In my previous life I was an English teacher to seventh graders in a middle school. Sometimes a teacher is asked to teach one or two classes of another subject because that's the only way to work out a decent class schedule for that year. For instance, one year our music teacher had to teach one class of Spanish. Once I spent a year teaching a class of girls physical education. However, the best change was when I was asked to teach one class of seventh grade social studies. I smiled and agreed but I did not feel agreeable.
Social studies consists of history, economics, civics, geography, government, sociology, and anthropology. That is a lot of stuff! I knew I needed help. There are national organizations that teachers can join that advocate high-quality in a subject area and provide leadership, services and support. I already belonged to the National Council of Teachers of English so I joined the National Council for the Social Studies.
To shorten this account of my African adventure, when I joined this new organization I discovered that the Social Studies Convention that year was going to be in Nairobi, Kenya in late June. What a great organization. What luck for me! I immediately decided I was going to go. It was just too coincidental that I was a member now and eligible. The trip to Africa just fell into my lap. I made sure I could afford it and signed up.
Soon after I registered, a travel agent in Washington D.C. whose agency was making all the arrangements for the trip called me. She asked if I was interested in going on a safari at the conclusion of the convention. You bet I was. Everything kept falling into place so nicely.
I made it through the school year and soon I was on a plane to London. After a quick stop there, I would fly to Nairobi. In London they inspected my purse and bags. Extra cautious at Heathrow because of the former troubles in Ireland they not only inspected before you boarded a plane but after you got off. The Brits did not like to be randomly bombed. An officer checked through my purse. He gave me a stern look and told me to follow him. It seems I had an attachment on my keys to protect me in case of assault. These are not allowed on airplanes. He told me that if I was a British citizen I would be arrested. However, since I was not I would just have to sign a paper that acknowledged that they took my spray thing away. We solemnly took a bit of a walk and went through the formalities. I was not scared. I was tired and kind of interested in the whole experience. Then he took a second look at my passport. He smiled and wished me a happy birthday. I smiled back because that was the only birthday greeting I would get that day. Very memorable.
And so, I flew to Nairobi. When I arrived at my hotel it was full of American social studies teachers. After checking in, I decided to take a walk outside to get my bearings. I exited the revolving door. Oh, the culture shock. My only impression of African cities came from movies. In the movies the people were always pale British people living in Africa while they hunted lions, had affairs, or dug for diamonds or something. The people I saw walking on the streets were not a bit British. They were very, very dark and they did not look at me kindly. In fact, they seemed annoyed. Maybe they thought the Brits had returned! I hurried back to the hotel feeling a bit ashamed and confused. I thought the movies always portrayed real life. Later I was told by hotel workers that we should never walk outside alone but only in a group. For a minute I wished the Brits were still in charge but I quickly slapped myself and came to my senses.
I met a friendly teacher who suggested we go to an African movie that evening. That sounded better than sitting in my room trying to adjust my sleep patterns. She had made arrangements for a cab to pick us up. We were dropped off and bought our tickets. We found two empty seats but things were strange because everyone was looking at us and talking. They were not smiling. The film started and I have no idea what it was about. Finally it was over and we left the theater. Did I mention we were the only white persons anywhere in sight? We waited and waited for our driver to come back. I do not remember being scared but I was never more uncomfortable and so astoundingly alert. My world travels never prepared me for this. The other teacher and I chatted together in the lowest tones possible. We were attracting enough attention by just being there.
The driver did come just as we were ready to give up. (I have no idea how we would give up.) I was so happy to be back at the hotel. I saw my friend from the movie the next day and she informed me that one of the reasons we were discussed so much at the movie house is because all the seats were assigned and we mistakenly just sat wherever we wanted. Entitled white people! I felt shame.
The convention went well. I learned some things and I ate some strange foods. Finally it was time to meet my Safari group. There were about eight of us plus the travel agent and the South African guide. The first thing we did was drive to Mombasa. This is smaller than Nairobi and seemed more typically African. In the city center there are huge tusks on each side of the street that cross each other in the very center of the road. These were put up for a visit by Queen Elizabeth in 1952. I loved the look. So.....African?
We had lunch in Mombasa and proceeded to a village that was more rural. We stayed overnight here and I slept beneath netting in what seemed like a screened-in porch. I was a bit worried about nighttime trips to the washroom. The bath room was a squat toilet away from the building and Americans like me are not used to squatting. Gosh, I have a hard enough time getting up from a couch. What would a squat do to me? Thankfully I do not remember if it became a necessity or not. Memories that fade are sometimes the very best thing that happens.
The next day we ate breakfast and I think that was the first time I ever ate mangos. We were invited by an elderly man to come into his house for tea. It was really more of a shack and chickens also seemed to live there. I wondered about sanitation but then I remembered that I never get sick on trips so I wasn't going to on this one. I was going to be a good American and represent my country as well as possible. I drank my tea and tried my best to converse with him and the others. The chickens were not fully grown and just wandered around our feet looking for food. The tea was good. I think the old man scored social points for having us visit him for tea.
Mombasa is on the Indian Ocean. When we left the village we got into a boat and sped along until we could not see land. When the boat stopped we went swimming. I was just thrilled because I was in the Indian Ocean. There was also a certain edge to it because we could not see land and no one was a life guard. I appreciated how lucky I was to be exactly where I was and it all happened because of a quirky change in my teaching schedule. Sometimes life is very good. And none of us looked that great in a bathing suit when we climbed back into the boat!
We survived our swim and our little group proceeded to a train station. We boarded the train and had a wonderful dinner in the dining car. We chatted and got to know each other better. Later in the sleeping car I somehow got an upper bunk. I do not remember exactly what was wrong but somehow I had to hang on to something all night to make sure I did not fall out. We also made several stops and noisy people got on. Once again I was not going to make a pit stop because I had no idea who was where in our sleeping car or when we would stop to welcome strangers aboard. It was another night with not a great deal of sleep!
The next day when we got up for breakfast the dishes from our dinner the night before were still on the tables. We worked our way around that, had breakfast and finally arrived at our destination. We continued our journey in one of those vans which has a top that opened so you can stand and see the animals. Our guide was a whiz at finding the animals and knew just how to approach them. They were so majestic and oblivious to our presence. We saw rhinos, hippos, zebras, cheetahs, dik-diks, hyenas, and all sorts of creatures. I loved the elephants most of all. Our guide could read their intentions because if an elephant decided to push over our van we could not do anything about it. We were able to get very close to the huge creatures. I think my best moment was stopping and having a celebratory glass of wine right there in the savanna. Was this real or was I in a movie?
We stayed at different places as we traveled. Several times we experienced flat tires. Finally, we had to stop because we ran out of spare tires. Our driver had to walk somewhere to get a few new tires. I was a bit anxious about this. We seemed to be in the middle of the jungle on a worn dirt road. We got out of the van and walked on a smaller path. There in the middle of Tarzan country was a little store. It was just a shack in the jungle but evidently they had a good business going. I thought as I approached the place that they would naturally jack up their prices because we were stranded with nowhere else to go. Cynical me. I was wrong. We bought soft drinks and snacks for a decent price and waited for our driver. He finally returned rolling a tire. The bad one was quickly replaced and we were on our way.
Another roadway incident occurred on a regular highway with normal traffic and this time it was at night. Our van was stopped by some uniformed men. The driver and our guide got out. There was a lot of talking and some of it sounded angry. Finally, our two people returned and got in the van. A uniformed man with a machine gun also got in the front next to the driver. We were told he was there to protect us in case someone tried to stop us. The area had been plagued by bandits. I do not know why I wasn't frightened and possibly hysterical. I think my inner self was confused and thought we really were in a movie. This was such a different country and setting. We were definitely off any beaten path taken by normal tour companies.
On one of the last nights of our Safari we were supposed to stay in a gated area. Somehow our reservations were not found or it was too crowded or we were late or something. We were separated to sleep in different buildings outside the compound. All night long I heard people chattering and moving about outside. It was hard to sleep and I was not relaxed at all. My imaginative mind decided that there were men visiting a building that had prostitutes. The next morning I discovered we were just across the way from a community washroom. That seemed very boring in comparison to my imagination.
We had different accommodations. One night we were in a place where the lights went off automatically at ten. Some time later I needed to use the facilities. There is no place darker at night than in an African village. I had to walk with my hands stretched out in front of me. I moved while I rubbed my hands on the wall until I felt the door jamb. I decided that I would remember this experience forever. It was so completely without light because wherever we were all electricity was completely shut down. Kenya is near the equator so the sun rose at seven and went down at seven all year around.
One night we stayed at a rather posh resort-like place. There was even a restaurant. The restaurant was like any restaurant at home. However, we were uncomfortable. The other people staying there were all hunters talking about their big kills. We told our guide we wanted to have more simple accommodations. He was delighted that we felt that way. We were going to stay one more night but he decided we would leave right away. We ended up in a primitive camp with no sign of any people nearby. There was no one there but us. We cooked our own food (rather the guide and our travel agent did) and they told us that this was once a place where Queen Elizabeth stayed when she was in Africa at the time her father died. I am sure it was much fancier when she stayed there but it certainly did not look as nice as her dwellings did on the series "The Crown." In the morning while they cooked breakfast for us outside we could see the mountains. Usually they were surrounded by clouds. Although Kilimanjaro is actually in Tanzania, it is the highest mountain in Africa. We watched the clouds begin to clear and we could see the famous Killy. It was especially memorable because the date was July 4.
Our guide who really knew the animals and terrain of Africa was born and raised in South Africa. His family lived in the U.S. and he was in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. He said the main reason he wanted to become a citizen was because of our U.S. Constitution. I would love to see him now and find out what he thinks about the current threats to our Constitution. Ironically one of my social studies duties was to teach the Constitution to my seventh grade class. Before a student in Illinois can go on to high school they have to pass a test on the U. S. Constitution. They also have to pass a test for high school graduation. In fact, you can't teach in Illinois if you don't pass a test on the U.S Constitution and the Illinois Constitution. So his talk of our Constitution really resonated with me.
My safari was over much too fast. Some of the sights were breathtaking. There were the crocodiles near streams. They are so still they are difficult to see because they look like fallen logs in the water. They are also very dangerous. Luckily, we were with people who not only knew how to look for crocs but knew how to be safe around them. Then there were the monkeys. They were not cute. They loved parking lots and were excellent at breaking into cars. They would be after the food left there and it was so much easier to get food from a car rather than the jungle. I loved the elephants best of all. They just went about their business and completely ignored us.
The landscape was gorgeous. The people were friendly. While in Nairobi we visited the Parliament. One member spent a lot of time talking to us. He was also interested in hearing about O. J. Simpson as that was around the time of his trial. So that's how long ago I took that trip. I always thought I would go back but I never did. I made it to Morocco and Egypt which are also in Africa but completely different than Kenya in many ways. All are trips worth taking though!
What about the cannibals in the title of this epic journey? Shucks, I was just trying to get you to read this. Did it work?
What a fabulous trip!
ReplyDeleteWhat a thrill to read about your travels, Barbara. Jean G. 339
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