Raskimon updates

So much has happened over the last couple of months, I have not had the time to do much but it is official and on the 2nd of July I will be returing to Kenya. This time around I will be there for two months but I will do some more travelling around. There are parts of Kenya I would like to visit and will also be going to Tanzania for a few days. While in Tanzania, I will be visiting the Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangine and Serengeti Parks.

The children at the orphanage will have the whole month of August off and I am looking forward to spending lots of time with them. One thing I would love to do for them all is to buyt pyjamas for them but I will have to wait to see how much money I manage to raise and of course how many children will be at the orphanage.

Recently I conducted an interview with Antony from the lion guardians program at http://www.wildlifedirect.org and you can read the whole interview by visiting

Recently I had a couple of enquiries about sponsoring children from Njaaga's Orphanage and also I had enquiries about the children writing letters to sponsors.
My honest opinion about sponsoring children is that it is very dificult to sponsor one child when the others miss out. The children treat each other as one big family and I don't believe it's fair for one to receive more than the other. Donations are most welcome though because this money benefits all the children. With regarding the children writing letters, the children do not have the money to spend on postage. What ever sponsoring James manages to get for the children goes towards food, clothing etc and with the recent political crisis, the safari company that supports the orphanage just does not make enough money. If anyone wishes to help, then just make a donation directly into the bank acount for the orphanage. The children appreciate every little bit they receive in more ways than we can ever imagine!

On a diferent note, I will be returing to kenya next July and will be there for two months. July will be spent doing some travelling around and August will be spent with the children. August is a school holiday and I am looking forward to spending lots of time with them.

Recently and for safaritalk, I conducted an interview with karl Ammann.
karl lives in kenya and has dedicated his life to protecting Africa's endangered wildlife and you can read the entire interview at http://safaritalk.net/index.php?showtopic=2039

At the moment Kenya is going through a tough time and of course I am concerned about the children.
Yesterday James sent me an email and I am asking if anybody wants to help these children then this the time for they need to be re located and or guards to be employed.
The safari company which is the main income that supports the children is basically non existent and this is because people are not visiting the country.

"Jambo

I hope you are fine, well that is not the same with us here in kenya .

Alot has changed here in the last few days and things have changed from bad to worse especially in the Rift Valley even with the mediation talks on going.

Irregardless of what the International Media is reporting, about the said desputed polls, It has emerged that some communities have been preparing for war even before the genearl elections. To be specific, The Kalejin community under the leadership of Hon William Ruto of ODM have taken upon themselves to attack, kill, main and destroy the property of kikuyu and other communities in the rift valley..

As a result and as you may have heard,even with the on going mediation talks taking place,and even with the leaders calling for peace, Unprecedented chaos have rocked Nakuru district and the neighbouring villages especially the ones percieved to be kikuyu dominated. The intensions of these peolpe are unknown and their manner of attack unpredictable.

I am writting to as a matter of urgency beacause, Last night a village neighbouring Kirengero ( appro - 2 kilometres) was attacked and houses set ablaze. I have just received the bad news that these people are now camping at Kirengero Chiefs camp. I am very disturbed because this has happened too close to the home and even the children are very worried.

I am heading there today to see what i can do though I really do not have anything in mind.

Some friends have suggested to me to relocate the children to safer places which is a good Idea but right now I do not have a place in mind where I can take them.

Hiring armed policemen is another thing but i do not know how the goverment is going to charge me or even whether it can afford me enough men to keep the children safe.

safety is my immediate concern for these kids and if I can achieve that, Then the issues of schooling, shelter, and food will be resolved depending on whether I am going to move them or not.

I will apreciate any assistance you can afford us at this time in formof advice and funds: I should not also that out tourism business is at standstill following the mas cancellations of safaris by clients and ofcourse the travel advisories issued by some goverments advising their citizens not to travel kenya. In this reagard I am between a rock and a hard place pertaining to the welfare of these youngones.

Please let me know that you have received this mail the soonest you can reply.

We are counting on your prayers to see us through this misery.

Yours truly

JAMES."

Unfortunately for Tusker, he was shot one day early and this was done even though thousands of
people have signed the petition

finally things are moving and the galleries are starting to look great and now there are two more galleries added.
Aus_wildlife is now called australiana and within that folder there's four galleries. Three of wildlife, birds etc and one I just simply call "watching the sun go down" and here is a sample:

Updating the galleries is still taking place and now the micro and photography in general galleries are with new images. In the nearfuture there will be another gallery added to photography in general.

I woke up a few days ago to find the new growth on the cycads covered in tiny raindrops so I had to go and get the camera so here's a couple of those images

Stop all traffic for the calendars are here!!
For all information regarding images, prices etc you can visit the main menu or click on the link below

finally got around to updating the images and Maasai Mara galleries are the first to be updated. Unfortunately though because of the extreme graphics on this site I had to reduce the number of images so in future all galleries will contain 20 images instead of 25. Hopefully this will also help the galleries to load a little faster.

Dreamweaver is still proving to be a challenge and I had a hard time saving menus in the colour I want them to be in so when each gallery loads use the back button to go back to the gallery index.
Once I work out Dreamweaver and it's temperamental side, then each image will have it's own menu(in the colour I want it to be in!)

The calendars are finally printed but I am still to add the images to the site. Hopefully this will be done next week sometime.

If any of out there loves elephants and loves a story with an even happier ending, then I suggest you
visit safaritalk.net and read Maggie's story.
Jude from http://www.safaritalk.net has compiled quite a detailed story on Maggie whitch includes interviews and photographs of Maggie's new home.
You can see the whole story at:
http://safaritalk.net/index.php?s=&showtopic=375&view=findpost&p=2514

In the Njaaga's page I added new letter from the founder of the Orphanage and you can visit him at his own site www.njaaga2007.com

In the future there will many many changes at raskimon.com. The galleries will have a whole new look, each image will open onto a html page and all will be the same size

For now here's a couple of stories from Kenya and Kiringero village...

What I enjoyed the most while at Njaaga's orphanage was going for a walk through the farms and country side and of course getting to know the locals. One family I befriended only lived around 200feet from the orphanage and as far as I could tell, it was two sisters with their children.
The children would always join me on my walks and one day Luisa and I turned up at their door step with bags full of goodies such as books, pens, toothpaste and toothbrushes etc and of course soap. The children were so excited at everything and one of the mothers was over the moon when she saw the bottle of soap. She was so excited she actually offered to milk her only cow for us. Luisa and myself were speechless!!!
Such was her gratitude that she was willing to give up something essential such as the milk which would have been for the children. These are the stories that I think about and make me want to go back.
Unbeknown to me at the time, Luisa took some pictures so I include this one. Just check out the look on mum in the background.
"Luisa lives in Italy and was volunteering at Njaaga's at the same time as I was and we became very good friends. She has supplied the audio files of the girls singing and a couple of the images"

On a different day, Luisa and myself were on our way to catch the matatu to go to Nakuru for our weekly shopping when an elderly woman stopped us. Now let me say that the maximum age for a woman in Kenya is around 55-60 years but this woman looked much older so I was surprised to see her especially when she took my hands in hers, then she would kiss Luisa and she kept doing this while talking to us in Swahili. Both Luisa and I were surprised but we could not understand what she was talking about but she insisted on holding my hands then she would kiss Luisa and then we realized that she kept looking towards the orphanage and then we understood!!
"asante asante"
Asante means thank you and this woman whom we have never seen before stopped us to say thank you!
Thank you for helping!
We both walked away feeling rather confused but at the same time, if there is such a thing as cloud nine, then that is where we both were for there I was, being born in Cyprus, living in Melbourne, Luisa from Italy and both of us helping in a tiny Kenyan village and having an elderly woman thanking us for it!!
We both felt blessed and honored at having this experience!!