A Homeschool Field Trip

This photo was taken at 6:25 from a Hot Air Balloon. You might wonder what a missionary in Kenya is doing riding around in a hot air balloon. The story start a couple of months ago. As you might remember I have been working at the hospital on building new gates and a sign. One of the people who is interested in helping there also is a Hot air balloon pilot in the Mara. A couple of weeks ago he asked if I would like a complimentary ride. It was not too hard to answer that question!

I told him that I am sure there would also be some other people interested in going if there was room. Travis's Dad was coming out to visit from the states and I have two daughters that might also enjoy it. (In for a penny, in for a pound. :) ) He asked for the dates that would work and said that he would get back to me as soon as he had an opening. At $450 dollars a seat he did not feel comfortable taking us on a private ride, but if there was a balloon without a full complement of passengers, he promised to let me know.

On Jan 6th he called to say that there was an opening for all of us on the flight on Wednesday the 7th. We hustled over to Serova at 5:45 in the morning and took off around 6:15-6:30 The flight last for a little over an hour and a half. We traveled at around 10-14 mph and covered 25 miles. We passed over lots of giraffes, elephants, cape buffalo, as well as numerous zebras and gazelles. We also got this picture looking down on a pair of Crowned Cranes. It was amazing to watch the sun come up and the color change on the land. This was something that I have often watched from our front deck as I have a cup of coffee, but it was especially beautiful from the balloon.

The question I had when we were done was how to count this up as a home school trip. Is it geography as the kids learned about knots / mph / kph and saw Kenya and Tanzania. Or is this science as we learned about the physics of hot air. We shared the balloon with people from Poland, Australia, Britain, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya so maybe it was sociology . We talked about Kenya and Tanzania under colonial rule and Ida Amin the uganda dictator, so maybe this was history or civics. The only thing I am sure of is that anyway you count it, this was a great field trip and a highlight for me as well as my daughters.

On the way home we passed a lion kill. Five males lions had killed a giraffe. One of the males had been kicked and was very sore. We pulled up and watched as one of the males came over and ripped out some more meat to eat. As we looked around we saw the hyenas watching from 30 meters away and the Jackals for another 5 or 10 meters. All the animals were waiting their turn to eat the scraps from the Lion. Now I wonder if I should add biology as the Driver explained how the lions killed the giraffe and how to tell the age of the lions. (roughly) (These pictures were all taken by Tanya, so maybe it was photogaphy???)

As always, there are links on the right to more pictures. (Hot Air Balloon Ride & Sunrise over the Mara.) Hope you enjoy them. I know that my daughters and I enjoyed taking them. :)