thinks about animals living in South East Asia they automatically think “elephants”. This is truly the home of Asian elephants, but they are becoming increasingly rare in in the wild. On a recent visit to Cambodia, I learned that in the whole country...
My Doll Becky

My Doll Becky

One of my early recollections is when my parents, George (Hap) and Betty Donner gave me a special baby doll named Becky. Becky was the size of a two-to-four-month-old baby. Becky had blue eyes with long eyelashes that closed when I laid her down. Here body was soft...
Playing Pretend in Tanganyika

Playing Pretend in Tanganyika

When my big brother Cal was home from boarding school, my younger sister Marlowe and I enjoyed playing ‘pretend’ in very creative ways. Being quite young when we’d left the USA for Tanganyika, our memories of America were dim at best. I recall wearing hats and...

Shoes from America

I remember vividly anticipating the arrival of a package from America, which was to contain five pairs of shoes for me! In those days in Tanganyika shoes were not readily available and I was growing faster than my parents could keep me in shoes. We were always...

Castor Oil – Ugh!

One of my most unpleasant experiences as a youngster growing up in Tanganyika Territory was having to swallow terrible tasting medicines for various diseases or illnesses! Having to swallow bitter quinine daily against malaria was bad enough but when worms took up...
Huge Hippos

Huge Hippos

It was in an early morning call of desperation. “Bwana, kiboko iko ndani ya shamba! Saidia!” Here’s a loose translation. Mr missionary, please come down to the lake as the hippos have been eating in our gardens and have destroyed our crops! My dad, Oliver Donner, was...