Knowmads ®

Presenting TotoTravels to my own children

It was fun after all these years to have the opportunity to give my Toto Travels slide presentation to my own children's classrooms at Travis Heights Elementary. Until now it has always been in classrooms of my friends' children. The kids enjoyed seeing my sandals made out of recycled tires from Arusha, Tanzania and my toothbrushes made from twigs from Ethiopia. So much so, my son asked me that night if he could brush his teeth the way the Ethiopian family did with a stick toothbrush. He said it wasn't bad, but he preferred his Colgate toothpaste.

I think the teachers as much as the students enjoyed seeing my photos of the African elementary schools with their attentive children in much more barren classrooms.

 

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Chapter 35 - Mongolia - Land of Extremes

Mongolia is a land of extremes, first of all because it's the least populated country in the world. This means fewer people live in Mongolia, per square mile, than in any other country in the world. This was a sharp contrast to my recent visit to Bangladesh, the most densely populated large country in the world. As expected, when I was in the countryside of Mongolia, I didn't see many people.

What I did see, though, were lots of horses and livestock. Mongolians are still mostly nomads, as they have been for centuries. This means most Mongolian families pack up all their belongings and move with their horses, sheep, goats, and yaks (a type of very hairy cow that does well at high altitudes and cold weather) to wherever they can find green grass and fresh water. Because the weather is so extreme in Mongolia (especially during the very cold winters), the grass in an area can only feed the nomadic families' animals for a few months. Then, the family has to walk and ride their horses to a different place where recent rains or warmer weather have caused grass to grow.

Because nomads are continually moving, the Mongolians have developed a great type of home called a "ger." It's a round tent-like structure made of sticks tied together and covered with felt. You can see the frame of a ger being built in this photo. I learned that felt is made from the wool of the nomad's sheep by dragging wet clumps of wool across the ground and trampling it with horses! The felt is thick enough that it doesn't leak when it rains or snow.  Since the nomad can find sticks in the forest, a ger is a great self-sufficient structure for the nomads. Mongolia is quite windy, so the round shape keeps the ger from blowing over.

A new addition to gers is the solar-powered satellite TV systems I saw in many of them. The Mongolian nomads admitted to enjoying the latest soap operas and shows from the capital city of Ulan Bataar. But the primary reason for spending a lot of money on such a system was to get the weather reports, so they would know when and where to move next with the seasons.

I got some sense of how extreme the weather could be in Mongolia just by traveling from north to south. I started up north near Mongolia's border with Russia, specifically the large forest called Siberia. (In fact the Tran- Siberian Railroad from Beijing, China, to Moscow, Russia, passes through Ulan Bataar and this region of Mongolia.) I visited Lake Hovsgol, which is a large lake full of crystal-clear fresh water. My friends went swimming in it, but they only lasted a few seconds, as the water was so cold. Lake Hovsgol is home to another extreme, the largest freshwater fish in the world. Can you guess how big this trout grows to? Think of the biggest fish you've ever seen caught in a freshwater lake. If you're lucky, you might have seen one eighteen or twenty inches long. Now imagine a fish four feet (forty-eight inches) long! That's how big that species of trout grows in Lake Hovsgol. I didn't see one, but I could have if they had swum close to me, as the water was crystal clear.

Lake Hovsgol actually flows down the hills and across the Mongolian and Russian border to drain into Lake Baikal. I didn't see Lake Baikal, but we were close. That lake is the deepest lake in the world, going down to 5315 feet. I live on a lake that's about 60 feet deep. So 5315 feet (or 1620 meters) is REALLY deep! It's so deep and large, in fact, that Lake Baikal holds 20% of the world's non-frozen fresh water. Lake Hovsgol contains 2% of the world's non-frozen fresh water. So together they form an important fresh water ecosystem worth protecting. It rained quite a bit there while we camped, so I had no doubt as to where all this fresh water came from for these lakes.

From there I flew south to the Gobi Desert. The locals told me "Gobi" is Mongolian for "desert". So I thought it was funny to visit the Desert Desert. The Gobi is famous for all the dinosaur fossils they've found there. Many were found in the area called the Flaming Cliffs, pictured here. The paleontologists (a scientist who finds and studies fossils) named the area "Flaming Cliffs" because the red stone looks like the area is on fire when the sun strikes the cliffs during parts of the day.

My favorite fossil in the museum was the one they discovered of two dinosaurs who died while fighting, possibly the most important and famous multiple fossil in the world. (Double click the photo to see a larger version.). One theory about why they looks this way is that a sand dune collapsed on them mid-fight, and they were buried while one dinosaur had his claw in the other's mouth, as if he were pushing his attacker away. It was pretty incredible to see this freeze-frame of a fight that happened millions and millions of years ago.

The Gobi is also famous as the first place anyone ever discovered fossilized dinosaur eggs in nests. Before then, scientists only theorized (or thought) that dinosaurs laid eggs. With those fossilized nests, they knew for sure and even could see some baby dinosaurs fossilized inside broken eggs.

I really enjoyed the Gobi. It doesn't have many sand dunes, like the desert in the second least populated country in the world, Namibia (see chapters 13-15). Nevertheless, I was able to get this photo on top of the one sand dune we did see. The Gobi is mostly a large area covered with small stones. Sometimes I would see only one ger for a long distance. That's because the desert only had very small patches of thin grass. So it takes a large area for the nomad's sheep and goats and camels to find enough to eat.

We rode on some camels for a few hours across the desert. I can say that traveling by camel isn't the most comfortable form of transportation out there. We were on the two-humped Bactrian camels, as opposed to the one-humped Dromedary camels I rode in Egypt (Chapters 26-27). The Bactrians were definitely the more comfortable of the two types of camels, since you sit between the humps instead of on top of a hump.

I was curious what the humps would feel like. The humps were like floppy but still hard masses of flesh. They say the humps are mostly fat, but they were harder than the fat I feel on myself. The front hump on my camel flopped over like a soft hill of tissue. I tried pushing it back up, but the camel didn't like my playing with his hump, so I let it alone. After all, camels are infamous for spitting when they are displeased, and I didn't feel like having camel spit all over me.

I learned that camels scratch their noses on their humps. When I was sitting on him, my camel kept reaching back and scratching his nose on my knee (as you can see in this photo)!  This meant I had camel snot all over my trouser legs. Needless to say, I decided it was time to wash that pair when we got back to the ger that night!

I felt fortunate to be able to meet the many friendly people of Mongolia, who welcomed me into their homes and onto their horses and camels. With the exception of the solar-powered satellite TVs, I believe their lifestyle wasn't much different from the way their great grandparents had lived before them. In fact, every Mongolian I met was very proud of the most famous Mongolian in history, Genghis Khan. He conquered the largest empire in the history of the world, stretching from Europe to China. The Mongolians were able to capture all this land 800 years ago in part because they were such good horseback riders and their armies were so self-sufficient. In some ways, I suspect Genghis Kahn would see many similarities to his time in the traditional lives of the nomads I met.

Travel Questions on Mongolia:

1. True or False: Mongolia has lots of people in it, making it the most densely populated country in the world.
2. What animal is like a cow but lives in the higher altitudes and which the Mongolian nomads keep as a type of livestock?
3. The advantages of using a ger as a type of home for the Mongolian nomads are:
   A) They can build it out of materials they can create themselves.
   B) The round shape keeps it from being blown over in the windy Mongolian countryside.
   C) The felt doesn't leak when it rains or snows.
   D) All of the above.
4. What is the name of the capital city of Mongolia?
5. Lake Baikal, into which Lake Hovsgol drains, contains what percentage of the world's non-frozen fresh water?
6. What does "Gobi" mean in Mongolian?
7. What's the name of a scientist who studies fossils, like those dinosaur fossils found in the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi desert?
8. What are the names of the two types of camels? Which one has two humps and which one has one hump?
9. Why did Toto stop trying to push on his camel's hump that was flopped over?
10. What did Toto have to wash off his trouser leg after his camel ride?
11. How many years ago did Genghis Khan conquer the world's largest empire?

Global Nomad Questions on Mongolia:

1. The Trans-Siberian Railroad goes from Beijing, China, to Moscow, Russia, through Mongolia. Do a cybersearch on this amazing railroad and write a paragraph on what you discovered.
2. Perhaps the most famous Mongolian is Genghis Khan (although the Mongolians spell his name as Chinggis Khan). He conquered and ruled the largest empire in the history of humankind. Do a cybersearch on this interesting historical figure and write an essay on what you learned.

Chapter 34 - Bangladesh - The Most Densely Populated Large Country in the World

Bangladesh is not a place most tourists go, as you can see from this tourism poster. But I was in neighboring India, and could not pass up the opportunity to visit my good friends who live there as diplomats.

The thing I find interesting about Bangladesh is that it is the most densely populated large country in the world. That means more people, on average, live in a square mile there than in any other country in the world, with the exception of city-states like Singapore, where nearly all the land is filled with people. Or in short, Bangladesh is the largest crowded country in the world. To make it even more challenging for the Bangladeshis, much of the country is a low-lying river delta covered with water. To put it in perspective, Bangladesh is as crowded as cramming half of the United State's population (158 million people) into the state of Wisconsin, with one-third of its land under water!

Because of this, I expected that there would be people everywhere all the time. In fact, I found there were people everywhere only sometimes. My friends Randy and Anne live in the capital city of Dhaka with their happy, six-month-old son. The center of the capital city was always crowded with people and traffic, but the suburbs and countryside didn't seem crowded at all.

One afternoon we decided to take a nice river boat ride, past the many flooded rice fields outside of the crowded capital city of Dhaka. It was a beautiful scene, watching the villages and farms and boats go by. There were barges so full of sand that I was convinced they should have sunk to the bottom of the river. At one point, we passed the brick factory where the barges were hauling the sand to make bricks. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries on earth, so workers do not make much money for a hard day's work. Fortunately for them, the cost of living in Bangladesh is also quite low, although many, many people live in dire poverty.

Because labor is so cheap, cheaper than buying machines an equipment, people in Bangladesh often do the work that we would do with machines in the US or Europe. For example, I saw these friendly men covered with sand unloading the barge of wet sand one basket at a time. Each man carried out a basket on his head and dumped it in a pile by the brick kiln. It looked like exhausting and back-breaking work, but I was impressed with their smiles and friendliness despite this difficult job. Kindness and happiness were traits I saw in most Bangladeshis.

Near the river, I saw this house. I took this picture, as kids sometimes ask me where the bathrooms are in the local houses. Can you see the bathroom in this picture? It's the outhouse on the left, by the river shore. It's not that different from the outhouse my grandparents had at their lake cottage in northern Wisconsin when I was a boy. But my grandparents' toilet had a hole in the ground, while this one appears to empty directly into the river. Unfortunately dumping raw sewage into the river is less sanitary and leads to lots of fatal cases of diarrhea, called cholera--so many cases, in fact, that there is a large hospital devoted entirely to cholera in Dhaka.

I visited this hospital and was very impressed and touched by the many lives they save there each day. Hundreds of poor and sick Bangladeshis arrive daily for inexpensive treatment. Those who can't get there have a 40% chance of dying, while those who are treated with the simple remedies this hospital invented almost always leave that day cured. To the many Bangladeshis who get cholera, this hospital is literally a lifesaver.

My eyes teared up as I looked at these many malnourished children whose mothers were taking nutrition classes so they could grow and survive another case of diarrhea. The mothers were so happy and asked me to take pictures of them with their children. I've learned that many people around the world love to see themselves in a digital camera, as they may never have a photo taken of themselves otherwise. I was happy to do anything that would bring a smile to their faces as they are surrounded by so much suffering. I couldn't help but be inspired by the hospital's sense of mission, the staff's hard work, the parents' devotion, and the patients' desires to feel better.

I had another interesting experience at the end of of river trip we took. Randy and Anne had their son and their pug dog, Stella, outside their car. This created quite an attraction in the village, since many of the townspeople had never seen a little white baby before. One of the gentlemen brought his son over to say hi, and I got this picture of the two infants together. Hopefully, their generation can continue this kind of friendship as they grow older. But the the life of that boy in Bangladesh will surely be quite different than the life of my friends' son, who is blessed with many things Bangladeshis do without, like access to clean water, sufficient nutrition, education and a solid home.

On the way home from our boat trip, I finally saw how crowded Bangladesh can get, as the streets were full of people, buses, cars and rickshaws. Rickshaws are three-wheeled bicycles pulled by a driver with a two-person seat in back, like the ones I saw in India (Chapter 32). Most transportation in Bangladesh is by rickshaw or bus. I liked taking a rickshaw when I could and meeting the rickshaw drivers, as they were all nice and so hard-working.

Before sundown, everyone seemed to be on the streets to buy food and other items in the market until the power went out at 7 PM. The government shuts down the power at that time because they don't have enough electricity for everyone. They want to encourage people to shop before sundown, so that the markets don't require so much electricity for lights. Most store keepers had little generators, however, and were able to keep their shops open while so many people were on the streets. So when the lights went out, it was darker, but no less crowded.

Many of the workers were in factories all day making clothing and baseball caps. In fact, I bet if you looked at the tags of your clothes for the next few weeks, you will see that some of your clothes were made in Bangladesh, by some of the friendliest and happiest people I have ever met, despite all the challenges they face. They were an inspiration to me and a reminder of how truly blessed we are and how often I take many of the conveniences of my life for granted.

Travel Questions on Bangladesh:

1. Bangladesh is the size of what US state?
2. Bangladesh is the _____ country in the world.
   A) highest B) greenest C) happiest D) most densely populated.
3. How did the men Toto saw on the river unload the sand from the barge?
4. What type of factory did Toto see by the river?
5. Which disease did the hospital Toto visit primarily treat?
6. In both India and Bangladesh Toto rode a rickshaw. What is a rickshaw?
7. What items might you find in your room that were made in Bangladesh?

Global Nomad Questions on Bangladesh:

1. Find Bangladesh on a map and list all the countries it borders.
2. Look on a map to find the Ganges River that flows from through India and into Bangladesh. Once in Bangladesh, what name does the river change to?
3. Prior to India's independence from Britain in 1947, Bangladesh was part of the British India colony. Bangladesh wasn't independent immediately, though. Rather, it was part of Pakistan until it earned its independence from that country. Do a cybersearch on Bangladeshi independence and write what you learned.
4. Do a cybersearch on the Archimedes Principle to understand the laws of physics that keep a barge full of wet sand from sinking.

Chapter 33 - Singapore - Clean and Green

 

Singapore is another candidate for a country that's the complete opposite of India. So I couldn't help but wonder what the Indian passengers on my flight from Delhi to Singapore thought when they landed in Singapore. For me, the first thing I noticed is that Singapore is clean and green. It rains in Singapore most afternoons during the time of year I was there, making everything quite green. Singapore is also close to the equator, so it is warm year-round, which also contributes to all the beautiful green trees and plants throughout the island.

The country is quite small, effectively only an island. In fact, Singapore is what many people refer to as a "city-state," which is a country that's not much bigger than a city. There are lots of reasons a city can end up being its own country. In Singapore's case, the country achieved independence from neighboring Malaysia in 1965. When I was driving around Singapore, I met this nice man, Mr. Ung, who drove the taxi I took to my hotel. He was born in Singapore before its independence and told me about what it's been like to live there over the past forty years.

 

Today Singapore is known for being very clean, orderly, planned, and safe (which is why it is unlike India). For several decades Singapore was ruled by one man, a prime minister named Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, who wanted to improve Singapore. Mr. Ung laughed as he told me that when he grew up, families like his lived in straw huts built on stilts--the island of Singapore was really just a fishing village. They were so poor that they had to walk to fetch water from wells, much like many African villages.

 

Mr. Ung spoke proudly of Mr. Lee (in Asia, people use their family name first, the opposite of how we do things in America--if I lived in Singapore, everyone would call me Chmielewski Tom), whom he credits with having made Singapore into the wealthy country it is today. All the citizens like Mr. Ung essentially gave up their rights to have political opposition and to vote, in exchange for allowing Mr. Lee to improve the country without any opposition like we have in a democracy. Even though Mr. Lee called himself a prime minister, this effectively made him a dictator, and dictators often don't end up being very good for the countries they rule. When people get into positions of power like this, with no opposition, they usually become corrupt very quickly, and the only people who benefit from their rule are their family and friends.

What I find interesting about Singapore is that Mr. Lee lived up to his end of the bargain. He increased the standard of living for all Singaporeans by improving the schools, roads, water system, industry, airport, and seaports. He did such a good job that this little country, with almost no natural resources, is now one of the biggest ports in the world. Mr. Ung's family no longer lives in a straw hut, but in a high rise like this one, which are all over town. That's why Mr. Ung laughed when he remembered having to fetch water from a well growing up. Everyone in Singapore now just turns on the tap, often one in a new home or high-rise apartment.

 

As I looked around at all the clean, modern buildings and thought about Mr. Ung living in a grass hut just a generation ago, I couldn't help but be impressed with what Mr. Lee achieved. But like most things in life, there was a trade off, as Mr. Lee had strict rules for Singapore's citizens. For example, he made chewing gum illegal. Seriously. Mr. Lee hated the sight of gum on the sidewalk, so he outlawed it. (Remember how I said Singapore was super-clean?) Mr. Lee also decreed that all men had to have short hair, in keeping with the clean and orderly image.

 

I do admire Mr. Lee for having not turned into a completely corrupt dictator who stole from his people, like many of the rulers with such power in Africa. Clearly, the Singaporean people trusted him and were willing to work hard to achieve a common goal of prosperity.

 

One of the things Singapore introduced was a toll system that makes you pay every time you drive into the downtown area. Because the entire country is effectively one large city, traffic downtown can get busy. So about ten years ago, Singapore introduced road planning. Today the system is all electronic and referred to as ERP, or "Electronic Road Planning." All cars have a transmitter, so whenever they drive under the detection system at the start of every street into downtown, they are charged one dollar. Singapore's currency is also called the "dollar," although one Singapore dollar is worth about 70 US cents. (Singapore's dollar looks different from ours. Only the name is the same.)

 

When I lived in London, England (see chapter 10) in 2003, the city government had just introduced a similar system, based on Singapore's innovative idea, to control the traffic in central London. Just this year, New York City is looking to implement a similar idea in Manhattan, based on the success in Singapore and London.

 

In addition to the cleanliness of Singapore, I loved the food, as it is a mixture of foods from the neighboring cultures of Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Thailand. The food that impressed me the most is the variety of fruit that grows in this green part of the world. My favorite fruit to see is the Dragon fruit. It's bright pink on the outside and bright white on the inside, with little edible black seeds throughout. The inside is a bit like a kiwi fruit: very colorful, but not super tasty or sweet. Nevertheless, I love it for its colors and its colorful name--the Dragon Fruit! Next time you see one, definitely give it a try.

 

In the end, I enjoyed my stay in the very clean and green city of Singapore, which, like the Dragon Fruit, is full of surprises like meeting Mr. Ung. He seemed to be "just" a cab driver, but had wonderful stories about the small fishing town that grew up into one of the world's wealthiest and most developed countries in only forty years.

 

Travel Questions about Singapore:

1. When did Singapore get its independence from Malaysia?
2. What was the name of the taxi driver Toto met in Singapore?
3. Is Singapore north or south of the equator?
4. What was the name of the Prime Minister who ruled Singapore for many years and helped the country develop?
5. What was one of the interesting laws he passed to ensure Singapore was clean?
6. What other cities have implemented or considered starting a downtown toll system to control traffic like Singapore?
7. What was the name of the fruit Toto loved so much in Singapore?

Global Nomad Questions on Singapore:

1. Do a cybersearch to find at least two other countries who have named their currency the "dollar." These are not countries that use the US dollar (like Panama), but have their own currency called the dollar.
2. There are several other city-states around the world that are small countries often not bigger than a city. Some examples are: San Marino, The Vatican (or Holy See), Monaco, Andorra, Lichtenstein, and Bahrain. Choose one of the above or another you discover and write a paragraph explaining how it got to be such a small country, and how it's stayed that way.
3. Like Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau were their own countries until 1997 and 1999, respectively. Now they are both part of China. Do a cybersearch and explain why both Hong Kong and Macau became part of China in those years. (Hint: It has to do with colonization of those territories by two European countries hundreds of years ago.)

Chapter 32 - India - Delhi and the beautiful Taj Mahal

I can't think of a country that is more the opposite of Switzerland than India. That is exactly where Toto flew next: to the capital city of New Delhi. Actually, the old city is referred to as just "Delhi" or "Old Delhi," which is where the city began hundreds of years ago. In Old Delhi, the streets are narrow, crowded, hot, dirty and hectic, like this street scene I photographed as I emerged from the clean, new, air-conditioned subway.

I took a rickshaw to the subway from my hotel in New Delhi, which is the name for the rest of the city that has grown around the original city of Delhi. A rickshaw is a three-wheeled bicycle taxi like this one. The streets are so crowded that rickshaws are a relatively quick way to go short distances around the city. India is a very poor country, but the rickshaw fares are affordable for many Indians, so there are many people who make a living driving rickshaws.

I had been to India many years ago, but never to the area around Delhi. The thing that always amuses me about India is that there are cows just walking around the streets everywhere. Cows are sacred to the Hindu religion, which is what many Indians believe, so they allow cows to wander around like this. If you've ever spent much time around cows, you will know that they tend to poop wherever they happen the be when the need arises. So there is cow poop everywhere in the crowded, hot, dirty and hectic streets of Delhi.

The world-famous site I wanted to see was the Taj Mahal. I had a free day, so I booked a one-day return tour to see it, a few hours south of Delhi in the city of Agra. Agra isn't too far from Delhi by US standards, only 200 kms (or 125 miles). But it took five hours to get there because the traffic is crazy. In fact, I think our driver was crazy, too. He wove in and out of traffic, dodging cows and buses and three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxis all the way to Agra. He spent the ENTIRE time honking his horn. I don't think he went more than 15 seconds between honks. At one point, I said to a German woman on my tour that I think our driver honked his horn more in one hour than I did all week. She replied, "He's honked his horn more on this trip than I have my whole life!" You know, I'm sure she was right.

We envisioned a new video game called "Delhi Taxi Driver" where the goal is to get to the Taj Mahal as quickly as possible without hitting any cows, dogs, people, crowded buses, fellow taxis, or motorcycles with an entire family crammed aboard. If Sony or Nintendo ever makes this game, our driver will get the high score for sure!

The near-death experience of the taxi ride was worth it in the end, as the Taj Mahal was quite beautiful. It was built between 1632-48 by the 5th Mughal emperor of India as a tomb for his beloved wife, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. The area was--and still is--famous for its artisans of inlaid marble and souvenir shops selling their products. These craftsmen make beautiful designs by carving spaces into beautiful white marble and laying precisely carved semi-precious stones into the gaps. The beautiful designs adorn the inside of the tomb and were quite a sight to see. Apparently, the descendants of the families who built the tomb are the same people designing and selling the tables and picture frames  today.

I do have to say that the Taj Mahal was smaller than I expected. I guess it looks so impressive in all the photos I've seen that I expected it to be bigger. In a way, I'm glad it wasn't bigger as it was sooooo hot in May that I couldn't have walked around a bigger building without drinking another liter of water to compensate for all the sweat that was evaporating off my body.

At one point I sat under the shade of the tree with two police officers for a rest. They spoke some English, as that's the official language of India. India has over one billion people who speak over one hundred languages, so the only language that ties them together is English. The country decided during and after being a British colony that English should be their official language. Without English, an Indian from the Northern state of Uttar Pradesh (where Agra is) could not speak to an Indian from the beaches of Goa in the south. Not all Indians speak English, as it really depends on their level of education and what region they're from. All middle-class and educated Indians speak English, though, which makes it easier to get around as a traveler.

The other famous site in Agra which I saw was the Red Fort. Can you guess what color it is? I think it was more of a palace than a fort, or a palace within a fort. The Mughal emperors built the fort as a place to live while they were in power. This fort had so many defenses that no one ever conquered it in battle. Had they ever gotten inside, the attackers would have seen the most amazing views of the Taj Mahal, like this one.

Our guide told us one story that, while cruel by today's standards, tells us a bit about the curiosity of the Mughal emperors. Several hundred years ago, one emperor wanted to know what "natural language" children were born with. As I mentioned, there were so many languages across his empire, and since the British hadn't arrived in India yet, English was not yet the common language. So this emperor took about a dozen infants  from various communities he ruled, each one with its own unique language.

He then told his servants to raised the children in a separate community, with strict instructions that they could not speak to, or around, these children. (Since he had the power to take children away from their parents, I imagine "strict instructions" meant he would kill any servant who spoke to the children.) After twelve years had passed, he had the children brought to his court to see which language they would speak. His advisers each guessed which languages they thought were innate (or natural) to humans, each one choosing his own native language. Can you guess what these poor kids spoke?

Nothing. Without the stimulation of hearing speech from adults, they never learned to communicate verbally. Moreover, they remained unable to speak the rest of their lives, as they had missed the window of opportunity to learn speech during their brain's development. So, while this experiment was certainly cruel by today's standards, it teaches us two more things about the Mughal emperors. First, they were curious. Second, they were used to being able to do whatever they wanted, regardless of the consequences to their subjects. But they also left behind the beautiful Taj Mahal and Red Fort for us to visit today.

Travel Questions on India:

1. What is the name of the original part of the city around which New Delhi has grown?
2. What animals can be seen walking the streets of cities throughout India?
3. What did Toto's taxi driver do during the entire drive to Agra?
4. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife as a:
   A) closet B) garage C) palace D) tomb
5. What do the artisans around the Taj Mahal sell today, based on the skills their ancestors used to build the Taj Mahal?
6. Was the Red Fort ever successfully attacked?
7. What was the conclusion of the Mughal emperor's experiment about which language was natural to humans?

Global Nomad Questions on India:

1. Both India and the United States were once colonies of Britain and now speak English as a result. Do a cybersearch to list three other former British colonies.
2. India received independence from Britain in 1947. A main figure in India's efforts to become independent was Mahatma Gandhi, who is respected worldwide for his approach of non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the U.S. modeled our civil rights movement on Gandhi's principles of non-violence. Do a cybersearch on Mahatma Gandhi and write about what impressed you most.
3. The Taj Mahal was recently voted on an internet poll as one of the seven wonders of the world. Do a cybersearch and list the other six and where they are.

Chapter 31 - Switzerland - Returning for Mountains & Pretzels

From Helsinki Toto flew south to the center of both Europe and the Alps mountain chain, to the country of Switzerland. There I visited some friends and visited the capital city of Bern, where I lived over ten years ago.

One thing I find interesting about Switzerland is that they don't have one language, or even two official languages (like Finland) but four official languages! Practically speaking, there are "only" three official languages: French, German, and Italian. The fourth is called Romansh and is only spoken in one small "canton," or state, called "Graubünden" in Switzerland. Romansch is the closest thing to Latin that is still spoken, but only by about 50,000 Swiss folks. Almost every person in Switzerland speaks at least two languages fluently and sometimes three or four (German, French, Italian, and English). I am always impressed by that when I remember how hard I worked to learn Spanish in school as my second language. We have it easy compared to what the Swiss students have to learn!

I landed in Geneva, which is a French-speaking Swiss city near the border with France. I then took the train along the north coast of beautiful, big Lake Geneva to visit my friends and their two sons near Lausanne. From Peter and Heike's home you can see some of the snow-capped Alp mountains. If I looked left (or east) from their village across the lake, I saw the Swiss Alps. If I looked right (or west), I saw the French Alps.

In fact directly across the lake is the town of Evian, France. Can you guess what they bottle there to sell all over the world?  I read that anyone can bring their own bottle to fill up for free with genuine Evian water from the actual well they use to fill the bottles you find in your supermarket! This is because the local government considers the water to be a local natural resource available free to anyone who is there in person.

Alas, I couldn't swim across the crystal-clear waters of Lake Geneva to claim my free bottle of Evian, since I had to continue on to the capital of Switzerland. So I took another beautiful train ride along the lake and through the hills to the city of Bern. Somewhere along that route, I passed the imaginary line separating the French speakers in the area around Lausaane and Geneva from the German speakers around and east of Bern. Whenever I travel in Switzerland, I expect to find a big dotted line like you'd see in a cartoon showing when I cross the language border. I've looked for it, but have never seen it.

I did enjoy my short visit to Bern, as I lived and worked there over ten years ago and was able to see my old home and neighborhood. Bern is famous for its beautiful centuries-old mechanical clock in the middle of the old town. All the buildings in the Old Town area are made of a pretty green sandstone. I like the city's flag, which has a bear on it.

As the capital city, Bern is where the Swiss parliament, or congress, is based. When I lived there, my Swiss friends told me that underneath the parking lot in front of the parliament (near where I took this photo of the clock) is the giant safe of the national bank. In that underground safe is where the country stores all its gold, just like the United States' Fort Knox. I don't know if it is true or just a joke my Swiss friends played on Americans like me. Then again, I never saw the police allow anyone to dig holes in that spot, so perhaps we all were parked in the world's most valuable parking lot!

One of my favorite things about Switzerland is the train system. I traveled from Geneva all the way to Zurich on their clean and punctual trains (punctual means they are always on time). Given how many clocks and watches the Swiss have around  the country, it shouldn't surprise you that their trains run on time! But I have to say my truly favorite thing about the Swiss railroads is the warm pretzels they sell in the Bern train station. These aren't like the stale pretzels you get at a baseball game or cinema in the U.S.  Rather, these are baked warm and fresh right there. Fortunately it was the first and last thing I did in Bern - to buy and eat a warm pretzel from my former train station as I got off and on my trains on my visit to Bern. I highly recommend trying the pretzels if you ever visit beautiful Bern, Switzerland.

Travel Questions About Switzerland:

1. Through what Swiss city's airport, near the French border, did Toto arrive in Switzerland?
2. How many languages do they officially speak in Switzerland?
3. What is the name of the Swiss language that is most similar to the old language, Latin?
4. What is the capital of Switzerland?
5. What did Toto's Swiss friends tell him was buried under the parking lot in front of their Parliament building?
6. What is Toto's favorite Swiss fast food?

Global Nomad Questions on Bern:

1. Write a chapter on your favorite food in your family or in your home town. Email it to [email protected]. Toto will post his favorite submitted chapters on www.TotoTravels.com for everyone to read.
2. Draw a map of Switzerland and color the regions based on the primary language they speak in that area. You will probably have to do a cybersearch as well as use an atlas to do this.
3. Look on a map of Europe and list all the countries that border Switzerland. Hint, there is a very small country between Switzerland and its eastern neighbor, so don't forget to list it!
4. If you wanted to take the train from Zurich to Ljubljana, Slovenia (see Chapter 3), what countries would you have to pass through?
5. Do a cybersearch to learn which famous scientist was working at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern when he published his theory on relativity and forever changed the world's view on physics and the universe.

In fact directly across the lake is the town of Evian, France. Can you guess what they bottle there to sell all over the world?  I read that anyone can bring their own bottle to fill up for free with genuine Evian water from the actual well they use to fill the bottles you find in your supermarket! This is because the local government considers the water to be a local natural resource available free to anyone who is there in person.

Alas, I couldn't swim across the crystal-clear waters of Lake Geneva to claim my free bottle of Evian, since I had to continue on to the capital of Switzerland. So I took another beautiful train ride along the lake and through the hills to the city of Bern. Somewhere along that route, I passed the imaginary line separating the French speakers in the area around Lausaane and Geneva from the German speakers around and east of Bern. Whenever I travel in Switzerland, I expect to find a big dotted line like you'd see in a cartoon showing when I cross the language border. I've looked for it, but have never seen it.

I did enjoy my short visit to Bern, as I lived and worked there over ten years ago and was able to see my old home and neighborhood. Bern is famous for its beautiful centuries-old mechanical clock in the middle of the old town. All the buildings in the Old Town area are made of a pretty green sandstone. I like the city's flag, which has a bear on it.

As the capital city, Bern is where the Swiss parliament, or congress, is based. When I lived there, my Swiss friends told me that underneath the parking lot in front of the parliament (near where I took this photo of the clock) is the giant safe of the national bank. In that underground safe is where the country stores all its gold, just like the United States' Fort Knox. I don't know if it is true or just a joke my Swiss friends played on Americans like me. Then again, I never saw the police allow anyone to dig holes in that spot, so perhaps we all were parked in the world's most valuable parking lot!

One of my favorite things about Switzerland is the train system. I traveled from Geneva all the way to Zurich on their clean and punctual trains (punctual means they are always on time). Given how many clocks and watches the Swiss have around  the country, it shouldn't surprise you that their trains run on time! But I have to say my truly favorite thing about the Swiss railroads is the warm pretzels they sell in the Bern train station. These aren't like the stale pretzels you get at a baseball game or cinema in the U.S.  Rather, these are baked warm and fresh right there. Fortunately it was the first and last thing I did in Bern - to buy and eat a warm pretzel from my former train station as I got off and on my trains on my visit to Bern. I highly recommend trying the pretzels if you ever visit beautiful Bern, Switzerland.

Travel Questions About Switzerland:

1. Through what Swiss city's airport, near the French border, did Toto arrive in Switzerland?
2. How many languages do they officially speak in Switzerland?
3. What is the name of the Swiss language that is most similar to the old language, Latin?
4. What is the capital of Switzerland?
5. What did Toto's Swiss friends tell him was buried under the parking lot in front of their Parliament building?
6. What is Toto's favorite Swiss fast food?

Global Nomad Questions on Bern:

1. Write a chapter on your favorite food in your family or in your home town. Email it to [email protected]. Toto will post his favorite submitted chapters on www.TotoTravels.com for everyone to read.
2. Draw a map of Switzerland and color the regions based on the primary language they speak in that area. You will probably have to do a cybersearch as well as use an atlas to do this.
3. Look on a map of Europe and list all the countries that border Switzerland. Hint, there is a very small country between Switzerland and its eastern neighbor, so don't forget to list it!
4. If you wanted to take the train from Zurich to Ljubljana, Slovenia (see Chapter 3), what countries would you have to pass through?
5. Do a cybersearch to learn which famous scientist was working at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern when he published his theory on relativity and forever changed the world's view on physics and the universe.

Chapter 30 - Finland, Shouldn't We Call It Suomiland?

Toto began an around-the-world trip in Helsinki, Finland, which is way up in Northern Europe. Finland is so far north, half the country is north of the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle is the line on your globe or world map that represents 66 degrees latitude. At the center of the Arctic Circle is the North Pole. At least one day per year in the summer, the Arctic Circle has 24 hours of sunlight, and the opposite is true during the winter.

The part of Finland that is above the Arctic Circle is called "Lapland." Do you know what Lapland is famous for (besides being cold and either really dark or really light all the time)?  It is where Santa Claus lives!  Can you find the city of Rovaniemi on a map of Finland? It lies right on the Arctic Circle. That is where the people of Finland believe Santa lives. He has a village there with a post office that will answer any letters mailed to Santa Claus there.

It must be really cold in Lapland in the winter, because it was cold at the beginning of May down south in the capital city of Helsinki. The trees had not sprouted leaves yet when I was there, because Finland is so far north on the globe.

In English we refer to this country as Finland and the people "Finns." What would you think the name of Finland would be in Finnish? I would think the local name for the country would sound something like the word we use in English, right? Actually, the Finn's name for their country sounds nothing like "Finland." The country's name in the local language is "Suomi" and the people are called "Suomalairen"!  I asked a Finnish woman from the tourism office why we use such a different term in English than in the local language and she admitted she had no idea and also found it funny. You'd think we'd call the country "Suomiland" and the people "Suomis," wouldn't you?

While I was visiting, tourists from all over Europe were arriving to Helsinki. This is because Helsinki was hosting the annual Eurovision competition broadcast on TV throughout Europe. Eurovision is like the American TV show "American Idol," except in the Eurovision competition, each country within Europe enters a person or group to represent their country. Then all the countries divide a certain number of votes among their favorite acts (a country cannot vote for itself). There are forty-two countries represented all across the extended European region, from Sweden to Serbia and Ireland to Israel. Each country's fans obviously want their country's act to win, and so it's a bit like a cross between "American Idol" and the World Cup soccer only for Europe. Moreover, the competition occurs once a year.

Last year I was in Slovenia when the Eurovision final was on TV. The whole city was watching, so I did the same at the pizzeria. Last year Finland won with a funny act called Lordi who to me is a cross between the old rock band, KISS, and some monsters from The Lord of the Rings movie! As an honor for winning, Finland got to host the 2007 competition. I met some Spanish students in my hotel elevator with their Spanish flags who came to cheer on Spain in the semi-finals. I wished them luck. Regardless of the  ultimate winner, all of Europe gains by learning more about each other's countries every year in the Eurovision competition, which was one of the reasons the broadcasters came up with the idea, I suspect, in the 1950s after the terrible experiences from World War II. The Eurovision competition has been broadcast without interruption every year since 1956. Perhaps we all could benefit if we had a friendly worldwide music competition that welcomed students to meet each other in the spirit of togetherness?

Travel Questions on Finland:

1. What is unique about the Arctic Circle in the summer?
2. What is at the center of the Arctic Circle?
3. What is the name of the province within northern Finland where the Finns believe Santa Claus lives?
4. What is the name of Finland in their local language?
5. Where did Toto watch the 2006 Eurovision finals when the Finish group, Lordi, won the competition.
6. Serbia won the 2007 Eurovision competition days after Toto left Helsinki. In which city will next year's Eurovision competition be held? (Hint: Re-read chapter 6.)

Global Nomad Questions on Finland:

1. Write a letter or email to Santa Clause in Lapland at his address below. Ask him to write you back. The Finns told me unless he is too busy, he will write back if you ask and that he reads every letter. You can read more about Santa's post office by clicking on this link.
   
   Santa Claus
   Santa Claus Village
   FIN-96930 Arctic Circle
   Finland
   [email protected]
2. Pick one of the 42 countries competing in the Eurovision contest (www.Eurovision.com) and write your own TotoTravels.com chapter about it. Email it to [email protected]. Toto will select the most interesting chapters to post on www.TotoTravels.com for everyone to read.
3. Finland actually has a second official language. Do a cybersearch and write what that second language is. (The name of the country in this second official language is "Finland," so my guess is that's why the country's name in English is Finland instead of Suomi.)
4. In Finland Toto learned something new about the difference between Scandinavia and the Nordic countries. He had mistakenly thought Finland was part of Scandinavia, which is the name of the region made up only of three countries near Finland: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Finland considers itself as part of the four "Nordic" countries. Do a cybersearch to find out what the other three Nordic countries are.

Chapter 29 - Tanzania's Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti Ecosystem

During Toto's travels in Africa, he visited the Serengeti National Park ecosystem twice: once during the dry season and then again four months later during the rainy season. During these two visits I witnessed the before, during and after of the famous Serengeti wildebeest migration. In 2006 ABC News' "Good Morning America" listed the wildebeest migration as one of their new 'Seven Natural Wonders of the World." Having seen it in person, I understand why they did.

 

An "ecosystem" is an environmental area where the climate and weather patterns work together to allow animals, plants and all the living creatures in the area to support themselves. The most visible animals in the Serengeti ecosystem are the several million wildebeest and zebra that live in several national parks and conservation areas in the northern part of Tanzania and across the border in southern Kenya. The wildebeest and zebra are continually moving, or migrating, across the several million acres of park land in search of the green grass and fresh water they need to survive. Fortunately the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have set aside enough land for that many animals to continually have access to enough grass and water. I found it interesting to learn that most of the wildebeest and zebra move in a constant clockwise rotation across hundreds of miles of parkland throughout the year.

 

Even though there are millions of wildebeest and zebra, visitors aren't guaranteed to see them in their big migratory group. That's because park rangers only allow guides to drive visitors through certain parts of the park, in order to preserve the ecosystem. Furthermore, the wildebeest group might not be in the area of the park you're visiting. For example, on my first visit in September to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the "migration" (which is what they call the group of migrating wildebeest and zebra) was way up north in Kenya's Masaai Maara conservation area, where recent rains had brought green grass and water.

Sitting near the equator, the Serengeti ecosystem generally has some part where it rained recently, no matter what month it is. The wildebeest and zebra keep walking so they can be in the right place where the rains just fell, which takes them on their clockwise trek. In September, the rains were up north in Kenya, but I was further south in the Serengeti National Park, where the grass was all dry and brown, as you can see from this photo.

 

Not all zebra and wildebeest go on the migration. There are some herds that stay where they are. I wondered if they were the grandparents and too tired to travel, like my grandparents became once they got really old. But my guide said we weren't looking at simply old zebra and wildebeest. He said some wildebeest and zebra just prefer to stay put, like the couch potatoes of the animal world. That's why even though the grass was brown, we still saw zebra and wildebeest. This dry grass would never have supported the millions of animals I saw later in January, when the grass was green, but it was enough for the small group that remained in September.

 

Predators like lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas (like this one) think it's good that some wildebeest and zebra stay behind, because predators hunt them for food. These predators are "territorial," meaning they stick to a certain area, or territory, year round. They count on some animals always being in their territory so they can feed themselves and their families, instead of migrating to new food, like the zebra and wildebeest.

 

When I came back in January, there was certainly plenty of food for the predators! As far as I could see, there were wildebeest and zebra eating the grass, which was now green. Since I'd been there in September, it had rained in this part of Tanzania, so the millions of wildebeest and zebra migrated south to the Serengeti National Park, where we were driving in January. We were lucky enough to drive through the middle of the migration at the start of our safari. Five days later, when we drove through the same area, the migration had moved on to eat the taller grass further south. The only sign that they had been through the area was that all the grass was short. Just like a giant lawnmower, the millions of animals had trimmed the grass.

 

They say that they wildebeest and zebra stick together because they both benefit from the partnership. The wildebeest are good at smelling water. They instinctively know where it is raining and start walking towards the region where the rains are, which is where they can find water to drink and fresh green grass. But wildebeest are not very good at seeing predators. On the other hand, zebra are very good at seeing predators but not good at knowing where the rains are. So when the wildebeest start walking, the zebra follow them to the green grass and pools of water. When the wildebeest see the zebras running, they take off running too, because they know the zebras spotted a predator and are literally running for their lives. This is called a "symbiotic" relationship, which means both animals work together in a way that's helpful to each of them. Can you see how the zebra and wildebeest both benefit from sticking together in the Serengeti plains?

 

While I was on my safaris I saw some amazing interactions between animals. It was like watching TV, only without the TV screen! For example, I saw this lioness sneak up on a herd of zebra and try to chase down one for dinner. We watched her stalk though the tall grass, just like your cat at home might hunt a bird. Watching her, I learned that prey tend to stick together to help each other survive. A gazelle, which is a type of antelope or deer, was up on a hill above the zebra and saw the lioness stalking them in a ravine below, where she couldn't be seen. Of course the gazelle couldn't just yell, "Hey, look out! There's a lion down there to your left!" But the gazelle barked a warning, which  told the zebras to be on the lookout for something suspicious. So when the lioness eventually tried to hunt the zebra, they were ready and took off the second she appeared.

We saw a good ten-second chase, where it looked like the lion was about to jump on a zebra's back. But he had a head start on her, and she couldn't catch the zebra without possibly getting kicked in the head, so she gave up. The guide said he could tell from her full breasts that the lioness was nursing a litter of cubs, so she probably didn't want to risk getting injured or killed and leaving her cubs without a mother. We could see her disappointment in failing to bring home dinner when she rolled over in the field and wagged her tail in frustration. It was funny to see her show her personality and emotions so clearly to us!

 

Once she began her chase, every animal in the area knew the lioness was there. I will never forget seeing the thousands of wildebeest, zebra and gazelles separate to create a wide path for her to walk back up to her den of cubs at the top of the hill. It was like watching a crowd open up for someone to walk through or Moses parting the Red Sea (if you've ever heard that story or seen the movie, The Ten Commandments). Clearly every animal knows the lioness is the queen of the jungle!

 

The interesting thing about an ecosystem is that there is a place for many different animals within it. Each has found a niche, or small place, to live and each relies on the other to survive. For example, elephants tear down many trees, creating open spaces for grasses to grow, which the zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, and buffalo need to eat. But since elephants don't digest all that they eat, baboons come through and pick out the undigested seeds in the elephant poop. The seeds that don't get eaten often sprout to grow new trees for the baboons and birds to live in. There are many, many more examples of this kind of symbiotic relationship in this amazing ecosystem.

 

One of the difficult things to do while on safari is to try to find the animals. Every creature has its own type of camouflage to protect it from predators or keep it hidden when hunting. I was so used to seeing animals on TV that I thought it would be easy to see all the animals in the wild. You can easily see zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, buffalo and hippos, as they are everywhere and find safety in numbers or, like zebras, in their stripes. Other animals, particularly predators who don't want to be spotted until it's too late, are difficult to find. For example, can you see anything special in this tree that we drove past on our safari? (Double click on the picture to blow up the photo on your screen.)

 

Well, thankfully our safari drivers and guides have really good eyes for spotting these animals. They saw the spots on this leopard, who was taking a catnap in the tree! Leopards usually sleep during the day since their superior night vision helps them hunt at night.

 

The wildlife in Tanzania was truly incredible and a gift to the world that Tanzania protects for all of us. Fortunately Tanzania does a relatively good job of maintaining the ecosystem that the animals depend upon to survive. For example, if lots of people came to live permanently in the Serengeti national parks and conservation areas, then the ecosystem would go out of balance and many animals would die. If the humans set up farms and took all the water, then there wouldn't be enough green grass and water for the wildebeest and zebra to survive. Fortunately the Tanzanians have kept this rich area protected for all of us. I encourage you someday to visit it for yourself. If you love animals, you won't be disappointed.

 

Travel Questions on the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania:

1. Define "ecosystem."
2. In which two months did Toto visit the Serengeti ecosystem?
3. What is the name of the conservation area in Kenya where the migration was in September?
4. Define "territorial" when used in reference to predators. How is it different from an animal that migrates?
5. List an example of an animal in the Serengeti which is territorial.
6. Describe how the zebra and the wildebeest help each other by living together symbiotically.
7. What are the baboons looking for when they pick through elephant poop?
8. What animal was sleeping in the photo of the tree above?
9. What time is the favorite time for leopards to hunt and why?

Global Nomad Questions on the Serengeti Ecosystem:

1. Draw a picture of you with your favorite animals in the Serengeti National Park.
2. Find the Serengeti National Park on a map. List all the countries that surround Tanzania.
3. On your map, you'll notice that there are actually several national parks of preserves that make up the ecosystem in which the wildebeest and zebras migrate: the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, and Masaai Maara conservation area as well as some game reserves next to each of those areas. The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest volcanic crater where many animals live in a unique park. Do a cybersearch on the crater and write a paragraph on what you learned.
4. There is much more to learn about the wildebeest migration than Toto described above. Do a cybersearch on wildebeest, zebras and the annual Serengeti migration and write an essay on what you learned.

Chapter 28 - Jordan - Walking Through 2000-Year-Old Villages

From Egypt's Sinai coast, Toto took a ferry across the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the port city of Aqaba in the country of Jordan. At this point, I had actually left the continent of Africa and entered the region we call the Middle East. This area is full of history, as it's where our civilization started, at the crossroads of many ancient powers and trade routes.

 

My first stop in the desert country of Jordan was the famous ancient city of Petra. Back around the time of Christ, a community called the Nabataeans lived in this area. They were wealthy for two reasons. First, they knew where all the water was in the desert and had invented ways of capturing and storing it. Second, they were powerful enough to charge tolls or taxes to all the trading caravans that passed through their region. The Middle East is called that because it's halfway between (or in the middle of) Europe and the Far East (or Asia). Two thousand years ago, many traders passed through this region carrying goods back and forth between Asia and Europe, and the Nabateans got to collect from these traders.

 

The city of Petra is in a remote area, so when the Romans conquered the Nabetaeans, the city slowly lost power, and then was abandoned and forgotten. Only the Bedouins (tribes of people who know how to live in the desert) knew of Petra. Then in 1812, a Swiss explorer named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt convinced the Bedouins to take him to the lost city of Petra. To get to the city he, just like me and other tourists today, had to walk down the narrow ravine called the 'Siq,' which means 'the shaft.'

 

As you walk through the Siq, you can see the remnants of the system the Nabetaeans built to capture and move water down to storage tanks, or cisterns, where it could be used by the city of Petra. Today their knowledge is lost, but you can still see the effort and skill they relied on to survive in the desert thousands of years ago.

 

Along the way they also left a kind of billboard on the walls of the sandstone cliffs. Can you see the two camels in this photo?

 

After all this walking, I was excited by the anticipation of what lay at the end of this long ravine. I was not disappointed. As I turned a corner, I could see the sun shining on the top of this building, called The Treasury. Like the churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia (see Chapter 25), the buildings in Petra are carved into the rock.

 

Most of the buildings were tombs for nobles, but the 19th-century Europeans didn't know this. When they saw Petra for the first time, they assumed any building this beautiful must have been used to store money. So they called it "The Treasury" (a treasury is like a bank where the government stores its treasure). They figured that the urn at the top of the building must be full of gold, so they shot their rifles at the urn to break it open. You can still see the bullet holes and the foolish damage they did to the top of the building. Of course they didn't find any gold inside, as the urn was solid sandstone!

 

You might have seen The Treasury building before, if you are a fan of the Indiana Jones movies. Indiana Jones goes into this building to find the Holy Grail in the third movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I can tell you that there's just a big room inside, and not booby traps like in the movie! Here's a picture from the inside of The Treasury taken between the columns.

 

While The Treasury is the most famous, it's not the only building in Petra. The Nabataeans built many, many tombs into the sides of the cliffs, as you can see in this photo. They must have been a wealthy community to be able to afford so many elaborate tombs.

 

Further up the cliff, they carved this monastery out of the yellow sandstone found there. As I stood under the bright, clear blue sky and watched the sun illuminate this gorgeous building until it glowed yellow, I wondered how they were able to carve such a beautiful building into a cliff face so many years ago. They must have been very talented engineers, architects and craftspeople.

From Petra, I drove further north to the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea, which is 1371 ft (418 meters) below sea level. The only point on the earth lower than this is a deep valley in Antarctica (called the Bentley Subglacial Trench), but it's covered by ice, so we don't consider it truly the lowest point. The Dead Sea lies between the West Bank of Palestine and Israel (on its western shore), and Jordan on its eastern shore.

It's called the "Dead" Sea because it's so salty that no fish or plants live in it--they used to think that nothing lived in it, but scientists today know that tiny bacteria live there, but that's it. Any cuts I had on my body stung from the salt, which hurts when you put it on a wound. Because you float better in salty water than fresh water, I actually floated really high on top of the water, so much so that I could have taken a newspaper into the Dead Sea and read it as I floated without getting it wet.

 

My last stop in Jordan was the ancient Roman city of Jerash. Back in the time of Christ, the Romans were in control of this region, and several large cities became wealthy as Roman trading centers. Jerash was one of those cities, and fortunately its ruins remain today for us to see.

 

Archaeologists have been restoring the temples to Jupiter and other Roman gods (there are lots of these!) as well as the amphitheaters the Romans used for shows. They even had a track where the Romans used to hold chariot races. While I was there, the park rangers re-enacted a chariot race with horses, so I felt like I had stepped back in time.

 

Then, as I walked further down the ancient cobblestone streets the Romans used two thousand years ago, I saw these grooves in the original paving stones. Can you guess what created these grooves? (Double click on the photo to see a larger version.) These ruts in the road stones were made by the many, many chariots and wagons that drove through these streets thousands of years ago. Seeing them up close, especially after watching the chariot race reenactment, really brought the city streets of Jerash alive for me. I suddenly could picture all the Roman and local citizens from the time of Christ walking down this busy street to buy their goods and meet their friends and neighbors. Since I found the Jordanian people to be very friendly, I'm sure the people of that time would have been very nice to me, too.

 

I'm not sure our asphalt roads with strip mall shopping centers and heavy cars will survive two thousand years like the Roman buildings and cobblestoned streets. Do you think two thousand years from now, someone will discover our potholed roads and wonder what life was like for us today?

 

Travel Questions on Jordan:

1. How did Toto travel to Aqaba, Jordan?
2. What is the name of the region where Jordan is located?
   A) the Far East B) Western Europe C) Africa D) the Middle East
3. Name one of the two reasons the Nabataeans were so wealthy two thousand years ago.
4. Why did the European who re-discovered Petra give The Treasury building that name?
5. How did the Europeans try to open the urn at the top of The Treasury, thinking it was full of gold?
6. Which movie had a scene filmed at Petra?
7. Why was Toto able to float so high on the water in the Dead Sea?
8. The Dead Sea is:
   A)The narrowest sea on earth. B) the saltiest place on earth. C) the lowest point on earth. D) the happiest place on earth.
9. Who built the city of Jerash?
10. What created the grooves in the paving stones that Toto saw in Jerash?

Global Nomad Questions on Jordan:

1. Draw a picture of you at either Petra, the Dead Sea, or Jerash in Jordan.
2. Find Jordan on a map. List all the countries that border Jordan. What is the capital city of Jordan?
3. When Toto pulled into the port city of Aqaba, Jordan, he could see four countries from the deck of the boat. What four countries come together in the Gulf of Aqaba?
4. Petra and the Nabataeans are full of history. Do a cybersearch on them and write an essay about what else you learned.
5. The Romans were very powerful in the region around Jerash. In fact, Pontius Pilate was the Roman ruler of the region when Jesus Christ was alive in nearby Israel, and he may have visited Jaresh. Do a cybersearch on the Romans in this region of the Middle East and write an essay on what you learned.
6. One landlocked and mountainous country in southern African has the "highest lowest point" of any country. By this, I mean the lowest point within that country's borders is higher in altitude than any other country's lowest point. Can you do a cybersearch or guess which country that is? I'll give you a hint: it's the only African country that's completely surrounded or contained by only one other country but isn't on any ocean.
   
   Bonus: There are only two other countries that are completely surrounded by only one other country but are not on an ocean or body of water. Can you guess what they are? Hint: They are both in Italy.

Chapter 27 - The Mighty Nile River

It is impossible to travel throughout Eastern Africa without coming across the world's longest river, the Nile. Toto saw many places along the Nile in Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, from the air over Sudan and even in Rwanda.

Today when most people think of the Nile River, they think of Egypt. Even modern Egyptians told me that Egypt would have very little wealth or people if it weren't for the Nile River. Its waters allows Egyptians to grow crops and provide fresh water in the desert. But the Nile starts much further south, near the equator in Africa. While most rivers you think of flow north to south or east to west, the Nile is one of the few of world's major rivers that flows south to north! So if you want to follow the Nile River upstream on a map, you actually have to move your finger down, or south. To complicate things further, the Nile actually splits into two rivers at Khartoum, Sudan—the White Nile that starts in Uganda and the Blue Nile that originates in Ethiopia.

Toto visited both the White and the Blue Nile origins. The furthest away of the two is where Lake Victoria starts to empty into the White Nile River at Jinga, Uganda. There are whitewater rapids where the river starts to flow and many kayakers like this one love to paddle the river's warm waters. Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, is actually relatively high up in altitude on an elevated plateau. So when the water leaves Lake Victoria, it flows downhill, which is north towards Egypt. 

Some people like to know exactly where to find the start, or "headwaters," of a river, the furthest point away from where the river empties out into the ocean. While Lake Victoria is the start of the Nile, several rivers empty into the lake, the furthest away of which is a river that starts in the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I went trekking to see wild chimpanzees in the Nyungwe Forest with this forest ranger, I was actually traveling over streams that were the headwaters of the Nile River. The water in those Rwandan streams would eventually empty into the Mediteranean Sea north of Cairo, Egypt.

The water has to travel a long way before it makes it to the Mediterranean Sea, though. While still in Uganda it has to go through the narrowest point of the Nile, the seven-meter wide Murchison Falls. I went there as well and saw the normally calm river violently rage through this narrow gap and fall forty meters.

Such agitation made this funny foam that floated on the Nile River for quite a distance. At this point there are many hippos and crocodiles that live along the White Nile River in the Ugandan Murchison Falls National Park. Can you see the hippo's head poking up through the foam in this picture? You wouldn't want to swim in the river at this spot!

While Lake Victoria is the furthest source of the Nile, 90% of the water and 96% of the sediment that Egyptian farms rely on for their rich farm soil comes from the brown waters of Ethiopia's Lake Tana. I went there as well and took a full-day boat ride to see many of the beautiful monasteries built over the years along the lake. In many ways, the life on Lake Tana seemed not to have changed over the years. This fisherman still paddled in a boat made out of papyrus stalks, which float on the water. He also needed to watch out for dangerous hippos, as we saw some along the shores of the lake.

I read that the White Nile was named after the whitish clay that was suspended in the waters along that tributary, or branch, of the river. I'm not sure why they call the Ethiopian tributary the Blue Nile, since the water looks quite brown to me, as you can see in this picture of Lake Tana. In southern Egypt the water was finally blue, but then turned brown again by the time it reached Cairo, due to all the pollution and soil that empties into the river in Egypt.

I didn't get a chance to see where the Blue and White Nile rivers meet in the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum. I did fly over Sudan, though, on my way to Egypt during the day. So I snapped this picture of the Nile River reflecting the sunlight in the Sahara Desert of Sudan. I hope someday to be able to see where to the two rivers meet in Khartoum.

Part of the reason the water turns blue again in Egypt, which is the country north of Sudan, is because the Egyptians built a large dam in the city of Aswan. When you build a dam, the water rises up behind it, flooding a large area. When the Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970, it created the world's largest manmade lake, Lake Nassar (named after the Egyptian ruler who masterminded the dam's construction). Just as a bathtub fills slowly, it took many years for the lake to fill up. The water started backing up in 1964, when the dam was under construction, and reached capacity in 1976. The problem was that many ancient Egyptian temples were in the area that would be flooded. So Egypt, with the help of many other countries, had to move these huge temples to higher ground.

I visited Abu Simel, one of the most amazing of these temple complexes. The engineers took four years to cut the two 3300-year-old temples into large pieces and move it 60 feet up the hill, where they reassembled it. The statues still look out onto the Nile River as they always did when the Pharaoh Ramses II built the temples (one for him and one for his wife who came from the region called Nubia). Now they just have a higher view of a very large lake! The funny thing is that the temples were covered with sand for hundreds of years until a Swiss explorer rediscovered them in 1813. Later explorers dug out all the sand so the two temples could be seen.

My final stop along my exploration of the River Nile was Cairo, the populated capital of Egypt. To get there, I took a boat trip down the Nile, and I saw many farmers growing green fields of food for the many Egyptians and their animals. For thousands of years, the Egyptian farmers have relied on the water of the Nile and the rich soil it carries from Ethiopia to feed the country. From the air, Egypt is a large beige desert with a blue river surrounded by a strip of bright green fields. Over the years they have invented ways to irrigate the fields further and further away from the river, literally turning desert into rich soil. Before the Aswan Dam the level of the Nile flooding was so important to the Egyptian government they developed "Nileometers" to measure the river's relative level. The rulers used the measurements from the Nileometers to set the taxes the farmers had to pay, since higher water would mean more successful crops that season. Here is a picture of one of these ancient Nileometers.

By the time the Nile reaches the enormous city of Cairo, it looks like any other river running through a huge city. With twenty million people, Cairo is much larger than any city in the U.S. or Europe. Modern day citizens of Cairo still use boats to cross the river and transport goods as the waters from Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan flow onwards to the Mediterranean Sea.

Travel Questions on the Nile River:

1. What are the names of the Nile River's two tributaries?
2. What is the name of the Sudanese city where these two tributaries meet?
3. Which of the two tributaries contributes 90% of the water that flows into the Nile in Egypt?
4. What is the name of the city where Lake Victoria empties into the Nile?
5. In what country are the headwaters of the Nile?
6. What causes the foam that floats on the Nile River that Toto saw in Uganda?
7. What was the fisherman's boat made out of on Lake Tana, Ethiopia?
8. Why did Egypt need to move the temples of Abu Simbel?

Global Nomad Questions on Nile River:

1. Draw a picture of you on your favorite part of the Nile River.
2. Look at a map of Africa. List all the countries through which the Nile River flows.
3. Several countries have built hydroelectric dams along the Nile river to create electricity. Do a cybersearch on hydroelectric power and write an essay on how dams create electricity. What are the advantages and disadvantages of hydroelectric power?
4. Research what the Nile River meant to the ancient Egyptians. Write a paragraph about the many temples and sites they located along the river.
5. The region where southern Egypt and northern Sudan meet is a region called "Nubia." Do a cybersearch on Nubia and write a paragraph about Nubian culture and history.

 

Chapter 26 - Egypt - Land of the Pharaohs

Toto made it all the way to the North Africa to the country of Egypt. In doing so I went back in time 4500 years to the time of the pharaohs. You might have heard of the pharaohs. They were the kings of ancient Egypt from before 3000 years BCE (Before Christian Era) until about 350 BCE, when the Persians, ancient Greeks, and then the Romans ruled Egypt. During the pharaohs' reign, the dynasties of ancient Egypt made some incredible temples, tombs, sphinxes and pyramids that still survive today. Seeing all these old sites brought this ancient culture to life for me.

My first stop was the famous ancient pyramids of Giza, which are just outside of Cairo, the Egyptian capital city of twenty million people. Have you ever heard of the "seven wonders of the ancient world"? Back in the year 140 BCE a Greek historian named Antipather listed seven sites that were "wonders" or amazing sights in the world at the time. The only one of those seven that still remains is the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

There are actually three ancient pyramids in Giza. The biggest of the three, or the "Great Pyramid," was also the first to be built. The pharaoh Khufu constructed it as his tomb in 2570 BCE. It is made from over 2,300,000 giant blocks of stone - that's some tomb! As I stood there at the base of the pyramids and looked up at this enormous structure made of so many huge stone blocks, I tried to imagine how they made it without any construction vehicles or cranes. That means each of the large blocks, which were about the size of a dining room table, had to be carved out of the quarry by hand with a chisel. Then the workers had to smooth each edge of the block so they'd fit together tightly without any concrete. Then the workers had to haul these very heavy blocks to the pyramid. Much of this was done by barge or boat when the nearby Nile River was flooded. Then once they got the block to the pyramid site, the workers had to move the block up into the proper position. I couldn't imagine the effort this took for all the blocks up at the top!

The king's son, Khafre, built the second largest pyramid as his tomb, and his son (Khufu's grandson) built the smallest pyramid as his tomb and covered it in red granite blocks. Between all three pyramids, the workers of the time must have been kept quite busy.

The Nile River was the primary source of wealth for the ancient Egyptians. It was also their main means of transport, as the rest of Egypt is basically desert and there certainly weren't roads and cars thousands of years ago. As I traveled up the Nile, I saw many more amazing sights from the time of the pharaohs.

First, they built many temples to their gods back then, since they believed in many different gods in different forms. I liked their sculptures of Horus the best, as he had the head of a falcon. Other gods had heads of crocodiles like this one, the god Sobek, who represented the might of the pharaohs.

Egyptians had a beautiful way of writing called hieroglyphics, which was made of many different symbols that represented whole words, rather than using letters to build words, as we do today. ("Hieroglyphics" comes from the Greek word "hiero," meaning "sacred" and "glyph," which means "to carve or write.") For years archaeologists and historians had no way to understand what hieroglyphics said. Then in 1799 some French soldiers discovered the Rosetta Stone in the town of Rosetta on the Mediterranean sea in the Nile River Delta. This stone was a proclamation by a Greek ruler in the year 196 BCE. The ruler wanted to be sure everyone at the time could read it, so he had the text carved into the stone in three languages:  hieroglyphics, Greek, and the local language of the time, demotic. So with this Rosetta Stone, Egyptologists (which means people who study ancient Egyptian history and culture) could translate hieroglyphics and break the mysterious code.

Most of the hieroglyphics I saw were written in the tombs of the pharaohs and nobles. This is because the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with their life after death. They believed you needed many things in your afterlife and had to pass several tests in order to live in the paradise they imagined as a sort of heaven. Knowledge was the key to passing the tests to enter into paradise; as a result, they wrote long explanations on the walls of the pharoahs' tombs as a form of examination notes. All of these study notes were painted in colorful images on the walls or carved into the stone in their local language, which was hieroglyphics.

They also filed their tombs with elaborate items they felt were necessary in their afterlife. At first, the king's tombs were pyramids like the ones in Giza. But of course everyone could see where they were, and they knew the pyramids were filled with gold and valuables. So grave robbers broke into the tombs and stole all the valuables.

So eventually the kings decided to hide their tombs underground in what is now called the "Valley of the Kings" upriver near the city of Luxor, Egypt. Eventually the grave robbers found most of these tombs, too, and stole all the wealth stored in the tombs meant to help the pharaohs in the after life. Now only the colorful paintings on the walls remain.

No one quite knew what these ancient tombs contained other than the colorful walls and some granite sarcophagi (big stone coffins usually left by the robbers in the tomb because they're so heavy). Then in 1923, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen, who died young. King Tut's tomb was dug beneath a previous pharaoh's tomb, so the grave robbers never found it, and it was left intact.

Imagine the excitement when Mr. Carter broke through the stone door placed there over 3200 years ago, put a candle and his head through the hole, and saw the tomb full of wonderful golden treasures! I saw all these items in museums in Cairo and Luxor and they are spectacular. There were golden cows, golden chariots, incredible golden beds and even sandals for the king to use in the afterlife.

The room containing his body was filled with four large wooden boxes covered in gold, each one inside the other like those Russian dolls you might see today. Then inside the last box was a casket covered in gold. Inside that was another golden casket, each containing the many symbolic jewelry and amulets and charms needed in the afterlife. They opened the last casket to find King Tut's mummy covered with a beautiful golden mask of his face made of 11 kg of solid gold with inlaid glass. I saw this mask and wondered if I had ever seen such a beautiful piece of art made of gold. Thankfully, King Tut's tomb was never discovered by the ancient grave robbers, so we know just how beautiful all the art was from that time.

All this was protecting the king's mummy, which is a dried and preserved body. This tradition started thousands of years ago, when the priests buried the ancient kings in the deserts outside of the towns and away from the River Nile. Eventually some graves were uncovered by windstorms. The priests recognized the king's bodies, since they were all dried out and preserved. The ancient Egyptians then invented a process that allowed them to dry out the bodies, leaving the skin and hair and bones intact. They believed that people needed their bodies in the afterlife, so mummifying the bodies allowed the kings' and nobles' souls to return to the bodies in the afterlife. Then the king could use all the notes on his tomb walls to pass the tests required to enter into paradise. Once in paradise they believed he could use all the things buried with him in his tomb. This included sandals, because after all, you didn't want the king to have to walk barefoot in paradise!

I saw many mummies of the pharaohs from thousands of years ago, and you could still see what the kings looked like 3000 years later. It was really incredible to see their dried-out skin and hair so many years later. The ancient Egyptians even mummified cats, like this one, to meet them in the afterlife. Who would want to be in paradise without their pets? I also saw mummified crocodiles, baboons, sheep and other animals sacred to the ancient Egyptians.

Because Egypt has been a desert for thousands of years, all these items are well-preserved in the dry climate, often covered by sand for hundreds of years. It really was like going into a time machine and seeing this four-thousand-year-old culture come to life before my eyes. It made me want to learn more about these people and their customs. I encourage you to do the same.

Travel Questions on Egypt

1. Define 'pharaoh'.
2. How many people live in the Egyptian capital of Cairo?
3. How many wonders were there in the ancient world?
4. When did Pharaoh Khufu build the Great Pyramid of Giza?
5. How many blocks did it take to build the Great Pyramid of Giza?
6. What was the name of the stone that allowed Egyptologists to translate hieroglyphics?
7. Why did the pharaohs paint so many hieroglyphics on the walls of their tomb?
8. Why were the grave robbers unable to find King Tut's tomb?
9. When did Howard Carter discover King Tut's intact tomb?
10. Name two kinds of animals the ancient Egyptians mummified for the royal tombs.
11. In how many caskets did they find King Tut's mummy?

Global Nomad Questions about Egypt:

1. Draw a picture of you working on the pyramids back in ancient Egypt.
2. If there are 2.2 lbs/kg, how many pounds of gold did King Tut's spectacular 11kg gold mask weigh?
3. Do a cybersearch on the seven wonders of the ancient world. List all seven. If you could go in a time machine to visit one of the other six, which would you see and why? Do not choose the Great Pyramid of Giza because you can still go on a plane today and see it!
4. Do a cybersearch on King Tutankhamen's tomb. Write an essay on what they discovered in the tomb and why it was such a special discovery.

Chapter 25 - Ethiopia - Living Among the Amazing Historical Sites

Ethiopia was unique among the African countries I visited, as it has its own alphabet and language, its own religion, its own style of cooking (you eat with your hands, which is always fun), and their own kind of toothbrush.

 

Ethiopians in general are a very religious people, mostly Christian and Muslim. Ethiopia was one of the first African regions to convert to Christianity. Before they did, the kings used to erect giant "stelae" in the town of Axum. A "stela" is a tall, thin rock pillar with carvings on it, and the plural of "stela" is "stelae" (ask an adult who knows Latin why this is so). In Axum, each stela was a kind of giant tombstone for the king who raised it. Each king felt he had to outdo the previous king by making his stela even taller. They got taller and taller until the workers for the very last king carved and hauled the largest single piece of granite ever quarried. ("Quarried" means to cut out and remove a piece of rock from a "quarry," which is what you call a rock mine.)

I found it amazing that they cut this huge piece of very hard stone by hand, then moved it all the way to the cemetery without any construction vehicles. When the workers tried to raise this, the biggest stela ever--or shortly after they got it standing (no one knows for sure)--the stela fell over and cracked into several large pieces. It still lies there today, since nobody wants to try and move such a big rock, even in pieces.

The people at the time felt this must have been a message from the gods and overthrew the king. The next king decided he'd had enough of the stelae. He also converted officially to Christianity, and ever since, the Ethiopians have been very strong in their faith.

 

One way they practice their Ethiopian Orthodox Christian religion is to build monasteries at the top of mountains. I visited one monastery where they only allow males on the mountaintop--this includes not only people, but also cows, sheep and goats. It's challenging even for males to get to the monastery, since you have to climb up a vertical cliff of twenty meters (about sixty-six feet). Even the bulls and rams have to be hauled up the cliff by monks using ropes made from rawhide leather (like the rawhide chews you might give your dog, only much longer). I watched several old local men and monks climb up without any safety ropes, the same way you might climb up your favorite tree or jungle gym in your neighborhood.

All of us visitors had a thick rawhide rope tied around us, and I climbed up using the hand and foot holds in the cliff and rope. When I reached the most difficult part, someone up top pulled me up by the thick leather rope tied around my waist. I couldn't imagine how strong someone would have to be to pull me up like this. But when I got to the top, I saw that the strong man pulling me up was the old monk you see here. Boy, was I surprised! I realized that maybe I should go to the gym more often. While it was quite scary, I enjoyed climbing up and down this cliff, and it's one of my favorite memories of Ethiopia.

 

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, nearly one thousand years old, are among the holiest religious sites for Ethiopians and also one of the most amazing places I've ever been. In Lalibela, the local kings made churches not by building up using bricks or wood, but by carving down into solid rock. All eleven churches I visited here are carved out of solid rock and hollowed out inside. It was hard to understand how the ancient Ethiopians figured out how to do this without the roof caving in on top of them, but they did. And, moreover, these twelve beautiful red stone churches are still standing and in use today. The government recently put temporary roofs over them to keep the rain from eroding these world heritage sites so they might last for another thousand years.

 

Most of these places are in Northern Ethiopia, closer to its neighbors Eritrea and Sudan. At the end of my trip to Ethiopia I traveled to the walled city of Harar, at the eastern end of the country, near Somalia. Harar is famous as a town where the Ethiopian Christians and Muslims live together in harmony. For centuries the local people, who were all Muslim back then, believed that harm would fall upon the city if any outsider entered it. Then, in 1854, Sir Richard Burton from the United Kingdom disguised himself as a local and sneaked into Harar, where the locals soon discovered him. Instead of killing him, however, they decided to let him go in peace--perhaps because nothing bad had happened to the city because of his visit--and ever since they have welcomed visitors. Nowadays the people of Harar are so friendly that Harar was my favorite place in Ethiopia.

 

As you might guess from this story, we would call the people of Harar superstitious, or at least very interested in keeping up their traditions. Another example of this surrounds a legend they tell about a man many years ago who tried to end a famine by feeding the wild hyenas living outside the city's walls. A "famine" happens when there isn't enough food to go around, and many people starve. In Africa, famines happen most often because of "drought," a long, dry period without rain when farmers can't grow their crops or water their animals. Ethiopia lies in a dry place in the Horn of Africa, so Harar is susceptible to devastating famines when there's not enough rain. After this man fed the hyenas, it began to rain again, and the famine ended. And so the locals believed they had to continue feeding the hyenas every night or famine would appear again. Even today, every night after sunset outside the gates of the old city, two men call the wild hyenas to be fed.

I went to see one of these men and was shocked to see that he still had all his fingers! About a dozen wild hyenas came to him to eat the raw meat he offered them. When I dropped my camera out of my backpack, one hyena ran up near my feet thinking I was dropping meat for him to eat--that's how close I was! Since wild hyenas are smart predators that can kill a zebra or wildebeest, I was a bit scared to have a dozen wild hyenas running around me.

 

The most amazing part came when the man put the raw meat on a six-inch (fifteen-centimeter) stick, which he held in his mouth. The hyenas took the meat from the other end of the stick, almost kissing him as they did! He offered me a chance to feed the wild hyenas this way, or even just by hand. I'd like to say that I did so, but I couldn't get the nerve up. I kept thinking, "How will I explain to Mom how I lost my nose or got rabies?" Instead, I watched from about twenty-five feet (five meters) away. Had they wanted to, I am sure the hyenas could have attacked me, but they were used to tourists like me watching their daily feeding by this very brave man. Still, I don't think I'll ever forget seeing those aggressive hyenas growling and fighting over who got to eat the raw meat from this man's mouth!

 

Speaking of mouths, in Harar I also met this very nice family who made and sold toothbrushes on the sidewalk. These aren't the plastic toothbrushes you and I are used to. Instead, they're made using green sticks from a special bush, the Salvadora persica evergreen shrub. This family grows these bushes, using branches about as thick as a pen to make a toothbrush. They made several for me very quickly, carving a spiral design into the handle and cutting the bark off one end to expose the stick's white inner core. Ethiopians chew this end until the fibers turn into a type of brush, and then they brush their teeth with it. Because the fibers also contain chloride, anti-bacterial agents and vitamin C, it's a toothbrush and toothpaste all in one! The brushes last about a week and only cost a few cents, so they're a smart and inexpensive way for Ethiopians to keep their teeth strong and clean. I tried one and thought it was quite clever, although it tasted a little bitter at first. If I lived in Ethiopia all the time, I think I'd use the local toothbrushes made by this friendly family at their store on the sidewalk in Harar.

 

Travel Questions about Ethiopia:

 

1. A 'stela' is:
   A) a name of a dog B) a toothbrush C) a beverage D) a tall rock pillar like a tombstone.
2. Two historical changes happened when the giant stela collapsed and broke in Ethiopia. Name one of them.
3. Define 'quarried.'
4. How did Toto get up to the monastery?
   A) Stairs B) An elevator made of rope and sticks C) Climbing the cliff with leather ropes D) Jetpack
5. How did the people of Lalibela build their churches a thousand years ago?
6. What was the name of the city Toto visited where the man fed the wild hyenas?
7. What country was near this city?
8. What did the Ethiopian family make toothbrushes from?

 

Global Nomad questions about Ethiopia:

 

1. Draw a picture of your favorite site that Toto visited in Ethiopia.
2. Find Ethiopia on a map. See how that part of Africa looks a bit like the horn of a rhino sticking out of East Africa? That's why the region is called the 'Horn of Africa.' List all the countries that border Ethiopia.
3. Spotted hyenas are often thought of as scavengers, but they're actually quite successful predators. Research hyenas and write an essay on the different kinds of hyenas with particular emphasis on how spotted hyenas are different from other hyenas.
4. In many cultures and countries the people use local plants for health care, like the toothbrush in Ethiopia. Can you think of any plants you or your family uses for health reasons? Write a paragraph about how your family uses this plant, or do a cybersearch and write about the medicinal plant you found most interesting.
5. In the 1990s over one million Ethiopians starved to death in a tragic drought. Do a cybersearch on this East African drought and write an essay explaining what you learned.

Chapter 24 - Uganda - Lush Diversity on the Equator

After crossing back into Rwanda from a day trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Toto took a bus into Uganda. Uganda is very lush and green, full of small farms that grow many of the crops you eat all the time. This is because Uganda gets lots of sun and rain. Almost everywhere I looked I saw banana trees and men like these riding to market with bunches of green bananas strapped to their bicycles.

One of the major reasons Uganda is so green is that it's one of only ten countries in the world that lies on the equator. This means that it's quite warm year round as there is no cold winter. Instead there is just a rainy season and a dry season. I realized that while I had flown over the equator many times, driving in Uganda was the first time I had crossed the equator over land.

People say that water drains counterclockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of the equator. This actually isn't true, although hurricanes do rotate counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere (a "hemisphere" is half of the globe--the Northern hemisphere is above the equator, and the Southern hemisphere is below it). Water in toilets, bathtubs and the like drains both directions in both hemispheres depending on the design of the drain and the motion of the water. 

While watching the water swirl down the toilets in Uganda might not be so interesting, the many waterfalls throughout Uganda were quite spectacular. Uganda gets lots of rain and has lots of hills. So I was able to see several waterfalls. The Sipi Falls near the border with Kenya were quite stunning to see from a distance and up close.

While I was hiking through the farms around Sipi Falls, I met this man and his family. They were collecting new straw for the roofs of their homes. As I was there at the start of the rainy season, they needed to replace last year's old rotting straw with new straw they were collecting in the fields. It seemed like hard work, but they were happy to do it in order to keep dry during the coming rains.

On another hike in Uganda I met a nice farmer who took me around his small plot of land. He showed me this plant. Can you guess what it is? It is cacao, which is the main ingredient in chocolate! So that candy bar you love starts like this on a farm in some tropical climate like Uganda. The Latin name for cacao is Theobroma, which means "food of the gods." I think I would agree! After learning what the farmer has to do to make cacao suitable for chocolate, I found it interesting that anyone actually discovered how to make chocolate. He told me that before he can sell his cacao crop, he must break open the seed pods when they are yellow and ripe. Then he has to let the seeds sit and ferment for a week, which is sort of a controlled rotting. Only then can a chocolate company buy the seeds and use them in their recipe to make the chocolate we love.

I am continually amazed by the food (like chocolate) and medicines humankind has discovered from the wild. Much of this knowledge was discovered by native (or indigenous) nomadic hunter-and-gatherer tribes living in the forests. In Uganda I had the pleasure of meeting a group of people that live in the jungles of central Africa, including a tribe near border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. As I was driving through Semliki National Park, a village of pygmy people invited me to stop and visit. After living hundreds of years in the forests, the tribe knows how to live off of the plants and animals in the forest.

The pygmy people are also famous for being very short - only 150 cm, or 4.5 feet on average. As you can see in this photo of me with several grown men from the village, they are perfectly proportional, just shorter than me. They are not midgets or dwarves. Rather, over time they have evolved due to their environment so that they don't go through the teenage growth spurt like most other humans. Just as some communities have traditionally straight hair or a certain eye color, these people are simply traditionally short. The gentleman in the green trousers next to me was the very kind thirty-year-old king of the village who asked me (in the perfect English he spoke) to take this picture.

The king invited me into his home, which contained a small bed and a place for a fire to keep warm at night. His community lived next to another village, and I believe their children went to the same local school. Unfortunately while the pygmy people have had contact with other tribes and villages for many years, they are finding their traditional lifestyle increasingly threatened. This is because there are fewer forests within which they can live freely. In fact, the Semliki National Park where they lived was taken over by farmers in the 1970s during economic hardships and civil war in Uganda. Only recently has the government taken over the park again and let the trees and forests grow naturally. Hopefully, the unique pygmy culture will not become extinct. Like many humans, plants and animals their traditional culture depends on the lush and wild forests of Africa which are found less and less in countries like beautiful Uganda.

Travel Questions on Uganda:

1. How many countries lie on the equator?
2. True or false, water always drains counterclockwise north of the equator?
3. What was the name of the waterfalls Toto hiked around?
4. Why was the farmer's family gathering straw?
5. What does the Latin name for cacao (Theobroma) mean?
6. Define "indigenous."
7. What was the name of the National Park in which Toto was invited to the pygmy village?
8. How tall are the pygmy men on average?
9. How old was the king who invited Toto into his home?

Global Nomad Questions on Uganda:

1. Draw a picture of you hiking somewhere in Uganda.
2. Look at a globe or map and list all ten countries through which the equator passes.
3. Find a recipe for chocolate. Describe what you would need to make chocolate if you were stranded on a tropical island.
4. Do a cybersearch on the pygmies and their culture. Write an essay on what you discovered.

Chapter 23 - Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo

From Rwanda Toto walked across the border to Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. While I only spent part of a day in the country, I think it's important that you know a bit about the second-largest country in Africa.

Until recently the Democratic Republic of Congo was called Zaire. Before that it was called The Congo. You might wonder why we don't just call it The Congo again. Well, it's neighbor is called The Republic of Congo, so we have to be more specific to know which of the two countries in Africa called 'Congo' that we're actually talking about! Sometimes people differentiate them by saying 'Congo' followed by their capital city. 'Congo - Kinshasa' is the Democratic Republic of Congo while 'Congo - Brazzaville' refers to neighboring The Republic of Congo. Sometimes people in Africa just refer to the Democratic Republic of Congo as "The DRC." Confusing, isn't it?

While Kinshasa is the capital of the same country that I visited, it might as well be a world away from Goma on the far eastern border of the DRC. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a huge country, as large as Western Europe. And because it has a large, dense jungle in the middle of it, you can't even drive from Kinshasa in the west to Goma in the east. There are no working roads connecting the two for tourists. You can only fly.

Because of this distance and a history of poor leadership, Goma doesn't have much of a working government. In fact the Democratic Republic of Congo only became democratic recently. "Democratic" means the citizens get to vote directly for their leaders. For decades the country was ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko, a corrupt and bad dictator who renamed the country "Zaire." A "dictator" is a non-elected ruler with absolute power over a country, and usually acts in violent ways to maintain that power. The country had a four-year civil war at the end of Mobutu Sese Seko's life and afterwards optimistically renamed itself the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, they only held their first elections this year. The day I visited was a couple of weeks before the final run-off election, so I saw advertisements and T-shirts for presidential candidates like the one in this photo. While we often take elections for granted, being able to vote was new to the people of Goma. I could tell they were enthusiastic about having the right to elect their president for the first time.

Another thing we take for granted is that a volcanic eruption won't send lava flowing through our town. Well, the people of Goma can't take that for granted, either! In 2002 the Nyiragongo volcano that towers over Goma erupted. (You can see the volcano in the background of the motorcycle photo above.) The lava flowed right through town, over the roads, businesses and homes. In fact, I walked by this school where the lava just missed the school building, flowing through the fields where the kids play during recess! Can you imagine lava flowing past the windows of your classroom?

Because there was no local functioning government, some of the streets still had lava flows over them. People just drove over the lava, making the roads quite bumpy and very dusty. Several furniture businesses destroyed by the lava flow in 2002 just set up shop again on top of the hardened lava like the one in this photo double click on it to enlarge the photo). Unfortunately the threat of a new eruption remains, as the volcano is quite active. In fact, if I had time, I could have made a two-day hike up to the top of the Nyiragongo volcano to see a bubbling cauldron of red-hot lava! I'm told it looks like something you'd expect to only see in a movie.

So hopefully now you know a bit about the very large and interesting Democratic Republic of Congo. The next time someone mentions the 'Congo,' you can confidently ask, 'Which Congo are you talking about? The Democratic Republic of Congo or Congo-Brazzaville?' They will think you are quite the Global Nomad!

Travel Questions about the Democratic Republic of Congo:

1. What was the name of the country before it changed its name to the DRC?
2. What is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo?
3. How must tourists travel between the capital city and the eastern city of Goma that Toto visited?
4. Define 'democratic.'
5. When did the Nyiragongo volcano erupt most recently?
6. If you hiked up to the top of the volcano today, what would you see?

Global Nomad Questions on Democratic Republic of Congo:

1. Draw a picture of you at this school in Goma.
2. The DRC is the second-largest country in Africa. Do a cybersearch to find out which country is the largest in Africa. What is the third-largest African country behind the DRC?
3. As one of the largest countries in Africa, the DRC borders many other countries. Looking at a map, list all the countries that border the Democratic Republic of Congo.
4. For older students:
   Do a cybersearch about the dictator Mobuto Sese Seko and write an essay about why the country suffered under his corrupt leadership.
   

Chapter 22 - Rwanda & Rare Mountain Gorillas

From Tanzania, Toto traveled to Rwanda. Rwanda is a small country to the west of Tanzania sandwiched among Uganda, Burundi, and the large Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda is known as the land of "milles collines," which is French for "one thousand hills." Rwandans speak French because Rwanda was a colony of Belgium after World War I, until the country was given its independence in 1962.

This small country is indeed full of lush green hills, making it a beautiful place to visit. Rwanda is also the most densely populated country in Africa. This means more people live within one square kilometer (or mile) on average than in any other African country. As a result, almost all the hills in Rwanda are farmed in small plots of farmland. The farmers carve the edge of the hills into level terraces, so they have a bit of flat land where the water and soil won't run off down the hill when it rains. These terraces made the hills look to me like they were made out of Lego blocks. The terraces and steep hills also mean the farmers cannot use tractors to farm the fields, and they must do almost all the farming by hand using hoes and shovels. It looked like hard, backbreaking work, but the friendly Rwandans do it to feed themselves and their families.

The farms have rich soil because Rwanda was made by volcanoes, many of which still loom over them, as I saw in Volcanoes National Park, in the northwest corner of the country. In the cloud-covered dense jungles of these volcanoes live the very rare mountain gorillas. I went hiking to see a group of these fascinating animals, only seven hundred of which remain in the world!

Seeing these mountain gorillas up close in their environment was by far the most amazing wildlife experience I had in Africa. I saw "Group 13", which was one of  several groups that are used to seeing humans every day, so they didn't run away as we approached them. This group was led by a dominant male gorilla called a "silverback." He is called this because once a male is mature, the black fur on his back turns silver. Can you see the silver fur on his lower back in this picture? (Double click on the picture to see a larger version.) Males mature at around twelve years old. Before that they are simply called "black backs."

A silverback is on average 200 kg or 440 pounds--that's twice as much as a 200-lb. man! Even Shaquille O'Neal, one of the biggest men I can think of, weighs only 325 lbs. Despite being so huge, gorillas are very peaceful and passive (unlike Shaquille O'Neal on a basketball court!). In fact, I would describe gorillas as gentle, based on my interactions with them.

Group 13 had an adorable two-and-a-half-month-old baby and two twenty-month-old half-brothers. These toddlers were monkeying around (or should I say "gorilla-ing around") near their dad, who is the dominant silverback from the picture above. He was so gentle and kind to them, even giving one child a kind pat on the back when he fell. The two toddlers were funny. One tried to climb a small tree and bang on his chest to show off to us, but then he lost his balance and fell off. It was hard not to laugh out loud, since we didn't want to hurt the poor guy's feelings.

You may wonder why I thought we'd hurt their feelings. Well, these gorillas seemed to me to be very similar to humans. (Gorillas are so similar to humans, in fact, that they can catch a cold from us, so only people who aren't sick can visit the gorillas.) We were really just like guests in their home. They let us stand two meters away from them as they ate bamboo in the nest of leaves where they would take a siesta after lunch. At such a close distance, they looked into my eyes and I could see that they were thinking about me, perhaps wondering who I was. People say the eyes are the window to the soul. Looking into these wild gorilla's eyes, I felt they had a soul, were definitely intelligent, and had feelings.

In fact, the national park guards who protected the mountain gorillas said the group was a bit flustered that morning. This was because four years ago, the silverback pictured above kicked out an eight-year-old blackback who was acting as the dominant male of the group after the previous silverback died. An immature black back is no challenge for a fully grown silverback, so the black back had to roam the forest with the other adolescent males, as they do before they mature fully.

Today, this male is now twelve years old and a fully grown silverback, and the guards said that he had come that morning to challenge the silverback as the dominant male for the group. He didn't win the challenge, but we could tell the group was a bit stressed from the experience. They had moved from their resting spot the night before and were only two hundred meters from the rock fence separating the national park from some nearby farmland. We were so close that I could hear the kids and adults talking in the fields next to the cows mooing. Can you see the two kids on their farm in this photo I took just outside the park fence?

Given how densely populated Rwanda is, I found it interesting, but not surprising,  that one of the earth's rarest creatures lives so close to mankind. Because of their striking similarities to humans, it's sad that we are the only real threat to the rare mountain gorillas. The reason the national park had guards by Group 13 was to keep men from stealing the little baby to cage him up in somebody's private zoo--I think this is a very strange and evil thing to do with such a rare species.

Fortunately these mountain gorillas are kind and entertaining hosts to visitors from abroad (like me) and the local Rwandans, like some of the schoolchildren nearby with whom I played soccer. The students told me they had visited the gorillas for a school field trip. That's a pretty cool field trip, if you ask me! The visitors help the local people protect the gorillas from poachers and preserve the national park as the gorilla's last remaining habitat. I am very glad I was able to see the gorillas. Rwandans know they are lucky to have such amazing creatures in their country and proudly consider the mountain gorillas to be citizens of Rwanda.

Travel Questions on Rwanda:

1. List two countries that border Rwanda.
2. What is the nickname in French or English for Rwanda?
3. Define "densely populated."
4. How do the farmers farm the fields in Rwanda?
5. How old are male mountain gorillas when their back fur turns silver?
6. If a 200-kilogram silverback weighs 440 pounds, how many pounds are there in a kilogram?
7. About how many mountain gorillas remain in the world?

Global Nomad Questions on Rwanda:

1. Draw a picture of you visiting the mountain gorillas in Rwanda at Volcanoes National Park.
2. Mountain gorillas only exist in three neighboring countries in Africa, always living on the dense slopes of volcanoes. Do a cybersearch to find out the names of the other two countries. Bonus points if you can also list the name of the national parks in those two countries where the mountain gorillas live.
3. There are two species of gorillas in the wild. The "lowland gorilla" is what you would most likely see in a zoo. These are much more common than the rare "mountain gorilla" Toto visited in Rwanda. Both have similar diets. Do a cybersearch and create a menu for a restaurant catering to gorillas.
4. "Group of gorillas", "Family of humans"...match the following animals with the proper name for a group of those animals:
   
   A) Group                         1) Elephants
   B) Den                             2) Hippos
   C) Troupe                        3) Geese
   D) School                         4) Monkeys
   E) Pod                             5) Owls
   F) Murder                        6) Lions
   G) Gaggle                        7) Crows
   H) Pride                          8) Hyenas
   I)  Government                9) Gorillas
   J)  Herd                          10) Seagulls
   K) Flock                          11) Fish
5. For older students:
   In 1994 Rwanda sadly had a civil war that led to a horrible genocide. Research what a genocide is and either have a discussion with a grown up about a couple of examples of genocides in history or write an essay explaining what you learned about genocides.
   
   

Chapter 21 - Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Jambo! Toto visited Tanzania and learned that's how people say "hello" in Swahili, the local language. I think it's a fun way of saying "hi." The people here also say "Hakuna Matata" in normal conversation, which means "no worries," as you probably learned in Disney's "The Lion King."

I also learned that "toto" means "kid" or "child" in Swahili. I chose the name "TotoTravels" for this blog, because my nieces, nephews and godson all call me "Uncle Toto." I like the fact that "Toto Travels"  means "kids' travels" in Swahili--it's fitting, don't you think?

While in Tanzania, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, at 5,895 meters or 19,340 feet. (Kilima Njaro means "shining mountain" in Swahili.) Some people climb it because they want to climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents. Others, like me, climb it because it's the tallest mountain you can get to the top of without needing to use ropes. It's a relatively gentle slope all the way to the top, so you don't even need to know how to mountain climb. You just need to know how to hike, be in pretty good shape, and wear warm clothes.

I definitely needed warm clothes, because  the higher you climb a mountain, the colder it gets. This is because as you climb, the air pressure drops. When the air pressure drops, the air gets colder and there is less oxygen to breathe. So, as I climbed towards the summit, I had a harder time breathing and I was colder.

What is air pressure? Just like it sounds, "air pressure" is a way of measuring how much air "presses" on you. If there's a lot of air in a small space (like in a full oxygen tank), there's lots of air pressing on a small amount of space, so the air pressure is high. On the other hand, if there's not very much air in a lot of space (like on top of a mountain), the air pressure is low. There's not much air on top of a mountain because it's so far from the center of the earth, which means there's not very much gravity. Because gravity is lower, it doesn't hold onto the air as tightly, so there's less air to breathe, and less air to press on you. Less air (and less air pressure) is why it's harder to breathe and colder on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. If you could keep climbing all the way up to space, you'd find out there's no gravity, no air (and no air pressure), and it's VERY cold. Fortunately, Toto didn't climb nearly that far!

Mt. Kilimanjaro is also interesting because it's a snow-capped mountain near the equator. Of course, the local Africans had always known about the mountain, since they live on its rich farmland slopes. The first European to see the mountain was a German missionary in 1848. He returned to Europe and wrote about this beautiful mountain, but the so-called "experts" in Europe doubted that a mountain with snow could exist near the equator! The equator is generally the warmest part of earth, since the sun shines on the equator more directly, and for a longer time, than at any other latitude. After several other European explorers came to Africa and saw Mt. Kilimanjaro for themselves, the "experts" changed their minds. But no European climbed the summit for forty-one years, when Dr. Hans Myer reached the top on October 6, 1889, and saw the snow for himself.

Back then, the summit was covered with lots of glaciers, which are snow and ice fields that exist year-round, because they collect more snow in the winter than melts in the summer. With each winter, the snow builds up and pushes the older ice downhill, so that glaciers flow slowly downhill like rivers, taking rocks with them and carving deep holes into the earth. Glaciers have formed many valleys and lakes across the earth by flowing and carving like this. Can you see the glaciers on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in this photo?

I was excited to see the glaciers on top of the mountain, since I hadn't seen snow the whole time I was in Africa. After four days of hiking to get to the final campsite, we left at midnight to hike up to the summit (the top of a mountain is called a "summit"). For six hours, we walked very slowly up a steep trail to get to the top in time for sunrise. When I climbed to the summit, however, instead of walking on a big area of ice and snow, I was walking on gravel, and I saw the back of the glacier melting, which you can see in this photo.

The glaciers are melting due to global warming, and they've lost 80% of their volume since the German explorers first saw them. Scientists believe Kilimanjaro's glaciers will melt completely by 2020. The small increases in temperatures that come from global warming mean less snow is accumulating in the winter and more is melting in the summer. So the glaciers on Mt. Kilimanjaro that I had admired from below are  like large ice cubes melting from all sides. Because they are very large ice cubes, it will take fifteen years or more for them to melt, unless global warming is reversed. At that point, Kilimanjaro will no longer be a snow-capped mountain on the equator, and those old "experts" will finally be right.

The sunrise was spectacular. But since we were so cold and short of breath, we didn't stay long. We started climbing down right after the sun came up, but not until we had taken pictures at the summit to prove we'd been there. Going down was much more fun than going up. Because Kilimanjaro is an inactive volcano, the gravel is like little lava rocks. So instead of walking down, we sort of slid down, as if we were skiing, and our feet sank into the gravel as if it were fluffy snow. With each step, we slid through the gravel for several feet. And since we were going downhill and the sun was up, the temperature got warmer and warmer.

We made it back to our campsite in only two hours, compared to the six hours it took to climb up the same distance! After a warm breakfast we continued down the mountain. While I can say I'm glad I climbed to the top of Africa, I'm not sure I would do it again!

Travel Questions about Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania:

1. How do you say "hello" in Swahili?
2. What does "Toto" mean in Swahili?
3. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. How tall is it?
4. Why do so many inexperienced climbers reach the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro compared to the tallest mountains on the other six continents?
5. Why does the temperature drop as you climb a mountain?
6. In what year did the first European see Mt. Kilimanjaro?
7. How do glaciers form?
8. Why do scientists believe the glaciers are melting on Mt. Kilimanjaro?

Global Nomad Questions on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

1. Draw a picture of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Don't forget to include some of the animals you might see near Kilimanjaro in Africa.
2. There are seven continents on earth. Do a cybersearch and list the seven continents. Which one do you live on?
3. Do a cybersearch and list each of the tallest mountains on each continent. Which one is the tallest? How tall is it compared to Mt. Kilimanjaro?
4. If Mt. Kilimanjaro is 19,340 feet or 5895 meters, how many feet are in a meter?
5. Do a cybersearch on what causes global warming. What are three things you can do every day that will help reduce global warming on the planet?

Chapter 20 - Zanzibar and the East African Slave Trade

From Malawi, Toto drove across across Southern Tanzania to the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is one of the world's "spice islands" and also played a key role in the sad history of African slavery.

Zanzibar is now famous for its white sand beaches and clear blue water, which brings many tourists to visit. In the 1700s and 1800s it was a prime stop for all the ships sailing between Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and Africa. Despite being off the coast of Africa, Zanzibar was ruled by the Sultan of Oman. A "sultan" is an Arabic king. Oman is a country near Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which isn't that far away from Zanzibar, as you can see on your map.

At the time, the locals grew lots of spices that other countries wanted to use in their cooking. The farmers on Zanzibar still grow these today. Whenever you eat cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg or other spices, there is a good chance they were grown on Zanzibar.

Back in the 1800s, the Arab farmers used African slaves to pick and process all those spices, not unlike how America at the time used black slaves to harvest cotton and other crops in the South. Slavery happens when one group of people take away the freedom, rights and dignity of another, just so that the unfortunate people can do free work for them. Today we realize that slavery is against the human rights that everyone deserves, but many years ago, that wasn't the case. Back in the 1800s and earlier, slavery was a big business, sadly, and its East African trading hub was Zanzibar. It is an awful and tragic history, but one that's worth learning so that it's not forgotten or repeated.

At the time, Arab "slavers," who made a business out of capturing and selling slaves, would travel deep into East Africa to capture black men, women and children. Sadly the chiefs of these African tribes and villages would often sell members of their own tribe or their captured enemies to these slavers. Imagine one day you're living with your family and the next day you're being marched with chains around your neck with other innocent neighbors towards an unknown coast. Here's a picture of a sculpture by the old slave market in Zanzibar. The same chains in the sculpture were actually used around the necks of marching slaves back then. Often the slaves were forced to carry heavy elephant tusks taken from elephants hunted for their ivory. (Ivory is the white material, like the enamel of your teeth, that makes up the tusks of elephants.) 

Once at the coast, the slaves were crowded into the bottoms of boats and shipped to Zanzibar. Some slaves didn't even survive this far, as they were often underfed, but the unlucky ones who did survive were held in terrible cells, like a dungeon. A couple of these cells are still in Zanzibar today. Here's a picture of me in one of them. Can you believe that up to seventy men, women and children were crowded into these cells for up to three days while they were waiting to be sold as slaves? Many died of suffocation, since the narrow windows behind me were the only source of fresh air. When the tide came in, the bottom of the cell often flooded with sea water. There were no toilets, so the whole place must have stunk and been a horrible experience for those innocent Africans who made it to this point.

Once removed from this dungeon, the weakened slaves were tied to a post and whipped in front of the buyers. The buyers paid more for stronger slaves, so the slavers cruelly whipped the slaves to show how strong they were. This only shows us how cruel and inhuman the slavers were, since the slaves would have been very strong if they'd been fed and treated well. But slavers didn't even treat them like fellow human beings, which is one of the things that happens when slavery is allowed.

Historians estimate that around 50,000 slaves a year passed through Zanzibar's slave market towards the end of the slave trade. Most slaves sold in Zanzibar went to the Middle East, India and to Zanzibar itself for the spice plantations. Some went to America, although most of the slaves in America, South America, and the Caribbean came from West Africa. The hub of the trade for slaves in the US during the 1820s was Salem, Massachusetts.

In exchange for slaves, ivory and spices, the Arabs received bleached American cotton cloth called "Merekani" (pronounce it and you will hear that it sounds like 'America'), guns, beads, and metal wire. America and Europe used the ivory for billiard balls, piano keys, combs and knife handles. Fortunately for elephants, all those things are made with plastic today.

So how did all this awful trade in humans end? Well, remember the Scottish missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in chapter 17, who "discovered" Victoria Falls? As he explored the interior of Africa, he came across these long, terrible caravans of captured slaves being marched towards Zanzibar. He was so appalled by the treatment of his fellow human beings that he returned to Great Britain and started a movement to stop the slave trade. In 1873 the British took over Zanzibar and left the Sultan of Oman as the local ruler, as long as he agreed to outlaw slavery. At the time Britain was a very powerful country with a strong navy, so they were able to take over Zanzibar. Unfortunately Dr. Livingstone died of malaria in Zambia one month before slavery and the slave trade was outlawed in Zanzibar.

Dr. Livingstone is buried today in the Westminster Abby in London, which is reserved as an honor for famous UK citizens. His heart, however, was removed and buried under a tree in Zambia, as they said that "his heart belonged to Africa."

Fortunately today everyone in this region knows that slavery was a terrible thing. As many of the citizens of Zanzibar are descendants of former slaves, they want the visitors coming to enjoy their beautiful beaches and tasty spices to leave also knowing something about the history of slavery. This way we can all prevent this unacceptable treatment of other humans from ever happening again. After all, many countries, including the US, were involved in this human tragedy.

 

Epilogue:

While in Tanzania, I traveled to Zanzibar with my friend, Joseph. His grandmother was captured as a slave near Mt. Kilimanjaro back in 1873 and was sent to Zanzibar. She was ultimately lucky, as the British outlawed slavery while she was in one of the slave-holding cells pictured above, and so she was freed before she was sold. Her youngest daughter is Joseph's mother, and Joseph is his mother's youngest child. As his grandmother lived to well over one hundred years old and also lived with his family, Joseph heard many of her stories about when she was a slave and then freed. (It is African tradition for the parents to live in their old age with their youngest child.)

Joseph's beloved grandmother told him that she and her younger brother and sister were working in their family's fields in the valley when members of a rival clan within their tribe took them hostage and sold them into slavery. She said they were chained around the neck and ankles and made to march to the ocean carrying elephant tusks. Joseph said the slaves on the caravan were fed mangoes. To this day he said you can fly over Tanzania and see the old slave caravan routes marked by trails of mango trees, since the slaves threw their mango pits along the path while they marched.

When the caravan arrived to the port town of Bagamoyo, the slaves were put in dhow boats to Zanzibar. Bagamoyo means "lay my heart down". The slaves, many of whom had never seen the ocean, believed they left their heart on the land as their bodies were loaded onto the boats to be sold as slaves in Zanzibar.

Joseph also told us his grandmother's stories of being held captive in the small slave-holding cells while waiting to be sold. She told Joseph that "the water came in and out" of the cells. This was the ocean tides. The captives cleaned themselves with the ocean water and also drank it. As the cells had no toilets, the water was surely quite dirty (even clean ocean water will make you sick). She told Joseph that many slaves died. She added that the conditions in the cells were so horrible that the slaves would endure terrible whippings on the slave trading post rather than be sent back down into the cells. As I mentioned above, the slave buyers would only buy slaves strong enough to endure a fierce whipping to prove to these cruel owners that the slave was strong. If the slave could not bear the beating, he or she would not be sold and would be sent back down into the cells and most likely die.

Joseph said when his grandmother and her two siblings were freed, they were turned over to Christian missionaries who took them back to the mainland from the island of Zanzibar. They were separated there in the chaos. The missionaries asked Joseph's grandmother where she was from, and she pointed North and said "from there". The missionaries recognized her tribal language as being from the Northern mountains but incorrectly sent her to a slave refugee camp in Kenya instead of to her town near Kilimanjaro, in what is now Tanzania. Years later her brother came with a warrior from their tribe to find her in Kenya and took her back home. They needed a warrior to cross Masaai land as the Masaai tribe were fierce fighters. When she returned, she married this warrior, who is Joseph's grandfather.

As one of the last surviving slaves from Zanzibar, Joseph's grandmother was often interviewed by Dar es Salaam University in Tanzania to record her stories first hand before she died in the 1970s. I felt honored to be able to hear them and share them with you as told by her to her youngest grandson.

Travel Questions about Zanzibar:

1. Zanzibar is an island that's part of the country of Tanzania. In which ocean will you find Zanzibar?
2. Why is Zanzibar called a "spice island"?
3. Define the term "sultan."
4. What did the slaves have to carry with them as they were marched in chains towards the coast?
5. How many slaves were held in the small cell in which Toto took the photo?
6. After one to three days in the cells, what did the slave traders do to the slaves?
7. Back in the 1800s, the Arabs of Zanzibar traded slaves, ivory and spices for what?
8. Which Scottish missionary was responsible for convincing the British government to take over Zanzibar to outlaw slavery and the slave trade in 1873?
9. Where is his body buried today? Where is his heart buried and why?
10. Why do the people of Zanzibar teach visitors about their place in the history of slavery instead of hoping everyone just forgets about this sad era in history?

Global Citizen Questions on Zanzibar:

1. Draw a picture of one of your favorite foods that contains spices grown in Zanzibar.
2. There are many islands in the world that are called "spice islands." Do a cybersearch to find the name of another spice island. Write a paragraph on where it is located and which spices they grow.
3. Write a paragraph on how you think you would have felt if you were captured as a slave in East Africa in the 1800s.  Describe the experiences you would have likely had.
4. The United States and many other countries have a history of slavery and involvement in the slave trade. Research your country's involvement and write an essay about this history.
5. Dr. David Livingstone is an important European figure in African history. Research more about him and write a paper about this interesting man.
6. Arab traders used ships called Dhows to said around Zanzibar. There have a unique triangular sail like this. Draw a picture of you sailing a Dhow in the Indian Ocean.

Chapter 19 - Malawi and Livingstone

From Zambia, Toto continued on to the small, vertical African country of Malawi. Malawi is actually one of the poorest countries in Africa, although the people are some of the friendliest. It's a very green country dominated by Lake Malawi, where I camped for several nights.

The lake seemed more like the ocean, since you couldn't see across it and it had waves. It reminded me of Lake Michigan, where I used to visit my grandmother. However, unlike Lake Michigan, the water in Lake Malawi is quite warm. When we were kids at Grandma's house, we used to tease my youngest cousin by telling him that the rock in the water was a hippopotamus. In Lake Malawi you can't go to the beach at night, because you might run into an actual hippo!

I did go scuba diving in the lake during the day. I didn't see any hippos, but I did see lots of cichlid fish. Since this lake is made of fresh water instead of salt water like the ocean, many of these fish are caught for tropical aquariums. You might even have a fish in your aquarium whose grandparents came from Malawi.

What is interesting about cichlids is that the males make nests  in the sand which look like big craters by moving the grains with their mouth. The females are attracted to the males based on how nice their nest looks. Instead of laying their eggs in the nest, though, the females store the eggs in their mouths until they hatch two weeks later, going without eating the whole time!

While in Malawi, I went on an all-day hike up the green hills surrounding Lake Malawi to the town called Livingstonia. The town was named after the British missionary, Dr. David Livingstone. You probably remember from Chapter 17 that he "discovered" Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 1855. Dr. Livingstone was active in this area, both as an explorer and a missionary. He also saw many of the locals being taken by Arab traders as slaves in this area, which made him very upset. As a result, he was important in the ending of the slave trade in East Africa, which we'll talk more about in Chapter 20.

One of his followers from Britain came to this area and founded a school and clinic in the town, which he named in honor of Dr. Livingstone. Today the town is home to several schools and a university providing education to many of the locals, so Dr. Livingstone's legacy lives on. The guides who took me on the hike were studying at the university to be ship mechanics, in hopes of giving their families a better life.

On the hike, they showed us this school for orphans in the village. They are orphans because their parents have died, mostly from AIDS. Unfortunately, the children were out of school for the day, but I thought you'd want to see a picture of their classroom. The sticks you see are their chairs and desks. The children sit on the sticks and listen to the teacher's lessons. It certainly was more basic and less comfortable than my elementary school and, most likely, yours. The school is supported by the village's chief as well as by donations from tourists. It made me appreciate how lucky I was to have my family and a school to attend as a child. So next time you think about something you don't like at school, remember how fortunate you are compared to these poor children.

Travel Questions about Malawi:

1. Which lake has warmer water - Lake Michigan or Lake Malawi?
2. Why could Toto not go to the beach at night on Lake Malawi?
3. Is the water fresh or salty in Lake Malawi?
4. What is unique about female cichlid fish?
5. What does the male cichlid's nest look like?
6. How does the male cichlid make his nest?
7. What did Dr. Livingstone see while exploring the region around Malawi?
8. What was Toto's guide studying at the school in Livingstonia?

Global Nomad Questions on Malawi:

1. Find Malawi on a map and list the countries that border the country.
2. The border for three countries lies in the middle of Lake Malawi. Which three countries are they?
3. Next time you go to a pet store, ask the assistant to show you a cichlid. If you have an aquarium, bring a little of Africa to your home by buying a cichlid for it.
4. Describe some of the things you have at your school which the orphans at the Malawi school are not fortunate enough to have.
5. If you want to do a cybersearch and see pictures of Lake Malawi cichlids, you can click on this link.

Chapter 18 - Zambia's Lake Kariba & Crocodile Farm

From Victoria Falls, Toto drove through the country of Zambia to Lake Kariba. The lake is formed by a dam on the Zambezi River, downstream from Victoria Falls. The border between Zambia and Zimbabwe runs through the middle of the lake, as the river still forms the border here. Actually, the middle of the lake is also the safest place to swim, since the lake is home to many wild crocodiles and hippos, which stay closer to shore. I'm sure you remember from Chapter 16 that hippos are quite dangerous. I probably don't have to tell you that crocodiles can be dangerous, too. This is especially true when they're big, and I saw some big ones at the crocodile farm on the Lake Kariba.

There are several species of crocodiles, found around the world in Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Asia. The species in Africa and Zambia's Lake Kariba are Nile crocodiles. (The Nile river is a river in northeastern Africa, most notably Egypt.) You've probably seen belts, shoes, wallets or purses made from crocodile skin before. Well, just like leather, which comes from cows, the skin for these items comes from crocodiles, which must be grown on crocodile farms. The largest crocodile farm in the world is on Lake Kariba, so I went to see it.

The farm has two parts. In one fenced area, they have many ponds filled with really large crocodiles whose job it is to lay eggs. We went around in the back of a truck while they fed these mama and papa crocodiles. Let's just say I wasn't at all interested in getting out of the truck, as these animals were really big! Most of them had been captured on the lake, to prevent local people from killing them to protect their livestock.

It takes at least twelve years for crocodiles to get this big and start breeding. Some crocodiles live up to one hundred years old in the wild! At this farm they had 1,500 breeding crocodiles, mostly females, because they are the ones who lay eggs, which happens around October. In the wild, each female lays an average of thirty-four eggs. When I was there, the farm was advertising for temporary seasonal workers to collect the eggs in a couple of months. The advertisement said that job applicants must be able to "swim, run fast and be brave!" The farm also buys wild eggs collected from locals, because the Zambian wildlife department wants its very poor citizens to think of crocodiles as valuable. Otherwise, they might just kill the wild crocodiles as a nuisance.

The interesting thing about crocodiles is that the sex of the crocodile is determined by the egg's temperature while it's in the nest. A temperature of 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) results in females, while 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) results in males. Since the farm wants to save energy and have more females, they keep the incubator at 32 degrees Celsius.

45,000 eggs go into the incubator each year, which is the second area of the farm. When moving eggs to the incubator rooms, the collectors have to keep each egg in the same position it was in the nest, so that the egg hatches properly. This is because the baby crocodile is attached by a tiny tube to the egg yolk, which feeds it. If the egg is turned to a different position, the feeding tube from the yolk might get clogged, killing the baby crocodile inside the egg.

After about ninety days, the eggs begin to hatch. The first crocodile to hatch emits a noise as a sign to the other baby crocodiles, who then all start hatching together. In the wild, the mother hears this cry and opens the nest to help the tiny babies  (20-30 centimeters long) into the water. At the farm, workers help the eggs to hatch in a special hatching room. To prevent all 45,000 eggs from hatching too early or all at once, the workers take all the eggs that are close to ninety days old and move them from the incubator into a separate hatching room.

The farm raises the baby crocodiles in a controlled environment, to ensure that as many as possible survive. By the time they're two years old, they live in pens like this. In the wild, only one percent of eggs survive, but the processes at the farm ensure that seventy-five percent of the eggs hatched there survive. This gives them more crocodiles skins to sell.

Of course, to get their skins, the farm has to kill the crocodiles when they reach four years old. The farm ships the skins to Japan and Singapore in Asia, where factories turn the skin into shoes, belts, bags, and other expensive accessories. This is like killing a cow for its leather hide, except that cows are typically killed for their meat, not for the skin (the leather is considered a kind of bonus). The farm, on the other hand, sells some crocodile meat (it tastes like chicken, honest), but people don't buy crocodile meat the way Americans buy beef, so they don't sell all of it. Instead of throwing it out, they feed the meat to the 1,500 big crocodiles--who don't seem to care that they might be eating their relatives!

Unlike warm-blooded mammals, crocodiles are cold-blooded reptiles. This means they have to rely on the sun's heat to warm their bodies. Humans and other mammals have a constant body temperature, while reptiles can allow their body temperature to change. This means they can slow down their heart rate to only three or four beats a minute. The farm told me that a crocodile can also hold its breath for up to three hours underwater. (Don't try this at home!) In the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, there are seventy- to one-hundred-year-old crocodiles that surprise the wildebeest crossing the river by holding their breath for so long that the wildebeest forget the crocs are there. These old crocs can live for a whole year just from that one big meal!

Watching the Zambian farm feed the big crocs, I saw that they don't really chew their food--one crocodile ate an entire chicken in one gulp. If you've ever seen a snake (another reptile) eat, you know that they eat the same way, taking a long time to digest their food. Crocodiles eat quickly and digest slowly, which is why they can live so long off one big meal. Since you're not a reptile and digest your food relatively quickly, I suggest you continue to chew your food at home.

Another interesting thing the farm told me was that crocs open their mouths while in the sun, like this one. Do you know why? They do it to cool their brains! Their brains must operate at a cooler temperature than the rest of their body, so the crocodiles do this so their brain works better. Next time a grown up tells you to close your mouth, you can tell them that you're just cooling your brain like a crocodile so you can think better!

Travel Questions about Zambia & the Nile Crocodile:

1. What was the name of the lake that Toto visited in Zambia?
2. What kind of crocodile do they have in Zambia?
3. How old can crocodiles live?
4. How many eggs does a female lay in her nest on average?
5. What determines the sex of the eggs when they hatch?
6. If you wanted to work at the farm collecting eggs, what three skills does their advertisment say you'd need to have?
7. Where does the farm send the crocodile skins to be made into handbags, shoes and other fashion items?
8. What is the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals?
9. Why do crocodiles sometimes keep their mouths open in the sun?

Global Nomad Questions on Zambia:

1. Draw a picture of a worker collecting eggs from a crocodile nest.
2. If one centimeter (cm) equals 0.39 inches, how many inches is a 30-cm baby crocodile when it is born?
3. Being cold-blooded is just one thing that distinguishes reptiles. What are other characteristics that make reptiles unique?
4. Zambia and Zimbabwe used to be part of Rhodesia. Research when Zambia got its independence and why it was once called Northern Rhodesia.
5. Crocodiles are different from alligators, even though they look similar. Do a cybersearch to find out the difference and write a paragraph about what you learned.
6. Some people do not approve of raising animals just to be killed for their skins. In Zambia, the farm provides jobs and promotes wildlife conservation for this poor country, which the government believes is a good thing. Do you agree with this or not? Write an essay explaining your opinion on the issue and why you feel that way. Does your behavior support your opinion?
   

Chapter 17 - Zimbabwe's "Smoke That Thunders"

From Botswana, Toto went to the country of Zimbabwe. To get there I crossed back into Namibia along a thin strip of Namibia called "The Caprivi Strip." It is a panhandle at the top of the country. A 'panhandle' is a term used to describe a thin area of land created by a border between countries, like this one, or between states, like the ones on Oklahoma and Florida. Look at this map of Southern Africa including Namibia. Can you see the Caprivi Strip jutting out like the handle of a pan from the top right (northeast) of Namibia towards the place that four countries meet? They are Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

I drove from Namibia to Zimbabwe across the narrowest border between two countries in the world. It was only 45 meters (about 50 yards) wide. In fact, it's just wide enough for the road between the two countries.

Then I went to see Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi River tumbles over one hundred meters in a spectacular waterfall. The middle of the falls is the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, as the Zambezi River is where the two countries meet.

Historians say that Dr. David Livingstone, a British missionary, discovered the falls in 1855. He called them "the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in Africa." He named them after the British queen at the time, Queen Victoria. The reality is that he was only the first European to see the beautiful waterfall. Of course the local African people "discovered" the falls a long time before Dr. Livingstone arrived. The name for the falls in their local language means "Smoke That Thunders." That's because the falls make a very loud noise like thunder from all the water hitting the rocks. The falls also create lots of mist and spray that you can see from far away, where it looks like smoke. Up close it felt like walking through a constant rainfall. Because of this, the area around the falls is a rain forest, even though it may not rain for many weeks during the dry season. The mist also means I saw a rainbow almost constantly. During a full moon you can even go at night and see a rainbow created by moonlight!

I went canoeing just downstream from the falls in a bend in the mighty Zambezi River, whose water looks green. Lots of things that wash down the falls tend to collect in this bend. It smelled pretty bad, so I asked my local guide why that was. He showed me the rotting carcasses of a hippo and crocodile. Both had apparently washed over the falls at night several weeks before. I could see how it could happen, as just ten meters away from where the water goes over the ridge, you wouldn't realize that the river drops one hundred meters. I'm sure both animals were quite surprised as they fell to their unexpected deaths. Needless to say, I kept far away from the edge of the falls and preferred to watch the beautiful spectacle from a distance.

One of the things I did in Zimbabwe was to taste a snack that many locals eat the way we eat potato chips. They were dried mopane worms! Here's what they look like. I promised the students at St. Peters School that I would eat something surprising on my travels. So when the waiter put a bowl of dried mopane worms and peanuts on the table, I had to try them in order to live up to my promise. I guess they were a bit like our cheese snacks, only they tasted more like smoke and wood  than cheese. I have to admit, I ate more than one, though they were a bit dry for my liking. Nevertheless, you can buy whole bags of dried mopane worms in the markets. Do you think they'll show up in the snack aisle at your grocery store? Try adding "Bag of Mopane Worms" to your family's grocery list and see what reaction grown-ups give you!

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Travel Questions:

1. What four countries meet near Victoria Falls?
2. How wide is the border between Namibia and Zimbabwe?
3. Define 'panhandle.'
4. What is the name of the Namibian panhandle across which Toto drove to get to Zimbabwe?
5. What is the local name for Victoria Falls?
6. Why did Dr. David Livingstone name the falls "Victoria"?
7. Why is the area just downstream from Victoria Falls a rain forest?
8. Can you name two animals that live in and near the Zambezi River?
9. What color is the water in the Zambezi River?
10. What snack did Toto eat in Zimbabwe?

Global Nomad Travel Questions on Zimbabwe:

1. There are 3.28 feet per meter. How tall are the Victoria Falls in feet?
2. Draw a picture of Oklahoma and Florida, and show where the panhandle is on each of these states.
3. Draw a scene of what Victoria Falls might look like if you were to visit.
4. Zimbabwe had a different name before it gained independence. Research the country's history and find out the former name.
5. Do you know what makes a rainbow? If you don't know, do some research and find out why you'll almost always see a rainbow at Victoria Falls.
6. Have you ever seen a waterfall near your home or on a trip? If so, write a paragraph about your experience. How tall was it compared to the 100-meter-tall Victoria Falls?
7. Find the Zambezi River on a map of Africa. List all the countries through which it flows. Into what ocean does it empty?

Chapter 16 - Botswana - Big Hippos & Baobab Trees

Toto visited two beautiful national parks in Botswana. The first was the Okavango River Delta National Park. A delta is formed when a river comes to its end, emptying either into the ocean or a lake, and starts spreading out so that it looks like a triangle. The Greek letter 'delta' looks like a triangle, so that is why we call the end of a river that looks like this a 'river delta'. Other famous river deltas you might have heard of are the Mississippi River Delta near New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam.

The Okavango River flows from Angola, forming part of the border between Namibia and Angola before turning south into Botswana. Instead of emptying into the ocean or a lake like other rivers, the Okavango River empties into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. I had never seen a river that just flows into the ground. Actually, I didn't really see it flow into the ground, as it forms a very large wetland for miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers) around. I was in the opposite of a desert, because as far as we could see there was water with small islands everywhere. But eventually all this water drains into the land rather than the ocean.

Since there is so much water, the only way to get around is to take shallow boats made by the locals called 'mokoros'. The local men have a very good sense of balance, as they stand up in the back of the boat and push you forward with a pole through all the reeds and papyrus grass. Often the water is only a few inches deep, other times it is a several meters deep. Because the mokoros are so flat and shallow, you don't need much water to push yourself forward.

All this water attracts many animals. There are elephants, hippos, antelope, and even lions in this park. But because there is so much water everywhere, you don't see too many animals. We did see several wild elephants on the island where we camped and heard one running through the water while we were in a mokoro. Elephants certainly make a lot of noise splashing through the water!

Throughout this area I did see lots of baobab trees like this one. For each meter of circumference, the tree is a hundred years old. (Circumference is the distance around the outside of a circle.) So I walked around the bottom of this tree and measured twenty meters (you can see me at the bottom of the tree by double clicking on the photo). That means this tree is about 2000 years old! Because they are so old, the local San people many years ago used to consider them holy trees and believed the spirits of their ancestors lived inside them. These trees are actually more like cactuses, as they use fiber (and not sap) throughout the tree to bring water up to the top. The San people learned long ago that they could hollow out a hole in the tree to keep their meat cold. Because the baobab tree has water from underground running up the fibers in the middle, the hole stayed cold like a natural refrigerator!

From the Okavango Delta, I drove to the Chobe National Park, which is one of my favorite sites so far. The Chobe River forms the border between Botswana and part of Namibia. We took a boat along the river at sunset and saw lots and lots of hippopotomi, elephants, crocodiles and Cape buffalo all next to each other. I have to say that the hippos were the most interesting. We were able to pull the boat up very close. We were very careful because hippos may seem cute, but they are actually quite dangerous. They kill more humans than any other animal in Africa, as they get very defensive around their babies or if you get between them and water.

Hippos have very powerful jaws with four big teeth to defend themselves. (They don't need the teeth to eat the grass; they just use their gums.) Hippos weigh around 1500 kg, but are actually quite fast. They can run 45 kpm (30 mph) and swim very quickly - both faster than a human. They can also hold their breath for 5-7 minutes. So while they look big and slow, they are actually quite quick and dangerous if you are not careful around them. Mothers are especially defensive around their babies, as I am sure the mama hippo in these photos would have been. Fortunately we just admired these beautiful animals from a boat a safe distance away.

Travel Questions about Botswana:

1. What is is a river delta?
2. Why is it called a 'delta'?
3. The national parks Toto visited in Botswana are named after two rivers. What are their names?
4. What is the name of the boats the locals use to get around the wetlands in the delta?
5. For every meter of circumference, how old is a Boabab tree?
6. How did the San people store their meat a long time ago?
7. What is true about Hippos:
   A) They are skinny.   B) They eat meat.  C) They cannot hold their breath. 
   D) They can run fast.

Global Nomad Questions on Botswana:

1. Draw a picture of you in a mokoro in the Okavango Delta National Park. Be sure and include some animals!
2. The Okavango River starts in Angola. Research what language they speak in Angola.
3. Toto listed the names of three river deltas - the Okavango, Mississippi and the Mekong. Research another river delta. Write its name, where it is located and anything else you learned about it that you found interesting.
4. If the Boabab tree Toto saw was 2000 years old, list three things that happened in world history while that tree was alive.
5. There are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram. How many pounds does a 1500 kg hippo weigh? (Note: 'kg' is the abbreviation for kilogram.)

Epilogue:

Several months later when Toto was on the island of Lamu, Kenya, where the locals sell the seeds of the Baobab tree as candy. Apparently it was the season for the trees to drop their seed pods. The locals collect the peanut-sized seeds from the pods that are about the size of a large avocado. They then add some sugar and red coloring and sell them in packages like these. The seed is too hard to chew, so I really just sucked on the fuzzy and tasty covering to the sweet seeds. The local kids were happy to get the extra seeds I gave them, so they must enjoy them a lot.

I also was able to see a Baobab tree with leaves, as it was the one month of the year that the trees had leaves. I took this picture from the beach, in case you were wondering what a Baobab tree looks like with leaves, as it's rare to see them so green!   

Chapter 15 - Ova-Himba and Owango Homestead Visits

While in Namibia, Toto visited two local homesteads. One belongs to the chief of a local Owango village. The second was a traditional homestead of the Ova-Himba tribe in Northwest Namibia.

A friend of mine, Amy, has spent the past two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in a local school. She lives with Tete and Meme Kulo in their homestead as they support her efforts to improve the education of the village students. Tete Kulo is the chief of the village, so he is an important man in the area. (Tete and Meme mean "Uncle" and "Aunt" in the local language). A homestead consists of an area fenced in by logs to keep out wild animals. Inside the area are traditional round homes for the chief's family, as well as round meeting areas for visitors. This picture is of the entrance area where they greet guests. Can you see the cows' skulls from previous celebrations?

Tete and Meme Kulo are a very kind and generous couple who help many less fortunate children in their community. As I mentioned in Chapter 15, many families cannot afford to send their children to school in Namibia. Parents in these less fortunate families ask Tete and Meme Kulo to house, feed and educate their children, and give them the chance to move up in the world. In exchange, the children help with the chores around the homestead. Here is a photo of their kitchen area.

When I was there, I saw that the children have to extract every tablespoon of oil for cooking by collecting and pounding some local nuts. They also have to pound grain into flour for cooking with a large wooden mortar and pestle. A "pestle" is a heavy stick that they use to pound the grain in a hollowed-out log, which is called a "mortar." It was certainly hard work.

The kids were all very nice and well behaved. While we were there, my friend, Amy, decided to thank them for all their help by making them s'mores. They had never roasted marshmallows before, although they were experts at starting a campfire, as they do all their cooking over fires. Like all kids, they really enjoyed the roasted marshmallows and chocolate.

The Ova-Himba tribe that I visited were very different, in that their lifestyle is much more similar to that of their ancestors. Because they live in the Namibian desert area, they don't have access to much water. So they have adopted ways to stay clean without using water. To clean and protect their skin, they cover it with a cream made of the mineral ochre (remember from Chapter 12 that the San people also used ochre to make their cliff paintings.) That is why the women and children in these photos have a red color on their skin.

The Ova-Himba also live in round huts made of sticks, mud and cow manure. The children were absolutely adorable and spent time playing catch with me using a tin can and three round nuts from a tree. At a young age the children help their parents watch their livestock, which consist of goats and cows. During the day, the men and children take the animals out to find grass and water. At night, the animals return to the homestead to stay inside the fence, which is made of thorn bushes so that the lions, cheetahs and leopards do not eat any livestock. You can see the fence in the right side of this photo.

The women play an important role in the Ova-Himba tribe. Their royalty are always queens (women), not kings (men). Only older women are allowed to go to the two sacred sites where they mine the ochre. You can see how the woman in this picture is putting the ochre paste into her hair. Unfortunately it is more and more difficult for the Ova-Himba people to find land where they can raise their livestock and maintain their traditional lifestyle. About three times a year they move to different homestead sites in a continual search for grass and water for their livestock.

Travel Questions on the Namibian Tribes:

1. What do "Tete" and "Meme" mean? Do they sound like other words you know, from English or other languages?
2. Why do some parents ask the local chief to take their children into their homestead?
3. How do the kids make flour and oil?
4. What is the name of the mineral the women put on their skin and hair?
5. What do the Owango and Ova-Himba each use as fences around their homesteads?
6. What toy did the Ova-Himba kids use to play with Toto?
7. Why do the Ova-Himba move their homestead a few times a year?

Global Nomad Questions on Namibian Tribes:

1. Draw a picture of a Ova-Himba homestead including the animals.
2. Tete and Meme Kulo lived 10 kilometers south of the Angola border with Namibia. If each kilometer is 0.62 miles, how many miles south of Angola did they live?
3. Ask a grown up to help you find or make a mortar and pestle. See how long it takes you to grind some grains (rice, for example) into flour. How long do you think it would take to make enough flour for a cake or loaf of bread?
4. Write an essay describing the differences between your life and the life of the kids in either of these two homesteads.

Chapter 14 - Visit to a Namibian School

While in Northern Namibia, Toto visited a local public school called Kayengona Combined School near Rundu. I thought you would be interested in learning about the students and school to compare to your own school experience.

I met several teachers, students (which they call "learners") and the very nice Principal, Mrs. Anna Mateya. The school goes from first to tenth grade. The first, second, and third graders are all taught in the local language, Romano. These students study natural science, Romano, English, math, environmental studies, handwriting, and religious & moral education. How are those different from your classes?

Starting in fourth grade, all classes are taught in English (except the Romano class, of course!) In grades four through seven, the learners also take classes in social studies and home ecology. Mrs. Mateya told me they are looking for pen pals who will write the students letters in English, to help them practice with native speakers. I have put the address below if you would like to be a pen pal with a student at the school.

The students were very happy and friendly. They wore uniforms to school. The felt privileged to be able to go to school, as they must pay fifty Namibian dollars (about seven US dollars) per year in school fees. As this area is a poor region of Namibia, many students cannot afford these school fees, and some can't even buy pens for their homework and exams. In fact, the principal told me that about half the students are orphans, since their parents sadly died from AIDS, an awful disease that has infected many people in this region. Part of the kids' education includes how to protect and prevent themselves from getting this disease.

School ends at 1pm. The teachers told me that many of the learners stay after school to get a free lunch, as many don't get enough food at home and are undernourished. The teachers have noticed that the kids pay better attention when they aren't hungry.

Many students also stay after school to do their homework, as they do not have electricity in their homes. We visited some of these homes, which are basically a group of round huts made of sticks and a mixture of dried mud and cow manure. The roof was usually dried grass. Some students must do their homework by candlelight at home when the sun goes down. Those whose families cannot afford candles stay after school to do their homework in the afternoon at school.

When I was a kid, I took breakfast, lunch and dinner--as well as electricity--for granted. Seeing these kids trying to learn under such difficult circumstances made me realize just how fortunate I was to have all these things and to get a good education. Hopefully these students will help you understand how blessed you are. I might have thought twice about complaining when my parents told me to eat my dinner and finish my homework if I'd met some hard working students who might not have parents, food or light, but who are still eager to learn.

Travel Questions on the Kayengona School:

1. In which part of Namibia is the Kayengona School?
2. What do they call students at the school?
3. In what language do they teach the first through third grade students?
4. What are the two extra classes the students take starting in fourth grade?
5. How much does it cost a student's family to send their child to school each year?
6. Why are so many students orphaned?
7. If students do not have electricity at home, what are the two ways they can do their homework?
8. What is a typical home made of in the area?

Global Nomad Questions about Schools in Namibia:

1. Draw a picture of what you think a Namibian homestead looks like.
2. Write a letter in English to a student at the school. You can ask a grown up to mail it to the principal below. She will make sure it gets to a student. Ask the student to write you back.
3. The school needs pens and children's books in English. Collect these at your home or classroom and send them to the Principal. The students will really appreciate your gifts.
   • Mrs., Anna Matenya, Principal
     Kayengona Combined School
     PO Box 2142
     Rundu, Namibia

Chapter 13 - Life in the Namibian Desert

While in Namibia, Toto visited many very dry places, since that country doesn't get much rain. As a result, there are some beautiful deserts with gigantic sand dunes. These dunes are created when the wind blows in one general direction across the sandy desert. The wind blows up one side of the dune and down the other. Can you see the wind blowing the sand from the right side to the left side of the dune behind me in this photo? (Double click on it to see a larger version of the photo.)

Some of the extreme weather creates some dramatic pictures. Here is an area that used to have enough rain to grow some large trees. Now only the dead trees remain. But because there is so little water, the wood doesn't rot. Some of these  trees died over 1000 years ago!

Despite all this dryness and apparent lack of life, there's actually plenty of life in the desert. The animals have adapted to live in the harsh conditions. For example, although it doesn't rain often, there's a fog almost every morning in these deserts after the cold nights. Fog is water vapor, like clouds, but on the ground instead of in the sky. One small black beetle that I saw many times while hiking actually collects the fog on its back every morning. The beetle then tilts its back up with its hind legs so one drop of water rolls off its back into its mouth. Apparently that one drop is enough to get the beetle through the day. Now that's being resourceful! Similarly, this plant, called the Welwitschia, survives by drinking the fog from fine roots that grow near the surface of the sand. As a result, it grows very, very slowly. In fact, the plant in this picture is over 1500 years old, making it one of the oldest plants in the world! That's why they have fenced it off, to protect its roots from being trampled by visitors like me.

On one hike I saw this bird's nest, which has to be the biggest nests I have ever seen! It's actually more of a bird's apartment complex. The "Social Weaver" birds weave together straw to make lots of interconnected nests in which many bird families live. I think that's why they gave them the name "Social Weavers," since they like to live very close to each other and are master weavers.

Because of the lack of rain, the wild animals depend on waterholes for water to drink during the dry season. At Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia, I saw this giraffe drinking water awkwardly from the waterhole. Can you also see the baby giraffe in the background? Giraffes are very careful when they drink water, as they are vulnerable to attack by predators while in this awkward position. I watched this giraffe walk around the area for ten minutes, making sure it was safe to drink before he bent over like this. Right after I took this photo, however, he jumped up suddenly when a lioness walked up to the watering hole. A lion can kill a large giraffe, so he gave her lots of room at the waterhole by herself!

As you can tell, there's plenty to see in the dry, beautiful country of Namibia. I saw this baby zebra and his mother right from my car. I wasn't about to get out of the car, though, given that there were lions wandering around!

Travel Questions on Namibia:

1. How are sand dunes created?
2. How does the desert beetle Toto saw drink water every morning?
3. If the Welwitschia plant in the photo above is 1500 years old, when did it first sprout as a seed in the desert sand?
4. What are the birds that built the large communal nest in the trees called?
5. Why was the giraffe so cautious before he bent over to drink from the waterhole?

Global Nomad Questions on Namibia:

1. Draw a picture of a zebra herd in Namibia.
2. Find Namibia on a map. List the countries that border it.
3. List three other countries with deserts that you think might have sand dunes.
4. Both of these photos were taken facing south. Knowing what you do about where the sun rises and where it sets, determine which of these photos was taken at sunrise and which was taken at sunset (hint: look at the shadows on the dune).
   A)                        B)
   

Chapter 12 - San People Cliff Paintings

Toto went to a couple of outdoor art museums, one in South Africa and another in Namibia, which is a country just north of South Africa. These museums were actually cliffs where, 400 to 6000 years ago, the San People painted and etched art into the rocks. I had read about cave paintings before, but had never seen them up close. It made me feel like the artist had just been there, even though he or she died many centuries ago.

San People used to be referred to as the "Bushmen," since they lived outside among the bushes. Their descendants still live today in Africa and preferred to be called by the proper name of their tribe, San. Historically, they were nomads, which means they wandered from place to place in search of water, food or shelter, based on the seasons and the natural movements of the animals they hunted. They had incredible knowledge on how to live off the land, which many of their descendants still possess today. It's no surprise that so much of their art contains pictures of animals. This is a painting of a baby zebra.

There are two types of San People rock art that have survived until today. The first are paintings, and the second are etchings into the rocks. However, what we see today is not what the artists painted 400 to 6000 years ago. You can imagine how much the weather might erode these rocks over that time. Eroding happens when rainwater, wind-blown sand, and the sun's heat wears down the rock, sometimes turning it into smaller rocks and sand. As a result, anything on that rock disappears, including paintings. Fortunately, San People painted in is a desert, where there is little rain. Most of the surviving paintings are under the rocks and cliffs that have protected the paintings from the weather, like this one I had to crawl on my back to see.

The reason you don't see any stripes on the zebra above is that the San People used different types of handmade paint. The red was made from a mineral called "ocher," which they ground up into a powder. It actually stained the rock and has remained, the way fine red dirt can stain your clean t-shirt. The white color was often made from egg whites and other pigments that did not stain the rock. Those other colors have eroded away, leaving only the red stains. Sometimes this meant I saw an antelope without a head. We think that  means the head was painted with a color that did not remain, while the red body did. I also saw some yellow paintings of big elephants, but they were very faint, so the yellow must not have stained the rock as well as the red ocher.

The second type of art, etchings, were made by taking another rock and scratching a picture into a big rock or cliff. Here is an interesting example of an etching. No one knows what the circles represent. They could be waterholes, which were obviously very important to the San People as they wandered the desert. They needed the water to survive, and often they found the animals they hunted at waterholes, too.

That is the interesting thing about art—it often tells us a lot about how the artists lived and what might have been important to them. Certainly from this etching, you know the San People saw giraffes! Occasionally, I saw hand prints on the rocks, including some children's hand prints. So we know that sometimes, at least, the artists' kids helped them paint.

San People Art Travel Questions:

1. When did the San People create this rock art?
2. What were the two types of rock art the San People made?
3. What does it mean that the San People were "nomads"?
4. Define the verb "erode."
5. List two of the things you saw in the photos of the art above.
6. Why did the red ocher paint do to the rock that the white and other colors did not?
7. Often people paint what is important to them. Why does Toto think the circles in the etchings above represented waterholes?

Global Nomad Questions on Rock Art:

1. Draw a painting of some San People Rock art. What is the story you are trying to tell?
2. Research how people made paints in the old days, before they had art stores where they could just buy them. Describe the process.
3. There are also cave paintings in other parts of the world, like France. Do a cyber search about these and write a paragraph explaining about those cave paintings.
4. Double click on this photo to see a larger version of it. Write what you see in this image.

Chapter 11 - Diving with Sharks in South Africa

While driving along the Southern coast of South Africa, Toto decided to do something a bit crazy. I went diving not once, but twice, with sharks! The first time I got up close to the Ragged Tooth sharks, and the second time I was in a cage next to the Great White sharks!

The first dive with the Ragged Tooth sharks left from a town called Umkomaas south of the city of Durban. These sharks look really scary as their teeth jut out of their mouths in all directions. That’s why they are called "Ragged Tooth" sharks.

I put on SCUBA gear so I could swim and breathe underwater to dive to a coral reef called the "Cathedral Reef." This reef had a big open hole in the middle where large fish like to hang out to rest from swimming in the ocean current. When I went down to the bottom of this reef, I counted one very large turtle and nine Ragged Tooth sharks. One of the five-to-six-foot-long (2 meter) sharks swam right in front of me only three feet away while another swam right behind me. I couldn't look at both at the same time, so I watched the one in front of me. It would have been quite scary, except Ragged Tooth sharks are not very aggressive even though their teeth make them look like they are. It was quite an amazing experience to be swimming in the open water next to so many sharks in the wild.

Based on my next experience, I can tell you that I would not, however, choose to swim in the open with Great White Sharks! These are magnificent creatures, as you can see from the photos. They are very curious but also quite cautious. The boat captain had dangled fish heads tied to a rope from the boat into the water to attract the Great White Sharks swimming around the island. The captain bought the leftover heads of some large Patagonian Toothfish from the fish store in the harbor. The shark smells the fish heads and thinks it is one of his favorite meals. However, as we don't want to interfere with natural feeding of the sharks, the crew will try to pull away the fish heads out of the shark's reach just as he tries to attack them. Most often, when the Great Whites came to the surface to investigate the fish heads, they also would check me out. Fortunately, I was in a cage next to the boat with bars spaced too close together for the Great Whites to touch me. As Great Whites are cautious, they did not try to get to me in the cage, but they did swim only a foot away from me. Let me tell you, that is quite a sight to see a Great White Shark in the wild looking at you only one foot away and wondering if you are food!

One time while I was in the cage, a Great White actually grabbed the fish heads before the crew could pull them away. He started thrashing around right in front of me, trying to tear the fish heads off the rope. To protect its eyes from being hurt while attacking, the Great White will always roll its eyes back into its eye sockets. I saw this shark do so right in front of me as he started to go into a feeding frenzy. His twelve-foot-long tail was slapping around right in front of me. I knew his mouth was occupied and thought of reaching through the bars of the cage to touch his tail, but then thought it was better to keep my hands and feet within the cage!

One time a Great White Shark's head actually came out of the water to attack the food as the crew was pulling the fish heads towards the boat. Another passenger actually caught this picture of the shark out of the water. Again, I was glad our hands and feet were in the boat!

We went diving near Dryer Island, a habitat for thousands of Cape Seals. Can you see all of the seals on the rocks in this photo? They were very cute, as they had recently given birth to many cubs. We saw nine different Great White Sharks while anchored off this island. Unfortunately for the seals, they are the favorite food for the Great White Sharks, which is why so many sharks swim around this island. The sharks also eat lots of small sardines when these fish migrate off of the South African coast during the winter.

Dryer Island is very close to the tip of Africa. Here is a picture of me at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa. It is also where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Sometimes you can see the two oceans colliding, as the waters have different colors. The Indian Ocean is also quite warm while the Atlantic Ocean is very cold down here. So the water was nice when I went swimming with the Ragged Tooth sharks, but quite chilly with the Great Whites. I was so excited, however, that I didn't notice the cold too much when the Great White Sharks were wondering if I was food inside that cage!

Southern Coast of South Africa Travel Questions:

1. Why does the Ragged Tooth shark have that name?
2. What are the two oceans that meet at the southern tip of the African continent?
3. Which shark is more aggressive - the Ragged Tooth or Great White Shark?
4. Why does the Great White shark roll his eyes back when eating or attacking prey?
5. Why were there so many Great White Sharks around the island where the Cape Seals live?
6. What other animal off the coast of South Africa does the Great White Shark eat?

Global Nomad Questions on Southern Coast of Africa:

1. Draw a picture of a Ragged Tooth and a Great White Shark in the ocean.
2. Research and list the names of five other types of sharks.
3. Find the Southern tip of Africa on a globe or world map. Which is further South, the tip of Africa or the tip of South America?
4. Research and explain why the Atlantic Ocean is cold at the tip of Africa while the Indian Ocean is warmer.
5. The Spanish explorer, Magellan, led the first ships to sail all the way around the globe, including past Cape Agulhas. Research his trip and write an essay about this remarkable journey.

Chapter 10 - England: 300-Year-Old Homes & Platform 9-3/4

Toto stopped for a couple days in England, which is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. The other three are Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Sometimes people mistake England for all of the United Kingdom, when actually England is only one part of the United Kingdom. Another name for the United Kingdom is Great Britain, and people and things from Great Britain are called “British.”

The British flag (above) is actually a combination of the flags of these countries within the United Kingdom. Here is what the white and red English flag looks like. Can you see the English flag within the red, white and blue flag of the United Kingdom? The British call this flag the "Union Jack." Nobody’s quite sure where the name “jack” comes from, but the most likely explanation is that it comes from the name for a smaller flag, called a “jack,” which is flown from the front of a ship.

I saw two interesting things in England that I thought you might enjoy seeing or learning about. The first was in an English town called Stamford. I went to visit my friend, Paul, his family and his dog. They live in a house that is 300 years old! It is on the road that used to connect London (the capital of England) and important English cities north of London, like York. So before automobiles, the queen and king used to take their horse-drawn carriage on the road right in front of Paul's family's home, which is across the street on the left in this photo.

When I was there, Paul was showing me the attic in the house and I saw this hole in the wall made by his neighbor's cat. (His dog does not like this cat!) What I found interesting about this hole is that you can see how they made houses 300 years ago. The house is obviously very solid, and the outside is made of a pretty beige stone. As you can see from this photo, the way the craftsmen made the inside walls was to lay some straw and then cover it with plaster made of limestone. I found it so interesting that a 300-year-old house is made of straw-covered walls and that 300-year-old straw is not rotten. So long as you keep the cats away, I guess the walls are fine! The other interesting thing was that I could see that the plasterers (as the craftsmen who make plaster walls are called) used horse hair within the plaster as a way to strengthen it.

Speaking of holes in walls, I thought you would enjoy seeing this famous platform I saw in Kings Cross railroad station. I took the train from Stamford to London, and I arrived at platform 4. Being a Harry Potter fan, I had to go see platform 9-3/4. Can you see the luggage cart that is halfway into the wall? I must be a muggle, as I could not get through the wall to platform 9-3/4 to get onto the Hogwarts Express.

England Travel Questions:

1. What are the four countries that make up the United Kingdom?
2. What is the nickname of the British Flag?

Global Citizen Questions on England:

1. Find out what the flags of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland look like. Draw them.
2. What is the capital of Scotland?
3. Who is the current Queen of the United Kingdom? When did she start her reign?
4. The queen in question 3 is also queen of several other countries from the former British Empire. List three other countries for which she is also queen.
5. Can you think of an example of a 300-year-old building in your country? Describe what it was used for and how you think it was built.

Chapter 9: Slovakia - Do Not Confuse with Slovenia

Toto was briefly in Bratislava, Slovakia, for a flight to London which made me realize that all TotoTravels.com readers should know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia. The two countries' names certainly sound very similar. In fact, there are only two letters different, but in actuality, the countries are quite different and have completely different histories and languages. Slovakia used to be half of Czechoslovakia until the two countries decided to split in a friendly way on January 1, 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia.

Slovenia, as you just read in Chapter 3, was part of Yugoslavia. Slovenia's capital is Ljubljana.

If you look on the map, they are both in the same part of the world, Central Europe. Both are relatively new countries with old cultures. Slovakian people speak the Slovakian language. Slovenian people speak their own Slovenian language.

So it is important that you show just how educated you are by knowing the difference between Slovenia and Slovakia.

Slovakia Travel Questions

1. What country was Slovakia part of before it became an independent country?
2. What is the capital of Slovakia?
3. What language do they speak in Slovakia?
4. Find Slovakia on a map. What countries border it?
5. What country would you have to drive through to get from Bratislava, Slovakia to Ljubljana, Slovenvia?

Chapter 8: Austria - Mountains and Mozart

From Hungary, Toto took a train North to Austria. Austria is a German speaking country with a long history and beautiful green valleys among the Alps mountain chain.

I visited my friend, Bernhard, who invited me to his parents' home in Reichenau, his hometown, which is in the mountains outside of of the capital city, Vienna. For eight hundred years, Austria had an emperor, which is like a king—the difference is that an emperor rules over an empire, which is bigger than just one country. Emperor Karl Josef ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire until the end of World War I, when the empire was disbanded.

At the peak of the empire's wealth in the 1870’s, Emperor Karl Josef built a vacation palace in Reichenau. He loved the beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains, and enjoyed deer hunting there.

There are lots of forests around here, like the kind where Emperor Josef used to hunt. When I was hiking, I saw the longest pile of firewood I’ve ever seen. This farmer sure was busy chopping wood, don't you think? The wood pile even went further around the bend than you can see in this photo.

Berhard's elementary school was built in this same period, in 1888. Here he is in front of the school. "Volksschule" means "people's school" in German, which is their way of saying "public school." I don't know about your school, but my elementary school wasn’t over one hundred years old and still in use! They sure do construct the buildings to last in Austria.

When Bernhard was done with all his schooling, including university, he bicycled all the way from his parents' house to Hong Kong, China! Look on a map or globe and see how far that is. It took him eighteen months of cycling. I met him along the way in India. Here’s a picture of Bernard and his mother in the driveway where he started. She told me that she was really glad to see him return from his bike trip, the way any mom would be after her son had gone on such a long journey. Next time you ride your bike in your neighborhood, think how far and long Bernhard must have pedaled to get all the way to Hong Kong.

Vienna is an attractive city, because the Austrian empire had lots of money to build beautiful buildings and to support many artists, especially after 1700. One of the arts that was popular then was classical music, and many famous composers were Austrian or lived in Austria. One of those is Mozart, who was born in Austria 250 years ago this year (2006). You may think that you never heard any Mozart, but I bet you have. Do you know the song, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"? Well, Mozart wrote that when he was four years old! That's why they called him a "prodigy," which means someone who, at a very early age, is outstanding at something even adults find difficult, like music, math, spelling, or a sport. Did you know the same tune is used for the song, "Baa Baa Black Sheep?" Next time you sing either song, you can tell everyone that you are singing Mozart! Here is a picture of Toto in front of Mozart's statue in Vienna.

Austrian Travel Questions

1. What’s the difference between a king and an emperor?
2. What is the name of the mountain range in Austria?
3. What is the name of the capital city of Austria?
4. What is the German word for "public school?"
5. Where did Bernhard bicycle to on his long trip?
6. How old was Mozart when he wrote "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?"
7. How many years ago was Mozart born?
8. What type of music did Mozart write?

Global Citizen Questions

1. Draw a picture of an Austrian farmer chopping wood on his farm.
2. In addition to Hungary, which countries border Austria?
3. If Mozart was born 250 years before 2006, in what year was he born?
4. How old is Bernhard's school that was built in 1888?
5. There is a third song that everyone knows that uses the "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" tune that Mozart wrote when he was four. Can you think what it is?
6. Research Mozart to find out how old he was when he died. List two other songs, operas or symphonies that he wrote.
7. Ask a grown up to play some of Mozart's music for you. Do you like it? Write why or why not.

Chapter 7: Hungary - Food for Thought

While Toto could have taken a boat upstream on the Danube River from Belgrade, Serbia to Budapest, Hungary, he chose to take a bus for six hours instead.

Budapest is actually two cities that span the Danube River. Buda is on the Western bank and Pest is on the Eastern bank. I think it’s neat how they refer to the city by the combined name outside Hungary, but when you are in the city, people actually use the appropriate real city name, such as, "Let's meet in Pest at 7 o'clock," or, "I live in Buda near the castle."

I think that Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Because it is the capital of the country of Hungary, there is a gorgeous parliament building on the Pest side of the Danube river. A parliament is an elected group of politicians who represent the people and make laws, like the Congress in the United States. The parliament building is where the parliament meets to make laws, like the Capitol Building in Washington DC for the U.S. Congress. (Can you see the tug boat pushing a barge up the Danube River in this picture?)

The city of Buda also has a castle built for the emperors on the hill. Here is a picture of me next to the castle gates.

I always think Hungary is a funny name for a country, especially since the food is good and you never go hungry in Hungary!  Actually, the name in the Hungarian language is “Magyar.” They refer to themselves as Magyars, which was the name of the tribe that first settled the region.

One of the specialty foods in Hungary is marzipan, a sweetened paste made from almonds. The interesting thing about marzipan is that you can color it and mold it into sculptures that can last for a very long time. It is often used to make flowers on wedding cakes, for example. I went to the marzipan museum and saw this model of the parliament building made out of marzipan. I also saw this marzipan sculpture of the Muppets, which I thought was well done.

Another thing Hungary is known for is its hot springs. Long ago there were volcanoes in Hungary. There are still areas of warmth underground today, which heat up the underground water. Sometimes the warm water comes to the surface as a hot spring. For centuries, the Hungarians and their neighbors have swum in these hot lakes or pumped the naturally warm mineral water into man-made bath houses. Budapest has four or five of these. It’s very common for a family to spend a Saturday or Sunday swimming and relaxing in these hot baths year round.

I went to a famous Hungarian hot spring called Heviz. It’s a very old crater lake with a soft mud bottom, from which heated water rises constantly. There’s an inactive volcano below the lake, which erupted a long, long time ago and made the crater. Spring water filled up the crater to make the lake, but the water was warm because of the volcano left some warm rocks under the earth here. Today, it only takes three days for the water in this lake to be replaced by the warm spring water flowing up from the ground. The old water flows out into a stream.

Many old people whose joints hurt from old age come to Heviz to soak in the water. They say the warm water, and all the minerals in it, makes their joints feel better. It must be true, because there were a lot of old people floating in inner tubes among the water lilies and red flowers. Perhaps if your grandparents have arthritis, you can suggest they take a vacation to Heviz, Hungary!

The other thing I saw in Hungary that I thought you would enjoy was buildings with roofs made of straw. These are called, “thatched roofs” because another word for the kind of straw used is “thatch”. The owners have to continually replace some of the roof with new straw as the thatch can rot over time from the weather. Can you see the new straw on this thatched roof? (Remember, double click on any photo to see a larger version of it.) I always find it amazing that straw can keep out the rain if the roof is made properly. I enjoyed seeing this old construction technique still in use today.

Hungary Travel Questions

1. The cities of Buda and Pest span which river?
2. What is the Hungarian word for "Hungary?"
3. Define "parliament."
4. What is marzipan?  What is it used for?
5. How does the water in the Hungarian hot springs get heated?
6. Why do old people come to Heviz to soak in the warm waters of the lake?
7. What is a thatched roof made of?
8. Why do people with thatched roofs need to continually add new thatch on the roof?

Global Citizen questions on Hungary

1. Draw a picture of your family visiting the hot springs one weekend.
2. What other things can you do to make aching muscles or joints feel better? Is there anything sort of like going to a hot springs?
3. What would you like to make out of marzipan? Would it be to eat, like flowers on a wedding cake, or just to look at, like the model of the Parliament building Toto saw? If you could make your marzipan any flavor, what would it be?
4. Into what sea does the Danube River flow? (Hint, the Danube flows from the North to the South through Hungary.)
5. Invent a city like Budapest, made up of two different cities really close together, and think up a name for it, combining the names of the two cities. What’s the history of your city? What separates the cities from each other, the way the river divides Budapest? What makes the two smaller cities different from each other?
6. Do a search to find out what the Hungarian flag looks like. Draw it.

Chapter 6: Serbia - Capital City at Crossroads of Empires

When Toto flew from Montenegro to Serbia, he landed in the domestic terminal at the Belgrade airport.  As you read in Chapter Five, Montenegro voted for independence five days before Toto visited it. So my Serbian friend pointed out that the flight we took will probably move from the domestic to the international airport terminal soon. The domestic terminal is only for flights within a country. As Montenegro voted to be its own country, all flights there from Belgrade will now be international.

Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, is a nice city built where the Sava and Danube rivers meet. In the old days, people built cities on rivers, which were the main mode of transportation, sort of like freeways nowadays.

Rivers often serve as borders between countries, too. For example the Rio Grande river forms a border between the United States and Mexico. Well, Belgrade was once exactly on the border of two very large empires. To the north was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to the south was the Ottoman, or Turkish, Empire. In this photo taken in the center of Belgrade, I am standing in what used to be the northern part of the Ottoman empire. Across the Danube River, the border, was the southern part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Both of these empires were very large and powerful. So it must have been interesting for Belgrade to be at the intersection of two very powerful empires.

One of the main sources of the empires' rivalry was that they practiced different religions. (A rivalry is when two countries or people challenge or fight each other for power or control.) The Austro-Hungarian empire was Christian and the Turkish empire was Muslim, and these are still the same two main religions to this day in this area. Even though the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires are long gone, the different religions practiced in this region were a unfortunately a source of much of the fighting during the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s.

Within Serbia, the predominant religion today is Eastern Orthodox, a kind of Christianity. Here is a photo of the large Serbian Orthodox temple within Belgrade. Orthodox churches are very beautiful, as you can see. They are filled with icons, which are religious pictures of saints (not the pictures on your computer desktop!) Going into an Orthodox church can make you feel like you’ve walked into someone’s home, filled with pictures of their friends and relatives except they are pictures of saints instead.

The Serbian alphabet is different than the English alphabet, and is unique because it uses two alphabets: the Latin alphabet (like we use in English) and the Cyrillic alphabet (which they use in the Russian language). It made reading the Cyrillic only street signs and maps a bit more challenging, because some of the letters were familiar, but others looked very strange. Can you see the difference in this photo I found on the web? The people were really friendly, however, so they were always willing to help me find my way, and I managed to get around this nice city just fine.

Serbian Travel Questions

1. What is the capital of Serbia?
2. Why will flights from Montenegro into Serbia need to arrive in the international terminal soon?
3. What two empires bordered on the Sava River, which runs through the Serbian capital today?
4. What religion do most Serbians practice today?
5. What religion was the predominant religion of the Turkish empire?

Global Nomad Questions on Serbia

1. Draw a picture of what Belgrade might have looked like on the Sava River three hundred years ago.
2. Why do you think that rivers often form the borders between countries? Do you know of any rivers that are the borders between countries or U.S. states?
3. Find the Danube River on a map. List all the countries Danube flows through or borders.
4. Research the Eastern Orthodox religion. List three other countries in which it is the predominant religion of the citizens.
5. I saw this "Toto's Restaurant" in Belgrade and took this photo. Unfortunately it was closed when I walked by. Research what type of food might be served at a Serbian restaurant and create a menu for the restaurant.

Chapter 5: Montenegro - Newest Country on Earth

From Dubrovnik Toto took a bus on Friday, May 26th, to Montenegro. The interesting thing about Montenegro is that it's the newest country on earth. Five days earlier the citizens of Montenegro had a referendum on independence. A referendum is a vote in a city, province, or country on a particular issue that has been "referred" to the people, which is where a referendum gets its name. Instead of elected legislators (like senators or representatives) deciding, the government allows the people to vote directly about the important issue themselves. That way the government can know what the people think about an important topic.

In this case, the question to the citizens of Montenegro was whether or not they wanted to be an independent country or remain part of the country of Serbia and Montenegro. The referendum needed 55% of the people who voted to agree to be independent before Montenegro could break away from Serbia and become its own country. Well, on Sunday, May 21st 2006, the citizens had the opportunity to go to the polling stations and cast their secret votes. On Monday the officials announced that 55.4% of the voters were in favor of independence. (It took the officials a day to count all the ballots.)

The people in favor of independence took to the streets in celebration waving their Montenegrin flags. To Montenegrins, Sunday was a bit like July 4th, 1776 to Americans. So Toto was excited to arrive so soon afterward as it was almost like going to Boston on July 9th, 1776!

Montenegro has a pretty coast that's visited by fewer tourists than the Croatian coast just an hour's drive away. However it's becoming more and more popular as tourists see how nice Montenegro is as well. Here's a photo of one beach where I stayed, which is a rock beach like in Croatia.

Like the cities further north along the coast, the Montenegrin cities also had to protect themselves from attacking forces by building walls. This area was at an intersection of many trade routes and cultures, making it a strategic coastline that other rulers were constantly trying to control. Here's a picture of Toto standing guard at one of the watch towers along the city walls that still surround the old part of the city of Budva.

There's an interesting place on the Montenegrin coast called St. Stefan. It's a picturesque island connected to the mainland only by a narrow, beautiful beach. St. Stefan used to be an old town, but several years ago a hotel bought all the buildings and converted the houses into hotel rooms. So the guests get the opportunity to live in this old walled island on the water. Even from high up on the walls, I could look down into the water and count the fish, as the water is crystal clear and calm.

Because Montenegro is not yet wealthy and land and labor is less expensive than other European countries along the coast, many foreigners and foreign companies are building houses and hotels on this beautiful coast. In this picture of the entrance of St. Stefan, you can see not only how beautiful the beaches are, but also how much construction is happening behind the beach. Like most new countries, Montenegro will certainly go through a lot of change and development in the coming years!

Montenegro Travel Questions

1. What's the newest country in the world?
2. On what day did Montenegro vote for independence?
3. What percentage of the voters voted in favor of independence?
4. What percentage needed to vote for independence for Montenegro to be granted independence from Serbia?
5. Define the word "referendum."
6. Define the word "ballots."
7. Why did the Montenegrin people build walls around their cities in the old days?
8. What's the name of the town (now converted to a hotel) built entirely on an island?

Global Citizen Questions on Montenegro

1. Draw a picture of the Montenegrin citizens celebrating their independence victory. Be sure and include a picture of their new flag.
2. Serbia and Montenegro joined together in 1918 after World War I. How many years were they together as one country before Montenegro decided to become independent again?
3. Assume all 700,000 people in Montenegro voted in the referendum. How many people in addition to the required 55% voted for independence?
4. Montenegro once had a king. Do a search to find the name of the last king to rule Montenegro and the years of his reign.
5. Do a cyber-search to find a map of Montenegro. List all the countries that border Montenegro.

Chapter 4: Croatia - Romans and Dalmatians

From Slovenia Toto drove into Croatia, another country that was part of the former Yugoslavia. Croatia has a long history, as you can see from this photo of a coliseum, which was built by the Romans over 2000 years ago. If you've ever seen photos of the Coliseum in Rome, Italy, you might recognize this coliseum from Pula, Croatia. It was amazing to see an old stadium where gladiators used to fight lions, still standing in the middle of a modern city. Today they still use it for concerts and operas, so long as it's not raining.

Much of Croatia is a coast called the Dalmatian Coast. As you might guess from their name, Dalmatian dogs are originally from this area, although I did not see even one while I was on the Dalmatian Coast. Maybe Disney hired all of them all for 101 Dalmatians!

The coast is beautiful and full of history. Look on a map and you'll see that the Croatian coast is just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, which is why Croatian coastal cities share a lot of Italian history and influence. The architecture is similar to what you'd see in Venice, Italy. Also, I couldn't walk 100 meters without seeing a gelato stand. Gelato is Italian ice cream, but it tastes different from American ice cream because it has less fat and less air in it. That's right, air! American ice cream has air whipped into it while it's being made, but gelato doesn't have much air in it at all. So it tastes creamier and thicker than the ice cream that we usually eat, even though it has less fat. It's hard not to eat ice cream twice a day when you're on vacation in the sun and walk past a gelato stand every few minutes.

My first stop on the coast was a town called Split. How's that for a town name? In fact, I almost missed the split in the road for Split. The amazing thing about Split is that it has been a town for 1701 years making it one of the oldest continually inhabited towns in Europe. "Continually inhabited" means that people have been living there constantly ever since Split began. Can you figure out what year it must have been founded? (The answer is the year 305 AD.) The walls of the old palace are still standing after all these years, even though the citizens have built houses and modern banks inside. Can you see the old walls and new buildings in this photo?

The reason for the town's existance comes from the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was from this part of Croatia. You might not know that Croatia was part of the Roman empire, which once reached from Africa all the way to England, and included many European countries. Diocletian knew that he wanted to retire eventually from the hard job of being emperor and move back to where he grew up. So he ordered his 6000 slaves to build a huge palace for him, which was really hard work for them. For example, they moved the very heavy granite columns, which you can see in this photo, all the way from Egypt (which was part of his empire at the time). Back then, they didn't have construction vehicles and cranes, so the poor slaves had to move them all by hand or row them in ships. It was a lot of work, and the same columns are still standing there 1701 years later, so they clearly did a really good job.

Diocletian was the last Roman emperor who wasn't a Christian. Like many Romans of his time, Diocletian believed there were many gods, and he thought as emperor he was the son of the Roman god, Jupiter, which is why he built a temple dedicated to Jupiter in his palace. Jupiter was the head of all the Roman gods, and it's where we got the name for the planet, because it's the largest in our solar system. This temple also contained Diocletian's tomb, which is where they buried him after he died. Here is a picture of his tomb still standing in the middle of the old city. The next emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity. The citizens of Split later converted Diocletian's tomb into a Catholic church, which it still is today. Since Diocletian was not very nice to Christians during his reign, I imagine he would be rolling over in his sarcophagus that his tomb is now a Christian church. (A sarcophagus is a stone coffin in which the Romans burried their emperors.)

I decided to split from Split and take the ferry to a couple other towns. I stopped in Hvar, which you can see is a pretty walled town on the water with a fortress on top of the hill.

I also passed by Korchula, which is where the Croatians believe Marco Polo was born. I don't think there's any way to prove whether or not that's true, but it seemed like the city hadn't changed in many ways since Marco Polo's time. Both Split and Korchula are beautiful cities on the ocean. I was lucky that each day I was in Croatia was sunny, as that's the best way to see these old ocean towns. Most of them have walls and fortresses as the cities were constantly being attacked by various empires fighting for control of the Croatian coast during the centuries. Fortunately, the only invaders today are tourists!

The water in the ocean was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom, and count all the fish I saw. An interesting thing about the Dalmatian coast is that most beaches are stone rather than sand. At first I thought it was weird, but then I actually liked it because I didn't get sand all over myself when I lay down on the beach. Since the rocks on the beach were all weathered from the surf, they were rounded and fairly comfortable to walk or lie on.

My last stop in Croatia was in Dubrovnik, a world-famous old walled city. I really enjoyed walking around the city walls, which you can see in this photo. Some of the walls facing the ocean are twenty feet thick! The city still maintains its layout, even after a 1667 earthquake destroyed all but two buildings inside the walls. Of course the walls did not get damaged as they were so thick. There are no cars within the walled city, just walking streets and narrow streets with stairs. During the day it was very crowded with tourists, because the city is so beautiful.

Here is a picture I took of a reconstruction of an old ship pulling into the Dubrovnik harbor. I imagined this is what the ships looked like many years ago when they arrived into Dubrovnik.

Croatian Travel Questions:

1. What is the name of the Croatian coast?
2. Who built the coliseum in Pula, Croatia?
3. When was the city of Split founded?
4. What does "continually inhabited" mean?
5. Which Roman god did Emperor Diocletian believe he was the son of?
6. What did later generations convert Diocletian's tomb into?
7. Define the word "sarcophagus."
8. What would you find on the beaches in Croatia?
   A) black sand B) brown sand C) small rounded rocks D) Astroturf
9. When was the earthquake that destroyed most of Dubrovnik?

Global Citizen questions about Croatia:

1. Draw a picture of the Romans and Croatians watching an event in the Pula coliseum.
2. What does "AD" mean when people write dates 305 AD?  What does "BC" indicate when someone writes a date 2500 BC? Bonus question: Some people also use the term "CE" instead of "AD." What does "CE" stand for?
3. Why do you think the people in Dubrovnik built walls that were twenty feet thick by the ocean? How might they be attacked?
4. How many years before the United States Declaration of Independence was the earthquake of Dubrovnik?
5. List three synonyms for the word "split."
6. Choose one of those synonyms and write a paragraph on how you would found a town by that name.
7. The Romans adopted the Greek gods as their own. What was the Greek name for the Roman god, Jupiter? Find the Greek names for each of the Roman gods from which the planets in our solar system are named.

Chapter 3: Slovenia - In the Heart of Europe

Toto traveled around what used to be the country of Yugoslavia. About 15 years ago the country had a civil war, and as a result it split into several independent countries. I am writing separate chapters about each country I visited so that you can also learn about each one individually.

I traveled around parts of Slovenia, which is a small and beautifully diverse country located south of Austria and east of Italy. (Here is a picture of a street in the capital.) Find a globe or atlas and locate Slovenia on the map. Slovenia is almost in the middle of Europe, isn't it?  While most people have heard of Austria or Italy, fewer people know much about Slovenia because Slovenia is a fairly young country that only became independent in 1991. (If your map is old, you probably will  not see Slovenia, just Yugoslavia.  If so, ask a grown up to help you find a recent European map on-line.)

The two million Slovenians speak their own language, although for centuries they were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and had to officially speak German. If they were not speaking Slovenian today, I might have thought I was in Austria or Switzerland, as Slovenia has tall mountains from the Alps mountain range that crosses those two countries as well.

Toto used to live in Switzerland where they stack all their firewood in VERY neat piles for the winter.  Well, they have the same tradition in Slovenia. Look how organized this Slovenian family has stacked their firewood this spring for next winter! Do you think it gets cold in Slovenia in the winter?

One of the cool things I did in the capital city of Ljubljana (pronounced LUBE-yana) was to stay in a hotel that used to he a prison. My room (which they called a cell) still had the bars on the window. Fortunately an artist had redecorated each cell individually so the hotel was comfortable and a bit funky. They also gave us the keys to our cells, so we were not locked into the cells like the previous residents of the prison. How would you like to be sent to your room if your room were a former prison cell?  Here is a picture of the hotel. Do you see the bars on the room windows?

Almost a hundred years ago there was a war in Europe called World War I.  Because of its location, Slovenia was the front line in the trench warfare between the Austro-Hungarian empire (of which Slovenia was a part in 1914 when the war started) and the Italians (who are just next door, remember). World  War I (often written as just WWI) was a brutal four-year war with no real winners, as each side was basically stuck fighting in trenches they dug into the ground. While I was bicycling outside of a Slovenian village one morning, I ran into some old WWI trenches. It was interesting to see them up close and to realize just how miserable it must have been for those soldiers to live in those trenches,  especially in the cold winter with all the snow.  Can you see the trenches in these pictures I took?

Many of you asked me to tell you what people eat in these countries. Because Slovenia is next to Italy, they also eat lots of pizza. When I ordered my pizza, the waiter asked if I wanted ketchup. I wasn't sure why, so I said, "Sure." He then put ketchup all over the top of my hot pizza! It was pretty good. I thought it was different to eat ketchup on my pizza. Try it next time you eat pizza, as it isn't so bad. I am sure Heinz would love that tradition to take off in the USA, but I doubt it will do so.

Next time someone mentions Slovenia and does not know much about it, will you be able to tell them where Slovenia is and something about it?

Slovenian Travel questions:

1. What is the capital of Slovenia?  Pronounce it.
2. What country was Slovenia part of just prior to its independence?
3. Where did Toto sleep in Slovenia? 
   A) a boat B) on his bicycle C) in a former prison cell D) at the Holiday Inn Ljubljana.
4. What is another way to spell "ketchup"?
5. How many Slovenians live in Slovenia?
6. What countries fought WWI trench warfare in Slovenia?
7. Name three countries in which the Alps mountain chain exists.

Global Citizen questions on Slovenia:

1. Can you draw a picture of you chopping and stacking firewood in Slovenia?
2. List all the countries in addition to Italy and Austria that border Slovenia. (Hint, there are four total.)
3. The small Slovenian coast line is on what sea?
4. In the Slovenian Alps they have a very tall ski jump at which the current world record ski jump of 243 meters was set.  If there are 3.28 feet in one meter, how many feet is the world record ski jump?
5. When was World War I? What were all the countries involved?  Who officially won the war?  Why is it called the "First World War"?
6. Describe how you would redecorate a prison cell to be a hotel room.

Chapter 2: Big Island of Hawaii - Kings, Lava, & Manta Rays

Do you know only five of the fifty United States were their own countries before becoming a state? One is the island chain of Hawaii. (The others are Texas, where I grew up, California, Vermont, and some parishes of Louisana). Hawaii is the only one that was a monarchy, which means the people of Hawaii had a king and a queen. King Kamehameha the Great was the king who, by 1806, had united all the islands under his rule. How's that for a cool name? Do you think you can pronounce it? (Kah-MAY-ha-MAY-ha)

Toto went to the Big Island of Hawaii. I bet you can guess which island that is on the map!  The big island of Hawaii is very diverse.  It is basically the top of the world's largest mountain formed by a volcano (measured from the bottom of the ocean to the top of Mauna Kea volcano). I know you probably think of beaches when you think of Hawaii, but Mauna Kea volcano has snow at the top!  The Big Island also has one of the largest cattle ranches in America, the Parker Ranch.  It was founded in 1847 and has over 175,000 acres.  The cowboys in Hawaii are called "Paniolos," the Portuguese word for cowboy.  This is because the first ranch hands moved from Portugal to Hawaii even before Texas had cowboys.  Hawaii also has its own language.  So there is quite a bit to see and learn there above and below the water.

At Volcano National Park I saw remains of lava flows from Kileaua, the world's most active volcano.  Here you can see how the lava flowed over the road several years ago (double click on the pictures to see them larger).  You can see just how much lava flows across the land when the volcano erupts.

I guess there was a road at one point next to this old road sign.  I thought this was a funny picture.   

One of the coolest (or should I say hottest) things I saw was the lava flowing into the ocean.  This is the newest land on earth, as the island gets bigger every day here.  When lava cools, it becomes rock.  Since the lava is flowing constantly now into the ocean and hardening, this part of the island is gaining more land every day. The park rangers don't let you get too close, as the lava is very hot and dangerous.  We walked across a mile of hardened lava where you could

see how it had once flowed, just like in the pictures above.  We got to the edge of the trail and saw this view of the lava hitting the water and forming instant clouds.  It is just like when you boil water, except it was molten rock that was boiling the water instantly as it hit the ocean waves.

One of the consequences of all this lava is that Hawaii has black sand beaches.  Sand is basically small rocks.  Since all the rock around this part of the island is black, instead of white or brown sand, the sand is black!  Here is a picture of some coconuts hatching into palm trees on a black sand beach that did not even exist several years ago.  I enjoyed seeing the white waves crash on the contrasting black sand.

Beyond the sand you are in the middle of the large Pacific Ocean.  If you find Hawaii on a globe or atlas, you will see that there is not any land anywhere near Hawaii.  That means that you get to see some amazing animals underwater.  When I was there, the humpback whales were giving birth.  While I was snorkeling by the beach, I could hear the whales talking to each other out in the ocean.  Then I went in a boat to go scuba diving, and we saw a baby whale and his mother.  The mom jumped way in the air, and it looked like this.  Scientists call this "breaching," and they think whales do it to either clean parasites off their skin or to just show off.

Perhaps the coolest thing I did in Hawaii was to go scuba diving at night with the manta rays.  Manta rays are also called devil rays because their cephalic fins by their mouths make them look like a devil, though they are actually nice and docile. When they are feeding, they roll these cephalic fins out like a shovel to scoop the small plankton they eat into their big mouths.  We went diving at night and took flashlights, which attract the plankton who need light to make their food. The mantas come to eat the plankton attracted by the scuba divers' lights.  You can see it yourself in the video link below taken by Martina from www.DolphinDreams.com. Click here to see the Manta Ray video.

You wouldn't believe how big these manta rays are.  Can you guess how big the four mantas we saw were?  The biggest, named Koie, was twelve feet or over 3.5 meters long.  Measure out how big twelve feet is with a ruler and you will be impressed.  As you can see in the video, they "fly" underwater and are very graceful.  Manta rays tails do not sting like the smaller sting rays, so they are completely harmless and quite friendly even though they weigh over 1000 pounds!  They must eat a lot of plankton to get that big.  In fact manta rays can grow up to a 25 foot wing span.  That means they can grow to the size of an 18 wheel truck, which is pretty big when you think about it!  In fact, manta rays are the fifth biggest creature in the ocean.  Their main predators are man and sharks.  They defend themselves from sharks by swimming away faster than the sharks can swim.  We did not see any sharks while we were diving.  My diving buddy and I did have to wear wet suits as the water was a bit cold at night after a while.

We also saw dolphins and turtles in Hawaii.  The turtles were really relaxed.  Now I know why Disney made the turtle characters like surfer dudes in "Finding Nemo" as they seemed really laid back and carefree in the water.  You can see a turtle video for yourself by clicking here.

I hope you get a chance someday to visit Hawaii as it is full of history, geology, and beautiful marine life beyond its great beaches.

If you want to see a video of Toto diving with the manta rays, click on the following link. You will need the latest version of QuickTime to watch it. Download TotoTravelsMantaVideoFeb06.mov

Big Island Questions:

1. How many states were their own country before joining the United States of America?
2. Which is the only state to have been a monarchy?
3. Define the word "lava".
4. How were the islands of Hawaii formed?
5. Why is steam created when the lava meets the ocean?
6. Why do humpback whales breach out of the water?
7. What do manta rays eat and how do they eat?
8. How big can manta rays grow?
9. What is the nick name for a manta ray? How did it get that name?
10. Are manta rays dangerous?
11. What are Hawaiian cowboys called?  From what country did that term come?
12. Why do you think the Manna Kea volcano has snow on top of it?
13. Toto saw a twelve foot manta ray.  How many classroom desks do you need to lay end to end to get the equivalent distance?
14. If there are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram, how many kilos does a 1000 pound manta ray weigh?

Global Citizen Questions about Hawaii:

1. Draw a picture of the creatures you might see underwater in Hawaii.
2. Look on a map and name all the Hawaiian islands that make up the state of Hawaii.  Write down the capital of Hawaii and which island it is on.
3. If manta rays are the fifth largest creature in the ocean, what do you think the other four might be?
4. Research the Paniolos of Hawaii and why they might have moved to Hawaii in the 1800s.
5. Research the Hawaiian monarchy to determine the name of the last king or queen and how Hawaii became a state.
6. Find the elevations of the Hawaiian islands.  Compare those to land forms or buildings near you.

Epilogue:

Sadly, when Toto was in Zanzibar, Tanzania, he saw an example of the Manta Rays' worst predator - humans. Here is a picture of five manta rays for sale on the ground of the fish market there. Hopefully we can work together to help prevent humans from killing these beautiful animals for food.

Classroom visit

On May 9, 2006 I had the pleasure of meeting the 1st and 2nd grade classes at St. Peter's school in Marble Falls, Texas.  The kids were great and asked some really good questions.  They wanted to see my video of diving at night with the Manta Rays on the big island of Hawaii in February.  They asked me to write a chapter about my trip to Hawaii, so I will do so for my new audience.

Mrs. MacDonough is going to use TotoTravels.com in her 2nd grade classroom next year.  So I am excited for them to follow my travels.  Each student had suggestions of the animals I might see in Africa.  So I hope to have lots of pictures to show you.  We agreed that while it would be interesting to see a Komodo Dragon, they are best spotted in Indonesia.

We also went around the room and came up with a list of things I should pack in my backpack for my trip.  Some of the good ideas were: a 1st Aid kit, underwear, a journal and pen (as a journal is not much good without a pen!), my passport, a camera, swim goggles, money, and a flashlight.  Actually they had really good ideas and came up with a pretty accurate list of things I need to pack.  Now I just hope I can fit it all into my backpack as I have to carry everything I need on my back.

Here is a picture of the newest readers of TotoTravels.com.  (Double click on all images to see a larger version.)

Here is the nice article Dan Clifton wrote in the local paper about the visit and TotoTravels.com.  Forgive the photo of me as I think I look a bit goofy as they captured me in mid expression!

Download TotoTravelsTribuneArticlePage1.pdf

Download TotoTravelsTribuneArticlePage2.pdf

Chapter 1: Quebec, Canada - Where Does Maple Syrup Come From

If you're like me, you love maple syrup.  But where does it come from?  Any guesses?

It is made from the sap of a maple tree!  Maybe that is why the Canadians chose the Maple Leaf as the symbol in their flag. 

I went with some friends to a "Sugar Shack" in Quebec, Canada to see how maple syrup is made and to eat LOTS of maple syrup.

Most maple syrup is made in Quebec (and in Vermont, USA just South of Quebec, Canada).  A Sugar Shack is a Quebec tradition.  Schools and families often go to the Sugar Shack when the farmers are making maple syrup - usually in March and April.  Why then?  Well, let's learn why.

My Quebec friends were proud to tell me that the Indians discovered how to make maple syrup.  (In the US we refer to Indians as Native Americans.  In Canada they prefer the term First Peoples.) 

It all starts by collecting the maple tree sap in buckets like this.  Around March, a tree can tell that spring is coming and so it starts to push the sap up from its roots to its branches to make its new leaves. The farmer puts a little spigot through the bark which drips the sap into the bucket.  The sap looks just like water.  When we tasted it, the sap tasted like water with a small sweet taste.  The First Peoples must have been very smart to realize this sap could be made into delicious syrup!

So how does the sap become the syrup that Toto loves to put on his pancakes, waffles, ice cream, ham, eggs, and baked beans (baked beans!)?  Well, first the farmer has to collect all the sap in all the buckets from all the trees.  In the old days they used to do this with horses and wagons often through the snow as the weather is often still cold.  Then the farmer pours the sap into a long metal pan with a fire underneath.  Here is my friend, Emile, in the Sugar Shack next to the pan used to boil the sap down into syrup.

The farmer has to boil 30 gallons of sap to get just one gallon of maple syrup.  No wonder my Dad used to tell me not to pour so much all over my pancakes that I had pools of it left over on my plate.  He would only let me get away with that with the less expensive Aunt Jemima syrup, which is made from corn syrup, not authentic maple syrup which tastes much better.

Well, at the Sugar Shack you can pour as much as you like all over your food.  They want you to enjoy as much of their maple syrup as possible because they are proud of how good it tastes.   We poured it all over our dinner.  The best thing about dinner at the Sugar Shack with your school, friends or family is that they serve you breakfast!  We had eggs, ham, bacon and baked beans.  And I poured maple syrup over all of it!  Yumm.  Dessert was pancakes, maple pie (like pecan pie without the pecans), and a maple cobbler.  I poured syrup all over those as well.

My friends' favorite part was the maple taffy.  They remembered eating that every winter when they visited the sugar shack.  Basically the farmer boils the syrup even more to make it thicker and sweeter.  Then he pours it over a pan of snow so it hardens.  You then take a popsicle stick and peel the sticky maple taffy off the snow and eat it like a lollipop.  Super yumm!  My friend Emile and his father ate three of them each.  We had to dance afterward just so we would be able to fall asleep in our beds later that night after all that sugar.

You can ask some grown-ups to make you maple taffy.  My friends said their parents used to make it for them when they were kids.  First, you have to start with real maple syrup (not Log Cabin brand).  A grown-up must then boil it down so it is thicker and sweeter.  You then need to collect clean snow outside (best is to collect it in pans as it falls).  Otherwise, you will need to make some fine crushed ice like a snow cone at least a few centimeters thick (2 inches).  With a ladle, pour the warm syrup into the snow.  Let it cool for a couple minutes until it is really sticky and start pulling it off the snow with a clean popsicle stick.  Eat it before it droops down the stick and all over your hands!  Then thank the Native Americans for inventing maple syrup for all of us to enjoy.

Sugar Shack Questions:

1. Which leaf is on the Canadian flag?
   a) Poison Ivy  b) The Oak Leaf  c) The Maple Leaf  d) Loose Leaf paper
2. What months do they collect maple syrup?
3. Write the definition of a spigot.
4. Write two words that rhyme with 'sugar'.
5. Write down two other words that have the same number of syllables as 'Canada'.
6. If I need to make two and a half gallons of maple syrup, how much maple sap do I need to collect?
7. Why did Toto's Dad not allow him to waste too much maple syrup on his pancakes?
8. Which state in the United States makes the most maple syrup?
9. Why do you have to boil down the maple sap to make syrup?
10. Draw a picture of you making maple syrup for the Sugar Shack, be sure and include the Canadian flag!
11. Imagine you were a First People collecting maple syrup for your family.  Describe your adventure for the day.
12. How many quarts of Aunt Jemima syrup at $2.50/quart can you buy for the same price as one gallon of real maple syrup at $50.00/gallon?  Hint: There are four quarts in one gallon.

Global citizen questions about Quebec:

1. Find Quebec on a map. 
   a) What is the capital of Quebec? 
   b) Which US States border Quebec?
   c) What is the name of the large river that flows past Montreal and connects to the Great Lakes?
   
2. Draw the Quebec flag.  Hint: It is different from the Canadian flag.
3. Do you know Quebec is bigger than Alaska?  90% of the Quebec population lives within 200 miles of the US border.  Why do you think that is?
4. Why do you think the Canadians call the Indians the First Peoples?
5. List all the provinces of Canada.
6. Research and explain the history of why one of Quebec's official languages is French.
7. Do a taste test of real maple syrup and pancake syrup made with corn syrup.  Describe the difference.

Introduction: Mission of Toto Travels

Toto Travels is my way of helping parents, teachers, godparents and friends teach children through my travels about the world's geography, cultures, history, and people.  In doing so, I hope to help teach kids that they are global citizens.  In turn, they may spread peace through understanding during their lifetimes.

I was fortunate that my parents gave me the opportunity to see the world as a teenager.  I quickly learned that I was an exchange student at heart and have spent my life and career since working internationally and traveling the globe.  It would bring me great pleasure knowing that TotoTravels.com helped even one child realize that he or she is also an exchange student at heart and in turn increased understanding across countries and cultures. 

Why did I chose the name "Toto Travels"?  My name is Tom, but my nephews, nieces, Godson and friends' children all call me Uncle Toto.  Since they are the audience for this adventure, it seemed like an appropriate name for the website.

All content is Copyright 2006 Tom Chmielewski. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited without expressed written permission.