(Celebrating Roy and Betty’s Fiftieth year of Marriage. Tarangire Safari Lodge, 1996 Tune: The Girl that I Marry” 7 verses)
1. A ce-dar log ca-bin out near Na-rok
A grass-thatched ron-da-vel Loi-tok-i-tok
With Ki-li in the sky
There was mu-sic and laugh-ter
And love in each eye.
To far Sim-ba sta-tion in Mo-del T
To R.V.A. School, sort of “pur-ga-try”
Teach-er chur-ning, and some learn-ing
Then to Whea-ton where for-tune was turn-ing
For there Roy found Bet-ty
A most luck-y fel-la he be!
2. In Wa-shing-ton D.C. she came to be
In Swit-zer-land moun-tains she learned to ski
At char-ming Cha-teaux D’oex
With some hikes to the moun-tains
Through fresh-ly mown hay
And then Whea-ton Col-lege in U.S.A.
Her home wel-comed stu-dents from far a-way
Like young Bar-nett, from El-do-ret
There Ruth Bell and her Bil-ly, the two met
And then in came Ro-oy
And much to his jo-oy they clicked.
3. They stu-died, and worked, and each got a de-gree
And then while in Eng-land they got Dan-ny
Then out to R.V.A.
There was tea-ching and hunt-ing
And Jac-‘ran-da days
To start there was Da-vid then Car-o-lyn
And then came the Mau-Mau and Mar-i-lyn
R.V. bo-ys, K.L. no-ise
Ko-la-Ndo-to where sis-ters did re-joice
The fif-ties were nif-ty
But sto-ry has on-ly be-gun.
4. They then flew to New York to Al-b a-ny
Where mom once more helped dad get his M. D.
And top-ping all the rest
There came Ma-ry E-liz-beth
To fluff up the nest
Then off to Mon-du-li and ‘Ru-sha school
The po-lice said “Dan-ny you ain’t so cool”
‘Long came Gi-ni, fam’-ly “fii-ni”
Then a new house to build in Nai-ro-bi
Prince-O’ and the “Bom-a”
AM-REF and the church N.B.C.
5. Dear Go-koo taught Maa to a char-ming two
Theywere Eu-nie and Dave up at Il-bo-ru
Their first-borne’s name was Steve
Eu-nie prayed, and she schemed,
And a net she did weave.
All cud-dled be-hind Steve on his pi-kii
Our Mar-lyn was com-fy as she could be
Held him clo-ser, till he caught her
Then he asked, and her dad an-swered “yes sir”.
A nice Maa-sai match, yes
Kin-ji-pa O-lai-tor-ia-nii.
6. These no-mads mi-gra-ted to Lou-don-ville
To L.C.C., Sha-ker, and days so chill
In far ‘Me-ri-ca-ni
Times at Pin -na-cle, Schroon Lake
And Dave’s ha-ru-si
And then back to Ken-ya the Med School won
And Car’-lyn to Peace Corps in hot Ga-bon
Fledglings flying, Cha-let emp-ty
Moved to Nav’s where was swim-ming a-plen-ty
And fin’-lly to U.S.
Near Dan in old Al-bu-quer-que.
7. We both were so na-ieve in for-ty six
So of-ten God spared us from self-made fix
His pa-tience car-ried on
And he trus-ted us with kids
That we could brag on
And now that we’ve passed our “three-score and ten”
We’re real-ly a-glow with our our GRAND-child-ren
Each one nor-mal, each one special,
Each one pre-cious and beau-ti-ful ves-sel
Yes, fifty’s been nifty
To God be the glo-ry , A-MEN!.