11/2010 from Nancy Towle's journal of the African trip
After leaving Kodai, Dave achieved a degree to teach English, which he did for 35 years. Kudos to Miss Unruh and Carlie! Mary, his wife, taught 3rd grade. They have traveled on vacations. Then Dave got the golden handshake and retired on 90% salary. Dave wrote me “Here is some more info. about our lives. In 2001, when we visited Bahrain where I was born, we also visited Kuwait, to see my dad's grave which we hadn't visited since he died in 1964. After that we did tour India and Jane Cummings was the tour guide. We do spend two months in Holland, Michigan, each year in a small cottage on Lake Michigan; and we live four months each year (January-April) in Hemet, California. Our favorite activity is spending time with our grandchildren. (We visit them where they live in Glenwood Spring, CO and camp with them, etc.) Our next favorite activity is traveling. Besides the places already mentioned, we have visited former exchange students in Brazil and the Netherlands. In the ten years that we have been retired we've visited the Solomon Islands, where our son and his wife were in the Peace Corps and Senegal, where our daughter lived for a year. We also loved Egypt, Nepal, Hawaii, etc. but now I'm giving you too much information!! We have also traveled extensively in the U.S., mostly with a "pop-up" camper. Lately, we have discovered that cruising is fun!”
2001
David went to Kodai in 5th grade. His parents were missionaries in Basra. After graduating from Kodai, he went to Hope College where he was an English major. He taught English 35 years - would Miss Unruh believe this!? David was active in the teacher’s union. Last year David retired – a good buy out among other things encouraged the retirement! While in college, David worked at a church camp in Michigan for the summer. While there he met a girl, Mary, from Colorado. They later married. David took Mary on a trip to Kodai for the Centennial. It was Mary’s first trip to India so they toured around the country. They also stopped in Kuwait to visit the grave of his dad. Their son went into peace corps and now teaches. Their daughter has a masters in social work. While in school she met a doctor from Senegal who was doing some post-doctoral studies. They were married in Denver and then the family traveled to Senegal for a traditional wedding there. No one realized that her husband, who was on a student visa, would not be allowed back into the US. His visa expired and he is not allowed to reapply for 3 years. David’s daughter came back to the states and lived with her parents. In the mean time David spends all spare time working with attorney’s to try to work out a solution and get his daughter’s husband back to the US.
