All of us have had a childhood dream. My dream was to go to Africa on a bird collecting trip. That may seem a bit bizarre, but that's the truth. I never really thought it would come true, but it did.

I was all set to spend a "wonderful, fun-filled weekend" in Spokane, Washington, to judge the 1995 NTA show, when I received a call from Mike Boyce's Animal Artistry Studio in Reno, Nevada. The voice on the other end of the line asked me if I would like to travel to Africa on an all-expense-paid trip with Mr. and Mrs. Cabela (you know, the mail-order hunting and fishing catalogue folks?). I hesitated for a moment, deciding whether I should make good my promise of painstakingly juggling numbers on score sheets for two days in Spokane, or go to Africa on a bird safari for three weeks with the Cabelas. I had obligated myself to this judging assignment, but I knew there was not an NTA member who would not appreciate the obvious choice--africa!!

While the two choices seemed to have nothing in common, the truth is that a lot of work would be involved in either choice. In Africa, my job was to travel with Dick and Mary Cabela and prepare bird skins for shipping home. I felt comfortable with the assignment, for I have worked on a great variety of birds in my thirty-five-plus years of taxidermy.

My confidence was great, but what I had not factored into the equation was the working conditions and mass quantity of birds to prepare in the short three weeks. We ended up bringing back a total of 192 birds, which all had to be skinned, heads cast and field notes taken. This all had to be done in a rather marginal conditions, with the help of a few locals, whose Swahili language did not include the word "finesse!" They were great guys, but their inexperience skinning birds, coupled with my inexperience with Swahili, made life in the "office" a little interesting.

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