Field Trip

I took my grade 7 class on their first fieldtrip today and it was a blast. The kids were supposed to meet me in town today at 3:45. They had to walk from our school in "the location" to town which takes about 45 minutes. School was out at 1:00 and some of my learners were in town by 2:00 because they were so excited. We lined up to get ready to go. Now in the US we would have a nice bus with an experienced bus driver but this is Africa and things work a little bit different. One of our teachers drover her little hatchback car with six kids sitting on eachother. I rode with Hans, a german missionary, in the truck that he borrowed. We loaded five kids in the cab and about fifteen more sat in the open back of the truck as we headed about 10kms out of town. On the way there Hans had to make two trips so he dropped us and headed back to get the second group.

This trip is for agriculture as I am currently teaching about domesticated and wild animals and about farm animals. I know it sounds funny! This farm is actually a bed and breakfast. They have sheep, horses, cattle, ducks, fish farm, a grown male lion, ostrich, two cheetahs, lynx, meerkats and off in the back some wild giraffe, kudu, eland, springbok and oryx. All of my learners had a worksheet that they had to work on so part of their job was to observe and ask the guy showing us around some questions. We looked at the fish farm and the sheep and then headed onto the lion, Mufasa. The man, Andrie, was preparing a horse head to feed Mufasa. Smelling the blood, Mufasa was growling, pacing and jumping at the fence. It was a sight to see. He was in true lion form. The kids all loved to watch him. The funniest part was the oldest boy in the class (19) and the smallest boy in the class were so scared they kept running off! The kids were doing a great job asking interesting questions and really listening to the answers. Andrie also fed the two cheetahs at the farm. They were captured several years previously for killing cattle on farms. When he fed them, the cheetahs fought over it. It was pretty amazing to see and pretty gross as well. The best part to end the evening was as we were driving away, Mufasa let out the Lion King roar three times as we drove away.

As we were driving away, I was so filled with happiness. Here I was, freezing cold and crammed in the back of a truck with 22 of my kids, flying down a deserted highway to my little town. There was yelling in my ears and the possibility of an accident. All we had to eat was a bun with some butter on it for dinner. I was in charge of 35 teenagers and we just went to visit a lion. I have never been happier. I love these kids and today was one of the best days I have ever had in the past year and a half!!!

Above - Most of my class getting ready to leave. 35 of my 36 learners walked the 45 minutes to town for the trip. Many of them showed up more than 30 minutes eary because they were so excited and didn't want to be late.
Here is the class watching Mufasa pace back and forth while he was waiting for his dinner. He was quite aggressive; jumping at the fence, growling and baring his teeth. It was quite a sight to see for sure. The kids loved it!
Mufasa!!

I think it is funny how things change. I have seen this lion so many times that I don't get too excited when I do go out there. How interesting is it that the thought or experience of visiting and touching a grown male lion does not get me too excited anymore.