How We Do...Field Trips

Actually, we don’t really do field trips at all.  Living in Africa means there isn’t so much to do in the way of typical field trip fare – no museums, historical sites, zoos (well we do have a zoo, but it’s small and kind of sad), and so on.   Rather than feeling like my kids are missing out on this kind of thing, however, I like to look at the fact that they have opportunities for different experiences that their counterparts in the West don’t.  Here is one such example from an ‘adventure’ my husband took our older two children on a couple of weeks ago:

 

Students from the mission-run international secondary school here in our city often make ministry trips to local villages.  Last weekend, Dan was asked to use our 4WD truck to help drive people and equipment for one of these trips to a village located a couple of hours south of the city.  He took Michelle and James ‘along for the ride’ since it was a good opportunity for them to experience another part of Cameroon.  They had a great time!

 

Once turning off the main highway, they drove another 20km down this dirt track through the jungle to reach the village.

 

The student ministry team finished a well project and planted plantains for the village.  Then the soccer team played in a locally organized tournament.

 

 

Afterwards the drama team performed a few skits sharing the gospel with the people who came for the tournament.

 

 

During the soccer tournament James got busy drawing and attracted quite a crowd.

 

 

Michelle, on the other hand, guarded the truck.

 

 

The folks in the village provided a meal for the group before they headed back to town: snake, lizard, greens, and rice.   The verdict: Dan didn’t think it was too bad.  Michelle liked the greens and the rice, but passed on the snake and the lizard, and James “only ate the rice.  The rest was too icky, Mama.” 

 

 

The trip back to the city in the afternoon was particularly exciting due to thunderstorms in the area, turning the dirt track into a mud track. J  But they all made it home safely, and they all had a great experience.  It was a blessing for Dan to be able to use our vehicle to help out the student ministry team in this way, and a blessing for the children to be able experience Cameroon outside of the city!

 

Paris, Through the Eyes of a 6 Year Old

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago...we took a real family vacation to Paris.  There were some moments that were rather interesting as is always the case when travelling with toddlers, but I was so very pleased with how much Michelle, age 6-1/2, got out of the experience.  We are keeping a journal to record our year in France, so I thought that rather than telling you about our trip in my words, I would share her words about what we saw in Paris.   Without any further ado, Michelle's Paris travel journal, as dictated to Mama...

Notre Dame

Notre Dame is an old cathedral - it is 850 years old.  My favorite thing that I saw were the stained glass windows.  [James'] favorite thing that he saw in Paris today was all the cars and the pigeons (and chasing the pigeons away.)  Papa's favorite part about Notre Dame was the detailed architecture.  Mama's favorite part was all of the intricate carvings and stained glass windows.

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is big and tall.  It had curly steps.  They were very curly.  We saw the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  We went in the tunnel underneath the street.  Before we were walking in it we went down the steps.  Papa got the tickets to go up in it. We took turns going up in it.  Papa and [James] went up in it first.  Then Mama and I went up.

Louvre

The Louvre had beautiful paintings.  It has this painting of Jesus turning water into wine.  It had the Mona Lisa and everybody was trying to take a picture of it because they think it is the most famous painting, even Papa.  But when everyone else was looking at the Mona Lisa, I was looking the other way at this painting.  It liked this one because it was Jesus turning water into wine and it was big.

Eiffel Tower

It is big and tall.  Papa, [James] and [Elizabeth] went to the tippy-top.  Mama and I stayed on the second floor. {Mama's note: the second floor was plenty high enough, thank you very much!!} I drew pictures while we waited for them to come back down.  We ate a big lunch.  I spotted the Arc de Triomphe.  I liked going to the Eiffel Tower.

Musee d'Orsay

We saw paintings.  Some of them were from Claude Monet and some were from the other artists.  We saw the blue ballerina picture that we saw in the Katie book.  We also saw Monet's poppy field painting from the Katie book - the poppies were red like red roses.  We also saw an ocean painting by Manet that had medium brush strokes and I like medium brush strokes the best.

Batobus

The Batobus was oval shaped, it was so funny.  It was fun to ride the Batobus because I got to see the Seine River out the window.  We went to the Musee d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre on it.

C'est tout!  Hope you enjoyed Michelle's 'guided tour' - now you will know what to look for in Paris!