Under African Skies

Amelia met her husband while studying anthropology in New York. They dreamt of a life of adventure and travel – exploring the dark corners of the world – but he enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. When he died, Amelia was devastated but slowly she picked herself up and in the spring of 1949 – and against her family’s wishes – Amelia packed her clothes and her determination into a steamer trunk then headed across the Atlantic.

She spent a year living in Liberia among the Toma tribe and earned their friendship as well as an ornate horned mask – a token usually only earned by tribal boys who became of age. She recruited a group of locals to trek into the Belgian Congo. During the expedition across the continent, some encounters were peaceful like when she was bestowed a handsome wooden doll and a splendid woven shield from the Zande tribe in the Congo. Other adventures were harrowing – including the day she came face-to-face with cannibals but quick-witted Amelia tamed them by sharing her expansive collection of butterfly specimens.

Her experiences strengthen her childhood convictions that every corner of the world is beautiful and worth preserving. Now, living alongside the Massai in the grasslands in Kenya, Amelia studies the flora, fauna, and people of the region. The Massai have gifted her various weapons, and a large Korhogo mud cloth painting that she hangs over her bed. In the afternoons, she writes manuscripts and textbooks about the local culture and wildlife to tell the world about the vulnerability and majesty from deep within the African continent; and the evenings, she sips tea and watches a new family of Fennec foxes play and hunt around her tent.

I have a ton of detail shots that I’ll be sharing in batches. I wish we could submit more than 4 pictures. There are so many pictures that capture the essence of the tent, but don’t show much of the detail. Oh, well. I’m proud of it.

Thank you everyone for all of your kind words and words of encouragement. It’s wonderful being part of such a supportive community. Thank you all!

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