Letters from Africa: Travel Stories from an Adventuresome SoulDr. Tuthill embarked on her first safari into the African bush in 2003, honoring the death of her best friend, the astronaut Kalpana Chawla, in the crash of the space shuttle Columbia. She and her husband fell deeply in love with the animals and the people they met in the wilds of southern Africa, and the experience changed their lives. They have traveled back every year and lovingly chronicled each experience in detailed letters to Kalpana's sisters