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January 2007 Newsletter
Happy New Year to all and welcome to another month gone by with the Texas Camel Corps.
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For all of December the camels and I pretty much traded in our trekking outfits for the royal garb of the Biblical Magi and headed to "Bethlehem". This time of year sees us providing camels, donkeys and sheep to multiple nativity productions across the state of Texas. This year’s calendar took us to twenty-three events in twenty-seven days, from Dallas to Alpine (both in Texas, but 600 miles apart) and many points in between.
Each year, this type of work serves to remind me of the first paying camel job I took, outside of my former zoo career. It was seven degrees Fahrenheit and I quickly learned the warmest places on a camel I could place my hands. This season, we actually lost two jobs to freezing temperatures and/or snow. One was in nearby Waco, the other in far-off Alpine.
Each job is unique. Some are simply static, outdoor displays of the manger, baby Jesus (sometimes with a real baby) and all the requisite animals. Others are scripted dramas, requiring that the camels meander through recreated marketplaces (and a few thousand members of the public) as the Noblemen from the East search for the Newborn King. Another, an indoor production, asks that Gobi, my 2,050-pound Bactrian camel, hit a mark at a specific time during "We Three Kings" performed by a live orchestra and one hundred-member choir. Regardless, I enjoy every one, each for its own reasons.
Big thanks go out to Manda Butler, Tonja Sivils, Gary Goforth and Kyle and Paisley Mathis for all their help this season. Some jobs call for two or three hands and every year these folks, who are among my very best friends, put aside their holiday goings-on to help out.
Thanks also go out to the Crone and Chesnut families in Odessa, Texas, the Duttons of Sheffield, Texas and the Forts of Alpine, Texas for putting up camels and/or me and sometimes both!
Biggest thanks of all go to my father-in-law, 71-year old Joe Laubert, who helps out on the couple of jobs my beautiful and patient wife Trish takes on each year, always with more than a half-dozen animals. Using camels (which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds) in public, oftentimes in close quarters, always gets my heart racing. Yet year after year, they fulfill their duties with casual aplomb. The donkeys, God bless them, tote multiple "Marys" to their appointments with destiny. Still, three sheep managed to emancipate themselves for a short period near one of Waco, Texas’ busiest commercial thoroughfares. It only took my wife and her father this one near-escape to come up with a foolproof plan, but only after they’d played sheep bowling with the church’s pastor, his wife and two innocent bystanders. The more I know sheep, the more I love my camels and donkeys.
To be fair to the sheep (should I, really?), they’re not ours. I borrow them from a neighbor just for a handful of Christmas jobs. To find out which two expletives my normally pious wife uttered nine times and once, respectively, in her call to me after the sheep were caught and back in sheep jail, email me directly as this is a family-oriented newsletter. (I love you, Trish.)
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During the Christmas rush, I did have the pleasure of hosting former Big Bend and Monahans trekker, Cheryl H., at the farm. On Tuesday the 12th, Cheryl and her folks from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area came to visit and it was great to see her again and meet her folks. Cheryl’s a real camel lover and has spent time with camels in India, Syria and, of course, Texas. Thanks for taking the time to come visit, Cheryl. My best to your folks. (Tell your father I really enjoyed singing Willie Nelson and Ray Price songs with him!)
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As 2007 is upon us, I feel blessed to have such a full calendar so early in the year. From the 7-16 of this month, I’ll be back in Arizona, working for VisionQuest (www.vq.com), then almost directly will head to Egypt/Sinai, where I’ll be hosting two groups, back to back, from January 26 through February 16. These two groups mark the first time my guided trips over there will center directly around "home-stays" instead of hotels. My Egyptian "brother", Adel Hamza, has chided me for a while now that my guests would stay in hotels when I have a "home" in Egypt and I am really looking forward to sharing in these lucky folks’ experiences!
As my return from these groups’ trips won’t be until mid-February, the next newsletter will be running late, but will serve as an "After Action Report" for those activities. I can check email while in Egypt, but for the most part my wife Trish will be handling all business correspondence while I’m out.
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Here’s to a prosperous and healthy New Year to you all and thanks as always for your interest in my camels.
Doug
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