[Have you ever wanted to travel to Africa, and yet know it is unlikely that you will ever get the chance to do so? Freida, aka Kenya Girl, takes you on a safari that will leave you breathless from the awesome beauty of the untamed animal life. Take the safari with her through her photographs of national parks, lions, elephants, baboons, cheetahs, flamingo's and even a "Colobus" monkey which took her 17 years to find and many other animals on "game drives." There is much to see, so drop in on her "Safari Diary." You will be left profoundly moved by nature's untamed!--ck]
Let me introduce you to a talented and quite adventurous lady named Frieda, aka KenyaGirl. She's happily married (34 years and still going strong) and is a serious nature lover...especially of animals. Proud of an Austrian-Hungarian bloodline, her hobbies include playing classical piano, (Beethoven being number one), drawing portraits from photographs in charcoal pencil, reading, photography, engaging in counted cross stitch, and most of all, she enjoys "adventure travel." Before we get into the adventures of this lady, let her tell you about the cross stitch hobby. "It is not only a hobby, but I work for a company that makes kits and charts, and I do their cover pieces. That is, I cross stitch the models which the company then frames and photographs to display on the cover of the cross stitch kit. That way, the buyer can see how the finished product will appear."
Frieda held my interest while relating her adventure travels. Last year, she went into the Amazon jungle in Peru, and a few years before that, ventured to Belize and Guatemala to see the wildlife and the Mayan ruins. She said, "Very interesting stuff, but my first love is Africa, and I go there every three years or suffer from withdrawal!" She will be going on her seventh safari this year, and hopes to keep going back as long as she lives. "It's really in my blood, and I think I might have been a gazelle or something in a former life." To see the animals free in their natural habitats gives her great joy. Even though the scenery is magnificent, her first reason for going there is to see the animals.
I wanted to hear more of her adventures but we had to move on, so I asked her about how she got into the WebTV arena. She said, "I got my WebTV for Christmas, l998. The reason I wanted it was to get on the Internet to meet new friends from diverse areas, which I have. I had always heard such bad stories about it, but none of it has turned out to be true." She states that she has met the most wonderful, helpful, and kind people. She has made some great friends on the web, many of whom she has met in person. She is hopeful of meeting more of them in person as time goes by.
The first thing she did when she got online was to get familiar with e-mail. She had never seen it before, and had no idea of how to use it or even open one. To quote her, "I was a first class web dummy." Haven't a lot of us felt that way at times? She went into a chatroom and met a very nice gentleman who helped her a great deal. After she became a little more familiar with the Internet, she started joining newsgroups such as alt.discuss.anything.friendly; alt.discuss.webtools.imagemagick; alt.discuss.africatravel; and alt.discuss.homepage.opinions (HPO), to name a few.
She wanted to expand on the HPO newsgroup. She stated, "You submit your site for viewing and we all go there and opinionate. We give praise, advice, criticism, ...anything that's needed." They have an HPO award for site of the month, a spotlight of the month award, and a frequent poster award. She as won all three! She is surprised at this accomplishment because "that group is just loaded with the most talented, creative, and helpful people that I have ever met."
She goes to a few chatrooms where she has met some wonderful people. "No one that I have met on the web refused to give me help when I needed it," she stated. She feels that she is repaying that help now because she often helps others. "I like to help newbies where I can but when it comes to real complicated things, I find help from those more adept than I."
She stated she receives from 500 to 700 e-mails per week. Some are friendship cards, some are jokes and some are from people who need help with HTML in their e-mail.
Frieda started working on her homepage, My Safari. in May of l999 and opened it for viewing in July. She learned HTML from a lot of nice people whom she met on the web. She said, "I asked so many questions that I thought I would get the 'pest of the year' award, but they were so patient with me that I finally grasped a little."
She continued, "My page was done by trial and error (mostly error) but a very nice gentleman, with whom I had a mutual friend, came to my house and got me started. The only trouble was that he spoke HTML and I only spoke English at the time, so it was very hard to understand."
Her site consists of a brief bio, followed by a beautiful exhibit of some of her counted cross stitch. The most impressive pages are those of the virtual safari to Tanzania and Kenya. The pages are full of wildlife and scenery shots, with a little commentary on the lesser-known animals. For instance, the "gerenuk" and the "reticulated giraffe," to name a few. She also provides the Swahili names of all the animals. On another page, she has included a safari diary, which gives a detailed account of her trip. I wanted to give the reader a sense of being there. I hope I accomplished that." I think she has! She is returning to Africa in October, and if there is anyone with an adventurous spirit that would like to go with her group, please e-mail her. (Sorry guys, it's an all women group.) She states, "I write my own itinerary so as to avoid the not so interesting places, and spend more time at the great ones."
Her trip this October plays into her future plans for her web site because she plans to build another series of photo pages of the trip. She does all of her own photography and does it well. Her counter is down right now but she knows she has had about 4000 hits. I suggested to her that she get another counter because this article should prompt many more visitors to her site.
Frieda loves her WebTV and rates it up there with the wheel as a great invention. She states, however, that "there is a great amount of room for improvement, especially in the selection of representatives you have to deal with. Unless it is something simple like telling you to turn off the unit and reconnect, you get very little help." She would like to see WebTV someday have something equivalent to a photo scanner so that she wouldn't have to ask computer-owner friends for their help. She also complained about the monthly service charge. "I'm one of those unfortunates who have to pay for every dial-up, and sometimes I get disconnected up to ten times per day!"
But Frieda knows that there is the important upside and explained, "My husband isn't well and we don't get out much. I have met some of the most wonderful people on the Internet and made life-long friendships. When I go into chat, I feel like I am going to a party every night." She has no interest whatsoever in the interactive TV. She would rather see WebTV concentrate more on the Internet than TV. She was disappointed with WebTV on their upgrades and would ask that they explain the upgrade before making it available.
She wanted to close the interview with this statement. "My life has been very full, as I have been a model, a showgirl, a blackjack dealer, and for many years, a bartender. I have traveled a lot but I still want to see the orangutans in Borneo, the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, the Okavango delta in Botswana, and the Brazil side of the Amazon." I personally feel that this remarkable lady will fulfill these dreams before too long.
E-mail[Community Editor's Notes: Magnificent, Freida! We enjoyed taking the tour. You have opened up a world that most of us are unlikely to ever visit. Such majesty in the pictures. Spectacular photographs! You have made our visit to Africa quite enlightening and memorable! Oh, and the Serengeti sunset...hmmm, breathtaking!-ck]
