The Lion Sleeps...nope...She was awake!
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2008
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23
30
Trip End
May 01, 2009
Pendjari Park, Benin
Friday, January 16, 2009
I hope you all have been having a splendid beginning of a new year! I hear that somewhere in the world it a really cold...and it was really cold here this morning! It was around 65* and I was really cold! It is well into the Harmaton (dust blowing from the Sahara) and everything is VERY dry and VERY dusty! The team is getting over the random ailments that seem to have attacked a lot of people here...strep throat, stomach virus and cold things. ugh! Thankfully I have managed to avoid all of the sickness so far! I did find out yesterday that I will be home on May 1st. That is about two weeks earlier than I origionaly thought, but that is how it has worked out. Since I last wrote we have gotten back into school full swing! The preschoolers are starting to learn to read as of this week and they are really excited! We have been working on numbers and "padrens" (aka patterns :). The third graders have been working very hard on their sight words this month. Andrew (Andrea Miller's brother) is here and has been pushing the kids to learn their words! It's been great! We are working on writing papers that have an introduction, body and conclusion...but they are not very excited about that! The fifth graders are learning about South East Asia now and they have been doing very well about getting their projects in. Now, I know that all of you want more exciting school updates...BUT I just have to tell you about the excitement earlier this week! Sunday morning we (the Reeves, Millers and all three of us teachers) left to go to Benin! Benin is the country just to the east of Togo.) Why would we go there you might ask? Well...because in Benin there is an amazing place called "Pendjari National Wildlife Park!" It was awesome!We left early Sunday morning and got there a little before dark so we went to a look out point that is beside a small lake. There were five hippos in the lake! Three were huge and then there were two little ones. There were also LOTS of crocodiles! As we were leaving a bunch of baboons got up into the lookout point and so no one else to go up there!...they tend to get a little dangerous... After we dropped our stuff at the hotel in the park we drove around and saw some amazing birds and one massive elephant! The Millers stayed with the hotel huts, but the Reeves and the three of us teachers camped beside the hotel. It was SO cold in the mornings, but it was a ton of fun to get up at 4:30 and go drive around with Matt, Andrew (Matt's brother-in-law. I went to Harding with him), Asher and Aidan! We saw a jackal, sybit (a big cat), some Roan antelope, and lots of Cobb...like deer. They were all so beautiful, but we were hoping to see a lion! Once it got light Aidan and Asher decided that they were warm enough to ride on top of the car...riiiiiiiiight. Them riding on top meant that Andrew and I had to go up so that the boys didn't fall off. It was so cold that the boys quickly decided that they did not want to be on top...but we were already moving... We came around one corner and right in front of us was a big mama elephant with her baby! I think we were all a little surprised! She was not very happy and I was hoping she would chase us...but she didn't....oh well, better luck next time! We drove around all day with no lions in sight and then as we were about the go back...... we came up on the Reeves car. They were all over it looking in front of them and when we got beside them what would be laying in the road?! A BIG lioness!! Dave said that they were driving down the road and saw some cobb off to the left and something walking down the road at them. They couldn't tell what it was until she got closer and they realized that it was a lion!! She walked over to the side of the road and lay down...watching the cobb. The cobb ran off because of the car, but she just walked to the middle of the road and plopped down right there! She wasn't even 100 feet in front of the car! She didn't move when we got there...just kept staring at us! All of the sudden she jumped up and ran at US!! ....come to find out she was running at the cobb behind us...but she did run right at the car and just ran right past us!! She stalked on by and then we out of sight! The next morning (Tuesday) we went out early and saw a big family of elephants! It was a lot of fun! Then we left the park and went to a HUGE waterfall! I don't know if you have ever seen the real "Jungle Book," but the water fall in there is what it looked like! It was amazing! We swam across the big pool to the waterfall and the ledge that you can jump off of! It was really really really cold...but once you go numb it's not so bad! ;-) I hope that you all have a marvelous weekend! I am going to do my best to get another post update as soon as I can! I'll also be adding pics asap!
God bless!
