Madagascar: School, Les Zigotos

Salute and snack

In Madagascar we went to a school called Les Zigotos. We brought them school supplies, installed the internet and helped the teachers. The school uniform  was orange except on Mondays when it was white top, red bottom, because they raised the flag. At the beginning of the day they have a small recess before lining up for a sort of salute. Afterwards they line up for a snack and go to class.

Soccer

I learned about the industries of Madagascar including: Chocolaterie Robert, Savonnerie ( soap making ), and Star Brewing co. At 10:00am they have recess until 10:30am, then they have class again until 12:00pm when they  have a big recess and lunch ( and a movie on Friday ) until 2:00pm. The food is really good and made from scratch that day with local rice, meat, and vegetables I played some soccer which was played with a small bouncy ball and it came to blows. School ends at 4:00pm.

Cafeteria kitchen

On Fridays from 10:30am to 12:00pm they have music and dancing. That day they finish at 3:30pm after cleaning. We taught them how to play tic-tac-toe, they taught me how to play the valiha ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiha ).

Cleaning

Tic-Tac-Toe

Dancing/Drums

Week 2: Kruger National Park!

The Kruger National Park is one of the greatest wildlife parks in Africa. It is located in northeast South Africa. On our first day we saw elephants and a water buffalo (they are scary when they're mad). On the second day we did a self drive and saw giraffes, zebras, crocodiles, baboons, and vervet monkeys. We also did a sunset drive, our guide's name was Wonderful. On the drive we saw a male lion, wildebeest, a 5 day old baby giraffe, and jackals. On the third day we got up at 3:15 A.M. for a morning drive. On the drive we saw a den of hyenas, there were lots of babies, and when we drove by they all ran into the den, and then started to come out one by one. We also saw a Red Crested Korhann  that made a clucking sound then started a high pitched song. That afternoon we did a self drive and saw two ground hornbills, they are really rare and we were the first to report a sighting this year. However the coolest part was seeing a huge herd of elephants with lots of babies (the reason there are so many babies in the park is that it is summer). On the last day we saw wild dogs which are really rare, hippos, and two rhinos. We stayed in these little huts called bungalows for three nights, and that's where I celebrated my birthday.

 

Elephant herd

Ground Hornbills

Hyena den

     

New Year's Day: Cradle of Human Kind

We went to Sterkfontein Cave and Cradle Of Human Kind. In the cave there was an underground lake with tiny shrimp. The shrimp were all white because it's really dark. There were holes in the ground above the cave where people could fall through. That's what happened to "Little Foot" and probably "Mrs. Ples". 

"Little Foot"

"Little Foot" was a tree climber and australopithecus and is the most complete skeleton of that species ever found. The fossil is about 3.67 million years old.

"Mrs. Ples" is the most complete skull found of the australopithecus africanus. 

At the end of the cave there was a statue you could rub its nose for good luck or rub its right hand for wisdom, but if you rubbed both you got bad luck. I rubbed its hand, Hugo rubbed both.

In the Cradle of Human Kind there was a cool trip were you went on a boat and it took you through primal earth and the Ice Age, there was even real ice.