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.
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| The girls afraid of the little snake |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mercy and I |
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| 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.
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| It was a great trip |
