Fall 2003 Trip Reports

The School was in Southern Africa for Fall 2003

Click to Link to Trip Reports Sent from Africa on the following dates:

September 9, 2003
September 21, 2003
October 10, 2003
October 21, 2003
November 18, 2003
December 1, 2003



Orientation- Just getting used to each other!

Posted September 9, 03
Dear parents, families and friends -

After 20 hours in a plane, 4 hours waiting for the rental car to arrrive, and a 6 hour drive to the banana farm where we are staying - we finally made it to Africa! Everyone is settling in, eating good food, relaxing by the pool, and today is the first full day of class. This is an amazing group. We have 3 teachers and 6 students - the girls are from all across the United States and eager for adventure!

Leah is a senior from Colorado - and we've already been impressed by her willingness to help others and her bright smile. She is always the first one in the kitchen to help with dinner, and the first one to help anyone who would like a hug!

Roxana is a senior from California - she is the observer. She is always very aware of everything that is happening, and has a quick sense of humor. She takes everything in stride. When we were getting gas at the gas station yesterday, she accidentally opened the car door for someone else's car. When the old women in the car started laughing and invited her to ride with them, she just smiled and laughed and took it all with a smile.

Kathryn is a senior from New York - and she is a wonderful mixture of intelligence and fun. She is very serious about her classes and her academic work. So much so, that no one suspects that she has started an entire game called Covert Ops. She sneaks into people's rooms and steals something, leaving a ransom note behind. She tells people what they need to do to get their stuff back - everything from singing the ABCs to falling down!

Jenae is a junior from Colorado - and she has a wonderful sense of humor and a great positive outlook on the world. She is always smiling, teasing, and enthusistic about everything she sees. At the race a few days ago, she was tired and fell behind some of the group. At the end, she was leading the pack with a huge smile - and was the first girl across the finish line!

Kara is a junior from Colorado - and she has been entertaining us with her wild stories and crazy sense of fun. Kara has a determined attitude, and she will accomplish anything she puts her mind to! At the race, her knee was hurting and she was having a difficult time walking. But she put her head down and crossed the finish line in style. We were all so proud of her!

Bonnie is a junior from Montana - and she is fun and always does the unexpected. With her quiet smile, she tells wonderful stories and is always the center of an interested group of girls. When we were looking at animals yesterday, Bonnie was always the first one of of the car, running down the road, seeking animals, and capturing everything on videotape. She is also great at spotting animals in the bush!


ACADEMICS

Since today is the first full day of classes, our subjects are just getting started. We've spent several days going through orientation - talking about rules, safety, traveling, health and group life. This looks like it will be an amazing group. In English, students are starting Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. They had to write an autobiography of themselves last night, and they were all laughing as they shared details about their lives at the beginning of class this morning. In History, they started reading an intensive historical overview of African History and began discussing the effects of colonization. For Science, students began their field journals with observations of the bright and colorful flowers all around the banana farm. They are working on conservation biology, field science and beginning environmental science. Math class has the students setting financial goals and learning to keep a budget of all of the money they've spent. They also had a big review session on the Rand and are learning the value of a dollar. Language course has the students learning how to communicate without using any words (a very important way to begin communicating in Africa!), and they've learned a few words in Afrikaans and Sotho. Their homework was to talk with Maria, a woman who works at the farm, and find out something about her using gestures, Afrikaans, English and Sotho. In Global Studies, students began learning about customs and cultures, community standards and health while abroad.

CULTURE & ACTIVITES
Everyone isn't relaxing by the pool all of the time! We've already been able to do quite a bit. We've toured the banana and avocado farm with Christiana, a wonderful woman who runs the farm with her husband, Alwyn. The girls had their first visit to town on a busy Saturday morning and were able to email, buy snacks, and explore the tiny mall. Yesterday we drove to a Cheetah Breeding Project and we got to see animals for the first time in the wild. At the project, we loaded into Jeep safari trucks and saw wild dogs, cheetahs, sable antelopes and beautiful birds. On the drive home we saw handfuls of giraffes off the side of the highway! And last night, we all drove into town and called home. Everyone in town was staring to see 9 phones lined up with all sorts of Americans chattering to the other side of the world!

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Aside from swimming in the icy cold water of the pool, we did start this semester off in impressive form. On our second day, we all entered a 10 kilometer race from one town to the next. Every single person in our group finished - and we were all quite proud of ourselves! We were able to talk with people during the run, and we all rooted for a little boy who ran the entire race barefoot. We've also started morning workouts - pushups, situps and squats. We'll all be strong in no time! Tomorrow morning, we're going for a run through the rows of banana trees on the farm!

We'll be in Tzaneen for the next several weeks. We are planning to visit a local high school, going to an Animal Rehabilitation Center for animal orphans, we're going to visit the local Malaria Institute for information on disease trasnmission and prevention, and we're going to go to another wilderness area to learn to track animals in the bush!

Hope all is well at home! We'd love to receive any emails, and we'll be in touch after our next adventure!

Sincerely,
Gennifre Hartman
Principal


Posted Sept. 21, 2003

Dear parents, friends and families,

We are finishing up our last few days here on the banana farm. It has been an amazing start to the semester, and we are all quite pleased that we were able to spend so much time in this region! The girls are happy, tanned, smiling - and sad to leave our kind community here in Tzaneen that has been so generous and fun! As Leah said, "Every day I wake up and realize I'm in Africa - and I just can't stop smiling!"

ACADEMICS:
School has been going quite well. Everyone is settling in to the busy routine of classes, reading, tests and homework on the road. For English they wrote the first draft of their first paper. They are writing a descriptive essay about a place, and they all have incredible stories and detail in their drafts. For History they are working through an intensive mapping activity to label and learn all of the relevant places in southern Africa. They are also continuing to read the insightful novel, "My Traitor's Heart." Math class has all of the students working through budgeting (Roxana said last night, "How could I have spent some much money on food?!"), career planning and resume writing. In Science class, the students spent our time at Krugar Park creating scientific observations while on safari. Jenae sat in the back seat of a car with her sketch book on her lap and muttered, "Giraffe! Stand still so I can draw you!" They are designing their own game reserve and working through mission statements for how they will manage their reserves. For language class, they are speaking introductory Afrikaans with good pronunciation and big smiles. Whenever Kara sees anyone in the morning, she is the first to call, "Gooie more!" in Afrikaans. We start with Zulu next week - it is a language filled with clicking sounds and is very hard to pronounce! For Global Studies, the girls are studying culture, cultural interactions, and discussing the roles of culture within our lives.

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
We have been busy. The Traveling School was invited to a Round Square Schools convention in this region. There were 80 students and teachers from around the world who participated in the Outdoor Education and Adventure workshop. The schools were from New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Korea and South Africa. Despite the rain, all of the students spent 3 days together working through problem-solving activities, eating braai, kayaking, playing paintball in the woods (Kathryn got hit in the head twice with ooey-gooey paintballs and was a great sport about the bright steaks of orange in her hair!), rock-climbing, rappelling and more. There was a cultural evening where everyone taught each other songs from their culture. Our girls got everyone dancing with their version of Snoop Dogg's Gin 'n Juice. Bonnie won the award for the most outgoing by playing rugby in the mud with two teams of enormous guys from Australia - and she did quite well!

We spent the last 3 days in Krugar National Park. This is a lucky group. Within 5 minutes of entering the park, we saw lions! During the next few days - we saw elephants swimming in a river, we saw a mama rhino protecting her baby, we saw huge herds of baboons staring at us as intently as we were staring at them, and we also saw more zebras, giraffes and impala than anyone could count. We slept under the stars in two bush camps and saw the Southern Cross for the first time. Our camps were surrounded by high electric fences to lock the people inside, and keep the animals out. At the second camp, we had an entire herd of Cape Buffalo right outside of the camp, and we heard them grunt and bellow all night. We also had a hungry hyena circle our camp looking for scraps, and we could hear it cackling in the night. On the last day, we saw a lioness eating a wildebeest it had just killed, and we all took a million rolls of photos! Just before we left the park, we saw a final herd of elephants. The front car got a little too close to a mama elephant and her baby - and she chased them off with a trumpet and a lunge! It was an exciting and incredible safari!

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Aside from the kayaking, paintball, rock-climbing and archery we did while at the Stanford Lake College, we've been having regular workouts. The girls taught the ladies on the farm to do some yoga - and even had some of them standing on their heads! This morning, we had a rousing game of Ultimate Frisbee before classes, and everyone is looking healthy and strong!

Our plans are to visit a Malaria Institute in Tzaneen tomorrow, and spend the afternoon kayaking with the Stanford Lake College students for the afternoon. We'll have another day of classes on Tuesday, and we leave the farm that afternoon. We're driving south to an area famous for rock-climbing, and we'll spend the rest of the week rock-climbing and exploring. From there, we're continuing south to the Drakensburg wilderness to do some hiking. We will have sporadic contact with email and phones - and we'll be in touch soon!

Sincerely,

Gennifre Hartman
Principal

October 10. 2003
Hey everyone,

Since we left Tzaneen, it's been a whirlwind of unbelievable activities for the group.  First came a few days of climbing in Waterval Boven, a world famous climbing area with hundreds of bolted routes on wonderful red walls. After three days stay at the local climbing hostel, we spent our first nights in the KwaZulu Natal Province in the Drakensberg Mountains.  The view from our tent sites at the Amphitheatre Backpackers spread across three countries-- to the West, Swaziland, to the East, Lesotho, and of course, South Africa itself.  Here we did our first hiking, and eventually backpacked in to our most beautiful classroom yet, a wide open overhang or cave, which doubled as our home for two nights.  After backpacking, we gladly found refuge (and more important, hot showers) in the heart of Zululand. Today, we're experiencing our first big city-- Durban. The girls look forward to going dancing, movies, and a little bit (understatement) of shopping!

Academically, the girls continue to work hard and have great attitudes.  I am amazed at how many truly unique settings we've utilized as classrooms: an overhanging cave in the Drakensberg Mountains, poolside in Tzaneen on a banana farm, and a hilltop grave site for the first martyred Zulu who became a Christian. In African Literature and Composition classes, we have recently finished our first novel, Cry the Beloved Country, and the girls will turn in their descriptive essays on Friday.  Next, we will read Out of Africa, and move onto personal narrative writing.  In The History and Government of Southern Africa, the girls have labored through complex college level readings pertaining to South African history.  Now, we're focusing on the system of apartheid, biographies of South African political personalities, and varying perspectives of important political events leading to the changeover in South African government.  Today, we plan to visit the Apartheid Museum in Durban to add another angle to the textbook information. In Natural Science, the girls have been studying biodiversity and the web of life, and are learning about South African conservation policies while visiting nature reserves in the Drakensberg Mountains and indigenous forests.  In Mathematical Applications, the girls have shown much interest in their focus on credit, debt, and real life financing.  These discussions have been lively, and the girls are excited about their budgets and financial plans for the future.  They will continue on with an investing unit.  In Global Studies, we've focused on communication, problem solving, and leadership skills.  During the past week, each student has had the opportunity to be the "chief" for the day, which includes planning the group 's activities, and keeping us all on schedule.  Leah volunteered to be our first Chief on a highly complex and logistical travel day and served as a wonderful model of patience and flexibility for the girls who followed her! For the Languages of Southern Africa, the study ha s shifted from Afrikaans to Zulu.  The girls have been given opportunities to apply their Zulu language skills in a number of unique settings, such as speaking with Zulu craftswomen (and children) weaving baskets near our hostel.  This week is the final push to midterms, and the opportunity for last minute preparation for the SATs in Cape Town.

Our experiences of the past few weeks have enriched our understandings of South African tribal culture.  In the Drakensberg we caught our first clear glimpses of newly erected government houses and ramshackle townships.  The girls received an impromptu Zulu lesson from local teens as we gazed on the rolling hills of Zululand. It was here that Roxana became our first student to be offered the traditional lobola (bride price) of 11 cows.  She was not the last to politely refuse the proposal with grace and a giggle.  In Eshowe, we sampled a traditional Zulu feast of pumpkin, sweet potatoes, meat stew and pop, while listening to remarkable Zulu music performed by our hotel gardener.  She played the mouth harp and a stringed instrument made out of a gourd.  The girls tried a sip of Zulu beer, which is a highly ceremonial, yeasty smelling, low alcohol content, rather warm brew that appears in a communal "pot" and is dished out during important occasions. We were so lucky to be able to attend two traditional ceremonies in Zulu villages - the first, a coming of age ceremony, and the next day, a wedding! Here we witnessed dancing, singing, and a juxtaposition of old and new ways of Zulu culture.  The groom and his groomsmen wore skins, carried shields and sticks, and rounded out their dress in western tennis shoes and snowmen towels slung over their shoulders.  The women stuck to more traditional dress, with intricate beadwork and cow skin skirts, though they varied on preferences of remaining topless, choosing to wear bras, or keeping their shirts on entirely.  We were welcomed to these ceremonies by local Zulu chiefs, the celebrating families, and especially the children (and of course, the young men!)  When Kathryn received her 10th offer of marriage, she finally asked how the young man intended to deliver the 11 cows to her father in New York.  In Durban, the girls learned bargaining skills for the markets, and broadened their knowledge of the intricacies of the Zulu language and customs, which vary widely depending  on local tradition.  Jenae became our first recipient of a new Traveling School weekly award - the African Queen - a symbol of her openness to new experiences and her willingness to interact with people she meets.

Our PE/Outdoor Education classes have been varied and full of fun.  We spent two warm, sunny days rock climbing in Waterval Boven, where the girls quickly became proficient with their rock climbing skills including belaying each other, climbing, and rope skills.  Bonnie took to the rock like a spider, and handily ascended every climb available to her.  I'll never forget Roxana's cry, "I did it!" from the top of a particularly tough climb or Kara's determination, as she patiently worked out the moves of the climbs, and how she rescued Stacey (our athletic award/Barbie doll) from the top of a climb.  Our local guide, Tulane (whose name means silence) though slightly overwhelmed with the chatter of nine women, was certainly impressed with our enthusiasm.  In the Drakensberg the group hiked to the top of Amphitheatre Peak, greeted with near vertical chain ladders in the final ascent and was rewarded with amazing views of Lesotho and surrounding mountains.  We backpacked into the Sherman cave, and did day hikes luring us towards Cathedral Peak and more impressive vistas.  In the interim, we have begun to enjoy competitive (and exhausting) games of Ultimate Frisbee. Being the oldest on the trip, I can safely say that I am delighted when I make it through these games.  We are all growing stronger, and benefiting from our fitness regimen.

We look forward to our upcoming final push to Cape Town.  We plan to surf on the East Cape, follow the Garden Route, stop off in Jeffrey's Bay, and be in Cape Town by mid-October.  There, the girls look forward to their home stays, a community service project with Habitat for Humanity where we will help build houses in a township outside of Cape Town, and of course, taking the SAT's.  During homestays, the girls will work on projects in each subject, visit schools, and enjoy time with their host families.  We ARE HAVING FUN!!!

Thanks for sending your wonderful daughters with us to experience South Africa.

Jennifer Royall, English and History Instructor.

October 21, 2003
Dear parents, families and friends,
All of your daughters are spending today mixing concrete, moving bricks, and building walls in a township outside of Cape Town. They are busy working with Habitat for Humanity to build a home for a 70-year-old woman who has been living in a shack her entire life. They are sweating in the sun, listening to township music played on a variety of carved instruments, playing with the excited school children that keep peering around the construction site to see what we are doing, and working hard to make a difference in one woman's life.
Since we last wrote, we have spent a busy several weeks touring along the south-eastern rim of the African continent. We've been surfing at world famous surf breaks, learned Zulu from native language speakers in the heart of Durban, visited an apartheid museum, had classes on the beach, seen more whales and dolphins than we can count, and we are now in Cape Town. The girls are living with their host families and we are spending each day working to build houses in a township.
ACADEMICS
We're all breathing a huge sigh of relief that midterms are finally over. The girls spent the past week immersed in a difficult series of exams. For African Literature and Composition, they started the rough draft of their second paper, a personal narrative about a significant experience, and they are reading Out of Africa. For the History of Southern Africa, they finished an intensive comprehensive midterm of the History and Geography of South Africa. They are starting on a unit including current events, the fall of apartheid, and this section will culminate in a tour to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and a tour of the Houses of Parliament, here in Cape Town. In Mathematical Applications, the girls are learning how to invest in the stock market. They have all set up mock portfolios and are diligently tracking their investments. In Natural Science, they completed an in-depth mid-term examination with comprehensive questions covering oceanography, wildlife biology, land management, and resource allocation. In the Languages of Southern Africa, the girls took a difficult written and oral exam in Afrikaans and Zulu - they did quite well, testing in two languages at the same time! They are beginning their lessons in Xhosa - and Jenae has already been telling the children in the township, "Molo! Molo!" (Hello! Hello! in Xhosa) In Global Studies, they are finishing their Leadership Segment with an essay on the leadership styles of a specific world leader, and they begin their next segment on hazard evaluation, the effects of tourism, and South Africa's cultural challenges after their home stays. Midterm grades will be distributed by the end of this week for all schools and parents.
CULTURE AND ACTIVITES
Our group has been so fortunate in our interactions with the various peoples of South Africa. After leaving Durban, we left the heart of the Zulu Nation. The girls left with a strong understanding of the Zulu language, society and culture. In Cape Town, we have found ourselves within several different cultures. We were invited to the home of the Van Niekerks, the generous Afrikaner family who own the banana farm we originally stayed at in Tzaneen. As Afrikaners, they are proud of their distinct heritage, and as a family living in the urbanized upper class, they are enthusiastic about the remarkable changes within South Africa. They were so generous and kind to our group - creating an incredible feast to welcome us off the road, and taking us on a tour of their village, Hermanus. We saw mama and baby whales from the shore - they were so close that Kathryn wanted to jump off of the rocks and swim out in the ocean after them! The girls are now living with their host-families for their 10-day home stays. They are living with a culture commonly referred to as "Coloureds." While that term may ring harsh on our American ears, it is regarded in Cape Town with a sense of pride. The Coloureds, sometimes known as Cape Coloureds or Cape Maylays, are South Africans of long standing. During apartheid, a sense of community developed among these people from radically different ethnic origins (spreading from Indonesia to East Africa). They all speak Afrikaans, are strongly middle-class, and have a strong sense of family and community. The girls spend each day working in a Xhosa community in a township for our Habitat for Humanity project. The Xhosa language is a tonal language with an intense series of clicks and beautiful sounds. I am amazed each day as I watch the girls slide in and out of these distinct cultures as if they had been doing it all of their lives.
OUTDOOR ACTIVITES
After spending so many weeks inland, we headed for the coast. The turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean were capped with perfect white waves - and we hired a surf instructor at the first beach we could find. The waves were strong and cold, even though Kara had never seen the ocean before, she jumped right in and played for hours! We all tried to surf and boogie board. Kathryn and Roxana learned about the strength of the ocean after they tried to boogie board out to the biggest break. Our surf instructor and all of the cute boys on the beach came to their rescue and dragged them back to safety. Bonnie rode the boogie board all afternoon, sailing on the crumbling waves up to the beach and laughing. Leah kept playing in the big waves. They would topple her, spin her around, and leave her on the beach with sand in her hair - and an enormous smile on her face. We've also been playing Ultimate Frisbee, doing push-ups in the sand, and running along the beaches. Now that we are in Cape Town - all of our muscles are sore from mixing concrete all day. While we are here, we hope to go rock climbing again and climb some routes on Table Mountain!
We have another week in Cape Town. We are planning to visit museums, the Houses of Parliament, have classes, and take advantage of the city. The local radio station, Cape Talk, wants to interview us and do a story on The Traveling School and our volunteer work with Habitat. After a busy week of classes and sightseeing, the girls are taking their SATs, and then we'll dramatically change gears. We're returning the rental cars and cell phone and boarding a safari truck bound for Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. We'll spend weeks camping under the stars in the desert, having classes in the bush, trying sand boarding on the dunes in Namibia - and you'll hear from us as often as possible.
Hope all is well at home. Hamba kahle, sala kahle. (Go well, stay well in Zulu)
Gennifre Hartman
Principal

November 18, 03
Dear Parents and Friends-
I just left an art gallery where we had a morning language class with a Namibian woman who is a native German speaker. We are on the Namibian coast in a town called Swakopmund. It is a distinctly German town, with the Namib Desert to the east and the icy Atlantic Ocean to the west. The girls have been enjoying some town time - emailing, rinsing the sand out of their hair and doing laundry. They've written this trip report - and here is what's been happening in their own words!
CAPE TOWN from Karalyn:
Homestays were a lot of fun. Our homestay families were nice, and interesting. It was nice to have a mom and a dad to take care of us, and cook wonderful, delicious meals. After homestays we did so many things! We got to have classes in a conference room in the NedBank building because we met one of their senior officers when we were building the house for Habitat for Humanity. It was a great classroom complete with comfortable chairs, a nice large table, and complementary tea, coffee and cookies. The bank even provided us with a delicious meal at lunch! The NedBank was right on the waterfront which was an area filled with shops, cafes, and restaurants, with the harbor right there. We got to go to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. It was a very interesting tour of the island and prison. While in Cape Town, we even went to the Aquarium and Planetarium. The Aquarium was really cool, we got to see a variety or aquatic life, and see sharks up close. The Planetarium was a good chance to rest our eyes and the conductor showed us some stars of the Southern skies. We also visited Parliament, and got to see all the
different rooms like the House of Assembly and the National Assembly. It was really awkward to sit in the room where the Apartheid law was passed only 6 decades ago in 1948. On the first of November Jenae, Bonnie and I all got to sleep in while the others went and took their SATs. Even with our busy schedule, we found time to go shopping. We went to the Somerset Mall, and went to the Body Shop, put on make-up and then walked around the mall the rest of the time. Cape Town was a great place to relax, have fun, and enjoy all of the sights we were taking in.

NAMBIA by Roxana
At the beginning of November we ended our two month expedition in South Africa and entered, literally, the driest country in the world, Namibia. We crossed the border without the any difficulties and set up camp at Felix Unite, a gorgeous spot for out first few nights in Namibia. Later that week we ventured north to Ai-Ais and Hobas, each with a swimming pool and plenty of baboons, one of which made off with several of our Luna bars. I enjoyed eating ice cream between classes. The following week we traveled to Luderitz, a town in the heart of diamond mines. We toured an abandoned ghost town and not more than 15 minutes later, watched flamingos wander through the waters of Diaz Point. We visited Dusweib Castle, which was built in the middle of the desert by a crazy German immigrant. The following day we entered the Namib Desert and saw our first sand dunes. We woke up at 4:30 am and drove to the famous Dune 45 to see the sunrise. That afternoon we hiked for a few hours through the dunes. We spent Saturdaynight at a bush camp, where we all slept atop massive boulders under the night sky. Today is our first day in Swakopmund, the biggest city yet. Tuesday we're going sand boarding, something I've been looking forward to for months. Namibia is nothing short of amazing while very different from its neighbor, South Africa.

THE PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA by Kathryn
The past month has been a whirlwind of new places visited and more importantly, new people we have met along our way! Just before we arrived at the flat in Cape Town we stopped in an oceanside town called Hermanus to spend a night at the home of Marthie and Henny. Marthie and Henny own not only the flat in Cape Town but also the banana farm we stayed on in Tzaneen! The whole group was thoroughly spoiled by the one night spent at their beautiful house. Martie is quite a hostess and steadily supplied one delicious meal and snack after another! Henny was also extremely welcoming and knowledgeable about Hermanus. He told us all about the vegetation of the area, some stories about sharks and abalone poachers, and finally took us to a secluded shoreline spot where whales were bobbing and swimming just 30 meters from the shore. After pumpkin fritters and many casseroles, we said goodbye to Marthie and Henny and moved on for our homestays outside of Cape Town. Everyone had an excellent time living with their families and came back with many stories. Roxana and I stayed with Sharon, 50, and her parents, Ma and Pa. Former District Six residents, this family was comforting and amusing. Ma and Pa loved to laugh at us and Sharon continually asked if we were ok. As a present, Ma crocheted us both cream colored ponchos! We had a great time. Just two days after we left Ma, Pa, and Sharon, my parents arrived in Cape Town to visit! They loved meeting the group and had fun taking everyone out to dinner. My mom made Halloween goodie bags for all, and the candy was much appreciated. After coming with us to Robben Island and taking me all over Cape Town for great food and
shopping, it was time for me to say goodbye to them and our group left for Safari! Our safari truck came with two now vital members of the group: Crispen and Japhet. Both Shona speaking men from Zimbabwe, the two are our cook and guide-driver, respectively. Japhet is older with three children. He laughs a lot and enjoys working out with us in the mornings. Japhet is a great source of information on everything from Zim culture to ancient plants. Crispen has been married only two years, and on the 13th of November his first child, a girl named Ropofadzo, was born! He was so excited and our group gave him a congratulatory gift of phone cards so he can check up on his wife and daughter more often. Crispen and Japhet are both very religious, and it has been so interesting to learn not only about their religious beliefs but also about their intricate cultural ways of respecting elders and gender roles. We all feel so lucky to have them around.

NAMIBIAN SCENERY by Jenae
Namibia is unlike any other place I have ever been! The land goes on for miles and miles with out a single breath from its dry, flat pattern. The sky is equally as big, extending to the horizon where orange dunes, and desert dust meets a baby blue, cloudless sky. At night I lay on my back and look up to the expansive painting above, it turns to a pitch-black lamination with millions of ornaments. The different colors echoing from these stars make me question their existence the northern hemisphere. I live in a small community in a rural area of Colorado, and still have never seen such a colorful twinkle; bursts of red blue green and yellow from every individual star. We sleep under this dark quilt often, that is, when there is no fear of spiders, snakes or baboons. The day's heat is scorching. It is understandable since we are in the middle of the summer and if any of you have been to Palm Springs in the summer, it is a great equivalent. We hide in our massive safari truck during the long hours of the day or in a shaded patio for classes. Japhet, our driver, stops often to let herds of ostriches cross the dirt road, or to let us out to admire the insane landscape. The other day we stopped to walk around what is known as the lunar landscape, and after that we saw the oldest plants on earth. These plants are similar to yucca although they're known for their long roots that lay just below the ground to collect the minimal water they can. I love to draw and have been keeping what I can of a scrapbook/drawing journal. I bring this up because of my laziness to add one of the most interesting things there is to draw. A contrast, of light and dark and the trillions of pieces of sand that make it up: sand dunes. Last week, we took a long walk all over the Namib Dunes, I felt like I was in a coffee table book. With the perfectly wind blown dunes and the interrupted blue sky. They are a monument of Namibia, where tourists congregate. Namibia is an amazing place to live, to travel, and to adventure through. The scenery is endless and intriguing! I'm constantly amazed by such an expansive state of land.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES by Leah
Namibia. What can I say, a whole bunch, I guess. We have been doing as many outdoor activities as possible which have included Ultimate Frisbee, walking along the rim of Fish River Canyon, playing in the sand dunes at 5:30 in the morning and many more activities. Each morning begins with workout at 6:30 am. Not exactly my favorite time of day. Workouts alternate between strength and cardio conditioning. Conditioning is either a run along the beach or an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee, which is a game sort of like soccer, only you play with a Frisbee. Crispen and Japhet have joined us for a few games and are already doing a great job. Strength mornings are my least favorite, but I give my all anyway. We do lots of push-ups, triceps dips, leg lifts, wall sits, and infinite amount of crunches. I think that our most interesting setting for workouts has been in Luderitz because it was so windy and we all had to concentrate on not losing our pads that we were doing our exercises on. On the Orange River we went kayaking, but the kayaks weren't the kind I was thinking of. Instead of being a one-seater, closed-boat, they were open and had two seats. So it was more like canoeing with a kayak paddle. Bonnie and Jennifer had the misfortune of being in a faulty kayak and had to switch boats with the guide 15 minutes in to the trip. I seemed to think that I was a kayaking expert and successfully managed to ram Kathryn's and my boat in the reed filled bank where Kathryn was smothered with reeds. But don't worry - I was later give the Bonehead Award for that maneuver. Heading farther into Namibia we stopped 10 kilometers from the Fish River Canyon, which is the second largest canyon in the world. There were trails that we didn't have enough time to hike, but we did get to hike along the top and watched the sunset over the canyon. A few days later we were near another canyon called Sesriem Canyon. This one we did have enough time to hike through. I thought this canyon was so beautiful and was amazed at how the earth had seemed to split apart and form this tiny canyon. One morning we had the pleasure of waking up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could drive to Dune 45, which is one of the many bright orange sand dunes of Namibia. We hiked to the top where we sat and watched the dunes turn millions of different colors as the sun rose. To get down from Dune 45 we did all sorts of tricks and jumps flinging ourselves down the dune. Today we had the best time going sand boarding in the town of Swakopmund. Kathryn, Jennifer, Roxana, Bonnie, and Genevieve all did the stand up kind while Gennifre, Kara, Jenae, and I all did the lie-down kind. I had a piece of plywood, a helmet, gloves, and some elbow pads. The lie-down borders got going up to 80 kilometers an hour and Jenae caught some serious air on the last run. It was like sledding on the sand. I think that sand boarding was one of the best activities we have done on the trip because of the extreme speed and massive amount of skin exfoliation.
(Bonnie wrote a report entitled "A Day in the Life on the Safari Truck," but email did its magic and it has sadly disappeared! We'll try to work this out!)

ACADEMICS by Gennifre
Of course, none of the students wanted to write about this category :) However, we are still having regular classes and have scheduled all of our fun activities around academics. In Mathematical Applications, the students have finished their investing portfolios and have moved on to a Life Game. In this game, they incorporate budgeting, banking, paychecks, housing, insurance and credit cards into fictional characters. They are learning great skills for real life! In Natural Science, they have finished a comprehensive unit on conservation Biology and sustainable development, and have moved on to Geology, including plate tectonics and land formation. They are also working with the African Composition and Literature course for a unit on the solar system. In conjunction with the Planetarium visit in Cape Town, the girls have started to track stars, watch the cycle of the moon, and learn about the universe - quite applicable since we spend each night staring at the southern sky! The English requirement for these Moon Journals includes creating a constellation and creating a myth to explain the stars. They also need to write poetry inspired by the stars. Additionally, in English, they have finished their personal narrative essays and are beginning their final paper, a travel article. They have been glued to their final novel, The Power of One. In History and Government of Southern Africa, the class has been wrapping up the current events of South Africa. They have discussed changes since the fall of apartheid and the modern South African government. They have recently started studying the tribes of Namibia and Namibian History. For the Languages of Southern Africa, the students finished their study of Xhosa and have started on German. As a former German colony, German is widely spoken in Namibia. The students are speaking with German tourists and native German speakers throughout Namibia. In Global Studies, we have been reading and discussing the effects of tourism and the impact of globalization. We just finished reading the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and are beginning in a discussion of modern slavery. With only a few weeks left of the semester, we're having a great time incorporating everything we have learned!
NEXT:
From Swakopmund, we are heading further north. We'll see ancient rock art, visit Etosha Park to see more animals (Leah's parents are meeting us here!), and we'll be heading east to Botswana. Next week, we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in the bush with 100 degree heat. Leah's parents are bringing us some goodies, and I'm going to the store this afternoon to try and find traditional Thanksgiving staples in a Namibian market - wish me luck!
We are all well and happy. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home and we'll write again soon!
Sincerely,
Gennifre Hartman
Principal

December 1, 2003

The past ten days since leaving Swakopmund have been intensely filled with amazing adventures, spectacular sights, and a number of amusing events. First let me begin with explaining how incredibly large our safari truck is. It is close to the size of two dump trucks put together (and after this trip it does not smell too much better!) Now imagine the nine of us pushing our safari tractor out of a sand ditch, off a soft embankment, and a few mornings to pop the clutch. It is quite a spectacular sight; the girls are very empowered by the fact that they can push the "beast" around! We love our new home on the safari truck and everything that comes with the package, including our two incredible guides Crispen and Japhet.

Leaving Swakopmund was one of the warmest travel days we have had in Namibia. The truck became a sauna and we all enjoyed a full day of sleep sprawled across the warm, roomy benches. We stopped a few times to see one of the oldest plant in the world, the welwitcha plant at 1,200 years old, and to trek around on "the moon", a canyon land area that looks like the surface of the moon.

Our destination was a bush-camp near a protected area full of rock engravings from our distant relatives thousands of years ago. These pictures of lions, giraffes, and elephants were a clue to how the environment was like during the first years of man. The girls were all in awe. They especially enjoyed our guide who would make jokes about how one of the engravings depicted the first bicycle, "so when you return to your homeland make sure you tell everyone the first bicycle is from Namibia!" He thought that was very amusing.

In Ouja, outside of Etosha, the girls decided on an evening game of capture the flag. Kathryn and Roxana developed the idea earlier in the week during our morning workouts, so we adapted the game to a pitch black field under the southern night sky. We used glow sticks, a gift from Kathryn's mom, as the flags at each goal post. The game was intense and incredibly amusing. Crispen was our secret weapon. He blended in with the surroundings and darkness so that by the time you knew he was there, the glow stick was making it's way to the other side and the only thing you could see were Crispen's white shoes sprinting across the field. We had such a fun time that evening; we talked about it for days as we all moaned and groaned about our sore muscles and mysterious bruises.

We soon found ourselves in Etosha, an amazing national park with an extremely diverse ecosystem. Etosha holds a grand salt pan that covers the entire horizon in places. While on game drives, we would travel through a desolate landscape passing islands of acacia trees, and hidden in the bushes were giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, and pronghorns. We were all blown away by how far the animals have to travel from one watering hole and food source to the next. Leah's parent were with us during our stay in Etosha which was such a treat. While on game drives with the Stettners we saw the most amazing sight. A male lion slowly walked along the side of the road paying no attention to us as we followed him to his three baby cubs. We spent the next hour or so within a few meters of this enormous male lion and his cubs; he slept off his full belly as the cubs played like baby cats do. The cubs eventually became bored with there sleeping father and ventured towards the road and under the truck! Roxana and Jenae were exclaiming that this was the most amazing thing they have ever experienced. The next day we watched a male and a female lion sauntering from one shade tree to the next, the lioness leading the way. Japhet told us they must have mated recently because the male was following the females every move. Paul Stettner won the award for best game spotting that day.

Thanksgiving dinner was one that we will always remember. The teachers were excited to prepare a feast for their 'little girls' and Crispen was fascinated with the whole ritual and numerous holiday recipes. We attempted to find some African wild game for our turkey dinner, but ended up with a common African brai food: sausages. Our barbeque was festive and the girls all watched "papa" carve the turkey dinner (Crispen cutting up the sausage over the fire). Japhet ate so much that he went straight to bed. He was celebrating Thanksgiving the true American way. Crispen began dinner with a traditional Shona prayer in his language, and the girls presented a list of the 50 things they are thankful for. The list began with "I am thankful for shoes on my feet" and proceeded to delve deep into all of the incredible things we have in this world that we should all be thankful for. It was a true Thanksgiving and all family and friend were remembered.

Our next stop was a bush camp at a Bushmen's village. What a perfect way to spend our last days in Namibia. The girls had been learning about the Bushmen of Southern Africa, a nomadic people that have lived off the vast lands of wild Southern Africa for centuries. Our stay in their village was an incredible authentic cultural experience. By staying there and visiting their village we were contributing to their income; we were whole heartedly welcome to their homes. Our interpreter, Christian, introduced us to many of his people who showed how they hunt with a bow and arrow, how they make fire without matches, how they eat from the land and how they celebrate with dances and songs around a fire. That evening we joined the families around a fire to enjoy beautiful song and drums while one man danced near the fire wearing the skin of an animal. Kathryn likes to show us all that she can dance like the Bushmen where all you need is "bootie shakin'". Jenae and Roxana were surrounded by children all evening as Bonnie huddled near Gennifre to avoid the "creatures in the night", the snakes and scorpions.

Academics:
In history the girls have been studying the Bushmen history and the history of Namibia. They all gave informative presentations on the tribes of Namibia as we passed through the regions and saw people from the different tribes wearing traditional dress.
For English they are preparing a travel article on experiences in Africa to submit to local newspapers back home. They are also completing The Power Of One. Kara and Leah love to find out where everyone is in the book; they are so engaged in the story.
In Language the girls have just completed their final exam which combines German, Xosa, Afrikaans and Zulu. They use these languages plus Shona during their everyday conversations. It is incredible to listen to. They are pulling their language course together by designing a language book to guide travelers through how to communicate in the numerous languages of Southern Africa.
In Global Studies the girls are preparing for their presentations when they arrive home.
In Science and Global Studies the girls have been discussion park management issues, park ecology, poaching, and current event in the parks of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
In Mathematics the girls have been implementing their knowledge of budgets, credit, loans, investments and salaries to create detailed and amusing scenarios of made up people and their financial lives.

Thanks again for your interest in our trip. Every day is an adventure. Just yesterday we were collecting bugs (Japhet refuses to call them bugs, they are white ants!) that Japhet prepared for us to eat. What a crispy, salty, yummy treat! The girls love them; Kara is determined to bring a basket of bugs home.

The group is currently packing for our trip into the Okavango Delta. We will let you know about our adventures in Botswana when we get to our final destination in Livingstone, Zambia in a few weeks.
We are enjoying every minute here as our trip comes to a close. The girls are living every moment to the fullest, it is the most beautiful thing.
Genevieve

Closing Notes
After an amazing adventure in the Okavango Delta and a whitewater rafting extravaganza on the Zambezi River, the Fall Semester 2003 semester ended safely on December 15, 2003. Bonnie is back in Bozeman High School completing her junior year, Kara is back at school in Denver and saving money to buy a car. Jenae gave a final presentation for her entire school and Leah is in Colorado contemplating various colleges to attend after graduation. Kathryn and Roxana are both finishing their senior year and have been accepted into several impressive universities. Jenae, Roxana and Kathryn just spent the weekend skiing together in California.
Thank you for your interest and support!
Sincerely,
The Traveling School students and teachers