From the day my father set foot in Nigeria as a missionary, he kept a diary, religiously, for all fourteen years. Then for nine years after leaving Africa he continued the diary until they took it away from him. The diary is the heart of this book. He and my mother wrote letters back home while in Africa. For some reason many of the letters written to my father's parents and brother were kept. They fill in much color around the facts of the diary. They also wrote letters to us at boarding school. My father illustrated those letters with hand drawn pictures. Many of these survive, filling in even more detail. Then there are my memories, certainly not as accurate as the diary, but sometimes more vivid. These memories make this book my story.