Africa-Part Two
Here it is! AFrica, Part Two! I left off at Tarangerie, right?
After two days at Tarangerie, we took the two hour drive to Lake Manyara. Manyara was a pretty boring place, all we really saw were hippos and flamingos and baboons. But my mother and I got into a pretty interesting fight. Well...ugly, is probably a better adjective.
One of our guides, Alan, has a daughter who's 15 years old. While we were in Africa, she was trying to get her visa to come to the U.S. for high school. If she got it, she would go to Stevenson high school. My aunt, my grandma and my mom were talking about it at lunch our first day in Manyara. My mom started criticizing Eva's (that's her name) choice for Stevenson high school. "Stevenson is SUCH a tiny community so it MUST be a tiny school" and bitch bitch bitch like she does so well. Now, my mother has criticized my school a lot in the past, like judging people by the way they dress and the art they make and the poems they write. It's quite sickening. She will make assumptions about people without talking to them. I was so sick of her talking bad about my school, and I wasn't going to let her talk bad about Eva for wanting to go to Stevenson. So I said "Mom!" and apparently my tone was too confrontational, because she REALLY flew off the handle. I wasn't supposed to share my opinion and I wasn't supposed to contradict her in front of her sister and her mother and bitch bitch bitch some more. So then later, I explained to her that I felt that she was unfairly criticizing Eva's choice to go to Stevenson, and she got even MORE pissed and said "Am I not allowed to have an opinion?" when she was really just yelling at me for having an opinion different than hers. So I got super pissed and didn't talk to her. Then later, my dad came up to me and started bitching at me some more, like I hadn't already been bitched at enough that day. "You aren't supposed to criticize your mother in public" "You aren't supposed to interuppt your mother while she's talking with adults". Soooooo...if you're having a heart attack UPSTAIRS, and mom's talking to Lynn on the phone DOWNSTAIRS, I'm supposed to let you die while she finishes her stupid, pointless conversation. So, I was mad at my parents most of the day. The best part about this whole fight? BOTH my aunts and my uncle were on my side. My aunt meg (mom's sister) especially, because mom apparently was bitchy to her growing up too. My uncle ron (aunt megs husband) who always tends to make a joke out of everything said "When you run away you can come live with us" ;D But don't worry. It's a long train ride to seattle, and hitchhiking isn't really my thing. I don't think I'll be running away anytime soon.
We only spent one night in Manyara. The next day (after many, MANY souvenir stops) we drove to the Ngorongoro crater. It's this HUGE crater, I can't remember how big it is exactly, but it's one of the natural wonders of the world, I think.
In our three days at Ngorongoro, what did we see? We saw an elephant with tusks longer than it's trunk, i swear, this was the hugest elephant I have EVER seen. We saw a cheetah carcass in the tree, with a leopard nearby. Leopards are so endangered you have to be really really lucky to spot one. (You'll here more about leopards in part three). We saw lots of hippos, and baby hippos. But there was only one day when we saw monkeys. (hehehe, alex and colleen are laughing their heads off if they're reading this now.)
We stopped at a picnic stop for lunch. We noticed there were lots of monkeys hanging around; in the trees, in the sink of the bathroom. Our guides told us "Do NOT let them into the car, because they WILL try to take your food and they WILL bite you and you WILL get rabies and you WILL die." Now, the top of the Land Rovers comes off, so you can stand up on your seat to get a good view of the animals. So, my cousin Owen and my mom were sitting in the backseat, eating lunch. Suddenly, a monkey JUMPED into my cousin Owen's lap. Owen yelled (owen doesn't scream, he yells) and PUNCHED the monkey out of the car. My dad grabbed his apple and THREW it at the monkey, hitting me in the head with his arm in the process. The monkey CAUGHT the apple, and ran off to eat it. We've got some cute pictures of a monkey sucking on a hard-boiled egg. Our guide Joseph said it was because we were white. So now MONKEYS are racists?
I think I'll end it here for now. Hope you enjoyed! I'll be out with part three soon.
-Rashell
After two days at Tarangerie, we took the two hour drive to Lake Manyara. Manyara was a pretty boring place, all we really saw were hippos and flamingos and baboons. But my mother and I got into a pretty interesting fight. Well...ugly, is probably a better adjective.
One of our guides, Alan, has a daughter who's 15 years old. While we were in Africa, she was trying to get her visa to come to the U.S. for high school. If she got it, she would go to Stevenson high school. My aunt, my grandma and my mom were talking about it at lunch our first day in Manyara. My mom started criticizing Eva's (that's her name) choice for Stevenson high school. "Stevenson is SUCH a tiny community so it MUST be a tiny school" and bitch bitch bitch like she does so well. Now, my mother has criticized my school a lot in the past, like judging people by the way they dress and the art they make and the poems they write. It's quite sickening. She will make assumptions about people without talking to them. I was so sick of her talking bad about my school, and I wasn't going to let her talk bad about Eva for wanting to go to Stevenson. So I said "Mom!" and apparently my tone was too confrontational, because she REALLY flew off the handle. I wasn't supposed to share my opinion and I wasn't supposed to contradict her in front of her sister and her mother and bitch bitch bitch some more. So then later, I explained to her that I felt that she was unfairly criticizing Eva's choice to go to Stevenson, and she got even MORE pissed and said "Am I not allowed to have an opinion?" when she was really just yelling at me for having an opinion different than hers. So I got super pissed and didn't talk to her. Then later, my dad came up to me and started bitching at me some more, like I hadn't already been bitched at enough that day. "You aren't supposed to criticize your mother in public" "You aren't supposed to interuppt your mother while she's talking with adults". Soooooo...if you're having a heart attack UPSTAIRS, and mom's talking to Lynn on the phone DOWNSTAIRS, I'm supposed to let you die while she finishes her stupid, pointless conversation. So, I was mad at my parents most of the day. The best part about this whole fight? BOTH my aunts and my uncle were on my side. My aunt meg (mom's sister) especially, because mom apparently was bitchy to her growing up too. My uncle ron (aunt megs husband) who always tends to make a joke out of everything said "When you run away you can come live with us" ;D But don't worry. It's a long train ride to seattle, and hitchhiking isn't really my thing. I don't think I'll be running away anytime soon.
We only spent one night in Manyara. The next day (after many, MANY souvenir stops) we drove to the Ngorongoro crater. It's this HUGE crater, I can't remember how big it is exactly, but it's one of the natural wonders of the world, I think.
In our three days at Ngorongoro, what did we see? We saw an elephant with tusks longer than it's trunk, i swear, this was the hugest elephant I have EVER seen. We saw a cheetah carcass in the tree, with a leopard nearby. Leopards are so endangered you have to be really really lucky to spot one. (You'll here more about leopards in part three). We saw lots of hippos, and baby hippos. But there was only one day when we saw monkeys. (hehehe, alex and colleen are laughing their heads off if they're reading this now.)
We stopped at a picnic stop for lunch. We noticed there were lots of monkeys hanging around; in the trees, in the sink of the bathroom. Our guides told us "Do NOT let them into the car, because they WILL try to take your food and they WILL bite you and you WILL get rabies and you WILL die." Now, the top of the Land Rovers comes off, so you can stand up on your seat to get a good view of the animals. So, my cousin Owen and my mom were sitting in the backseat, eating lunch. Suddenly, a monkey JUMPED into my cousin Owen's lap. Owen yelled (owen doesn't scream, he yells) and PUNCHED the monkey out of the car. My dad grabbed his apple and THREW it at the monkey, hitting me in the head with his arm in the process. The monkey CAUGHT the apple, and ran off to eat it. We've got some cute pictures of a monkey sucking on a hard-boiled egg. Our guide Joseph said it was because we were white. So now MONKEYS are racists?
I think I'll end it here for now. Hope you enjoyed! I'll be out with part three soon.
-Rashell