Full Text:

A Teacher Tells Of An African Adventure

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

You are in an open land cruiser, driving over the Maasai Mara in Kenya, trying

to catch up with a herd of elephants, when one of the 13 jeeps in your group

gets stuck. Waiting around while the crew is pushing the jeep out of the mud,

you see something out of the corner of your eye.

A moment later, it pounces. A cheetah has just landed on the front hood of one

of your companions' jeep. One of the cheetah's cubs then tries to jump up to

join her, and struggles up on the back tire of the jeep.

The tourists may have been somewhat surprised, but soon learned that the tour

guides know "Queenie," the cheetah, quite well. And she's done this before.

About ten minutes later Queenie, finally decides to get down freeing the group

to continue their African adventure.

This happened on the eight-day safari, that Beth Runkle, former fifth grade

teacher from Middle Gate School, took earlier this fall.

Brian Runkle, Beth's husband, had won the trip-for-two through his work. As

well as the eight-day safari, they also had an eight-day climb up Mt

Kilimanjaro and balloon rides included on their trip through Kenya and nearby

countries.

On the safari, Mrs Runkle said that the procession of land cruisers raced over

dirt tracks on the plains, at times going at speeds "that felt like 60 miles

an hour."

They saw zebras everywhere, so much so that they started to disregard them,

the way one might disregard a dog or cat here.

Of all the animals they saw --the wildebeest, gazelles, lions, wart hogs,

ostrich and even an albino rhino -- the animal that the locals most feared was

the hippopotamus. Apparently the hippos are hard to see in the water, and can

charge and attack people when disturbed.

Tour guides made special arrangements for Mrs Runkle to visit a Maasai school

for first to eighth grade on their route. She said that although there were

many children in the primary grades, there were far fewer in higher grades.

Mrs Runkle said that the children, especially the girls, quit school early to

marry. Girls often married at about age 13.

Mrs Runkle was saddened when she saw the teacher's resource room at the

school. A small box containing a few precious nubs of chalk and a few sheets

of paper was all they had.

Yet she said that even with so little, the children's penmanship and artwork

were beautiful. (She gave the school some colored band-aids and stickers which

she had brought from America.)

Mrs Runkle said how warm and friendly the Maasai people were. They were very

welcoming, and even had the younger children sing songs for the visitors.

Curious about how the Maasai people viewed Americans, she discussed this with

her tour guide.

She learned that the Maasai people feared that "you are going to come in and

ruin them, take their culture." The guide followed through on Mrs Runkle's

question and arranged for an elder to come and talk with the tourists about

their culture and concerns.

Mrs Runkle said that the children she met had only three questions about

America. They wanted to know about agriculture, the climate and who the

President was.

Cultivating land is a new idea for the Maasai. For religious reasons, they

rely on the milk and blood of their cattle as their main food source, and do

not cultivate the land.

Although near the equator, the local climate is not as warm as one might

expect, especially at night. Mrs Runkle said that the comfortable daytime

temperature (70 degrees) quickly cooled to 40 to 50 degrees at nightfall.

(Even though it was cold, they slept in tents most of the time, and they

climbed through snow as they neared the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro.)

Still brimming with the excitement of her trip, Mrs Runkle brought slides and

stories to share with Middle Gate first graders.

Mrs Miller, first grade teacher, said her class loved the presentation Mrs

Runkle gave. She followed up by having the children make a postcard to send to

their parents, with their favorite African animal on it.