As the sun sets, a lone giraffe makes its way across the African plain near an acacia tree. Ron and Julie Schute of West Union will remember this scene from their trip to Africa for many years to come.
Experiencing Africa
Brian Smith
Contributing Writer
bsmith@fayettepublishing.com
The wide stretching limbs of an acacia tree form a canopy of limbs and leaves, providing a small haven of shade against the hot afternoon sun. Later, as the sun sinks to the horizon, a giraffe saunters by the tree, silhouetted against the sky on a vast plain. It is the classic African scene, and one that many of us have viewed on television or in movie theaters. For one West Union couple, however, those experiences were real, and thus have so much more meaning to them now than they ever had before.
“While we were on safari, I saw a giraffe walking near an acacia tree as the sun was setting and I thought to myself, ‘This is what everyone thinks of when they think about Africa, and I am seeing it in person right now,’”said Julie Schute, who traveled with her daughter Kara’s family to visit her son-in-law’s parents in December.
It was Sam and Agnes Kebu, parents of their daughter’s husband, Boniface, who first suggested the idea of Ron and Julie Schute taking a trip to Mlolongo, Kenya.
