Friday, June 7, 2013

A Break for Rafting - Barbara





We woke up in the Nile River Exploration Camp to the sounds of monkeys in the trees above us. Walking out of the tents the breathtaking view of the Nile was indescribable. As we started getting ready for our white water adventure the nerves were starting to creep up on us. Some of us were ready to go hard and wild down the rapids, while others were terrified of water. Yet we all got on the truck and headed to training. After a quick introduction to what lay head, five rapids level four and five in about three hours, we grabbed breakfast to-go featuring a fruit cup and eggs wrapped in chipati, and headed to the rapids. The most terrifying part of the day was the safety warning before we jumped into the water. The lead guide, Brian, told us of the horrors of the Nile and possibilities of injury. Though we were alarmed, our boat was more than ready for the challenge.
Tom and Ricky were lead paddlers on our raft backed up by myself, Katelyn, Diane, and Molly. Our guide Peter laughed with and occasionally at us, keeping the mood light. As he guided us to the first flat pool, he showed us what to do if we were to fall out of the boat or it was to flip over (which he made clear was more than likely).
We then headed down the Nile zipping through rapids and practically flipping over our boat at ever turn. Our boats tendency to flip over gained us the nickname Swim Team.
At lunch they cut fresh pineapple for everyone right on the river. The fresh tasty fruit was a perfect break in-between the strenuous rapids. It was so good that Ricky and Tom almost ate a whole pineapple each! My favorite part of the day was the end of the last rapid, The Nile Special so famous they named a beer after it, we jumped out of the boat and floated down the river taking in the moment.
At the end of the rapids Reginah, who elected not to join us, excitedly greeted us at the end. We then all enjoyed an outdoor cookout with everyone who survived the Nile. After being completely drained of energy we were all excited to get back to camp. Upon arrival, we promptly got a late dinner at the local eating establishment. Here we meet locals and travelers. It was great to talk to individuals working on various service projects or adventures throughout Africa.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Day 8: Flannagh

Thursday May 30, 2013 With Flannagh Fitzsimmons

Today was our last full day of teaching; I cannot believe that this trip is almost over! I am one of the English teachers, so today our lesson was on subject-verb agreement. This was my lesson, so it was amazing to teach! We started off writing sentences with errors, such as “The girl are running,” and we had the students correct the sentences. We taught about how if your subject is plural, your verb must agree and also be plural. We showed the students how to properly label and break down a sentence to make sure the subject and the verb agree and the sentence makes sense. It was amazing to see the students finally understand the topic! It was really rewarding that our lesson was effective. During the afternoon we had students break into pairs – one student being the subject and the other student the verb. They had to work together to make a sentence with subject-verb agreement and have it make sense. This was definitely difficult for the students because they are not used to working in pairs with their peers. This was a trickier activity for the students, but in the end they did really well and they understood not only subject-verb agreement, but how to work with their peers in a pair. This was one of the hardest lesson plans to teach, but it was extremely rewarding in the end because we were able to help the students! Tomorrow we have a half day and will be giving the students a small exam on grammar and structures of sentences! I can’t believe we’re leaving next week!