School Trip

 A couple of weeks ago my class were studying Saudi Arabia, in particular deserts and camels. I never knew how cool camels were before, but I had to pretend to my class that I was of course the expert. So as a treat at the end of our unit I had planned a field trip (so I had totally just forgot that it’s not a field trip, it’s a school trip, I’m turning so American) to Arusha Snake Park. It is obviously a park and has snakes, but ahh, it also has camels. We invited Miss Becky’s class along to as they were doing a study on animals.

We took the van and another car to fit everyone in safely (although it is Africa we still wanted to follow British procedure) This is until after 15 minutes on the road, the car broke down so we crammed all the children into the van, it was a bit of a squeeze, but much more fun to all be together.

We started off by looking at all the snakes (some of them rather big and scary) there was a lot of screaming from the children until I reminded them that they were behind glass.

We then saw a monkey kept in a big cage; the cage was covered by a barrier (this to me warns you not to go past the bar.) But in Tanzania, sometimes health and safety that you would follow in England, goes out the window. My student Hassani, put his hand out to the monkey and the monkey shook his hand, after initially getting past my nerves, everybody had a go, including me, it was really sweet.

A guide, which we hadn’t seen up until this point, popped out and offered us the opportunity to hold a baby snake and baby alligator. Some of the children were really nervous but I took one for the team and went first, when they saw that I was okay they all queued up to have a hold.

The girls afraid of the little snake

Prince being brave

We then rushed to the picnic tables to have our lunch as we were on a tight schedule to get back to school in time. After the children were half way through their lunches, we realised through all the excitement and chaos none of the children had washed their hands, bearing in mind they had just held snakes and alligators. We plopped a squirt of hand sanitizer on each little hand and hoped for the best (there has been no sign of illness due to that so far, so all good). Bad Miss Holly.

Spreading germs...yum

The children were very excited when they first set eyes on the camels, it was so rewarding when they were pointing out the different features and how they help the camel survive in the desert, I was so proud and well quite relieved that what I had been teaching them had stayed in their heads. Each child got a go at riding the camels and they had a great fun. I rode with my student Mercy and it was rather scary sitting on the camel when he stands up but I had to put on my brave teacher face and it was great fun, but I don’t know how I would cope with riding a camel in the desert for days and days that’s for sure.

Mercy and I

Some of the boys.

The trip was a great success and all the children had a fabulous time. The only downside was the journey back as “Tanzarria” had hit me, but with a rush to get home I had to hold it for 2 hours until I felt queasier and queasier. Nice.

It was a great trip