Tales from Rwanda: A Cow in My Classroom

Editor's Note: A good friend of mine travels to Africa regularly as part of a mercy team to provide care and schooling for the children of Rwanda. Below is the first of several notes from her adventures. It's not Disney's Animal Kingdom but the real thing. Enjoy!

Kamate’s Primary School, started just two years ago, consists of two rooms made out of mud bricks, a tin roof, and trimmed tree branches of varying sizes for seats. The windows and doors allow complete access to the natural elements; there is no glass in the window openings and no actual doors to keep out the wind and debris.

Currently it consists of four primary grades – P1, P2, P3 and P4 - as well as pre-K and Kindergarten and its 500 students range in age from four years old to mid-teens. Yes, that’s right – 500 students, which means they attend half days. P3 and P4 hold their classes in the school building. The other grades meet under their assigned trees.

Sydney and I knew that we would be teaching English at Kamate, but we didn’t really know what that meant. We thought we might team teach and brought a number of teaching materials and other supplies with us. However, God had other plans. I ended up solo teaching - mostly P3 and P4 - the better part of the school day. However, one morning I was assigned to P2.

I was bent over writing the lesson on the blackboard, when a student made a noise and I heard something being thrown off to my right. At that point I looked up and immediately saw a cow on my left, my very near left, less than two feet away- and then not just one cow, but several others just behind the tree that held up the blackboard. These are not your ordinary mild Jersey cows, but Watusis, which have long, curved horns. To buy time and keep my composure I said, “How nice! They want to learn, too!” It was just then that the herdsman made his appearance and drove his cows away. I continued on with my lesson.

I absolutely loved teaching the Kamate students. For me it was one of the highlights of not only the 2011 trip but of all three times I have been in Rwanda. But a cow in my classroom! Who would have thought it! That’s real life in Kamate, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I sure look forward to teaching there again.

The Rise and Fall of Disney's Animal Kingdom

How can a Disney theme park with so much promise fall into such a miserable state less than 15 years after opening? Such is the case of Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

Although it opened on Opening on Earth Day 1988, the park began capturing the interest and curiosity of the public years ago when the project was first announced. "Why would Disney want to create a zoo?" was a common question- one that Disney's own accountants had to be asking themselves as well. It was one the Company itself had to be asking after guest numbers fell year after year. And it is one die hard Disney theme park fans- and perhaps even Imagineer Joe Rohde- are now asking themselves while the Walt Disney Company lets this beautiful, rich kingdom die a slow death, watching it devolve into just another zoo.

With broken effects in most of the major attractions, shortened hours, overpriced restaurants, and rehashed parades, although Disney's Animal Kingdom once had the ability to match Tokyo Disney Sea in elan and beauty, the company tossed its potential aside due to neglect in both upkeep and lack of further enhancements. The pricey Wild Africa Trek does not make up for a lack of expansion, but it does explain away the reason for a broken yeti at Expedition Everest, closing shows without replacements, and offering nothing new in years. Clearly, corporate greed trumps customer satisfaction and high value for the dollars spent. Please prove me wrong, Mr. Iger, please do.

My intent here is not to rehash a detailed history of the park. (For those that are interested, I do so in a six part series that begins here.) Today, I just want to ask the question, "What happened?"


(Photo copyright Mark Taft.)

Disney's Wild Africa Trek Hits and Misses

An upscale, limited capacity three hour excursion through the wilds of Africa at the beautiful Disney's Animal Kingdom. Does it sound appealing enough to fork out the big bucks? Disney is banking on it!

The idea of a boutique park has been bantered about for a few years on both the theme park discussion boards and in the Disney Company board rooms. Yet, the economy has tanked with no foreseeable rebound, sending the best laid plans of mice and men back to square one.

Still, Disney wants to cash in on the trend started by Sea World and its incredible Discovery Cove aquatic adventure. The Wild Africa Trek is the Mouse's response. Even at the introductory rate at $129 per person, it is an experience for the elite and cash rich. The experience looks great in writing and more than worth it via the video promotion. It belongs here, but something still feels amiss.
The park's opening in 1998 left most of the buying public crying "foul" and "half day park"- and the dismal opening year numbers backed up the response of guests. So Disney scrambled to add more.

Here's the catch: an experience like this should have been offered on opening day sans lunch and the hefty price tag. Even with an advanced reservations system, it could have been a public relations nightmare or an operational challenge never before seen. Regardless, Disney could have figured it out- and avoided the problems associated with the park for its first decade, thereby ensuring high guest numbers and even higher revenue.

The Wild Animal Trek won't change the park's image for those unwilling to pay the additional fees, but it will be a nice add-on for those who are already more than accustomed to a lifestyle beyond the reach of the average American. However, to put it another way, the lifestyle of the average American- and our trips to the Disney Kingdoms- is already beyond the reach of most of the world, so this trek will be available to the smallest percentage of people possible, ultimately making the experience highly desirable and very profitable.
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To track the progress of the development and expansion of Disney's Animal Kingdom, feel free to begin reading this multi-part series filled with concept art, photos, and more. You'll see the park in a whole new light! It begins here.
Lastly, please consider answering the poll to your left. Thanks!
(Photo copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

Falling Short at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom has all of the necessary elements for the makings of a great theme park. Beautiful vistas, great food, exotic shopping and thrills. In fact, thrills can be found in each corner of the park, just awaiting discovery! Take a prehistoric journey on Dinosaur!, a wild and wet but short excursion on the Kali River Rapids, the park's signature attraction, Kilimanjaro Safaris, or my favorite, the lengthy titled but adrenaline producing Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. Guess you could even go for the new high end "Wild Africa Trek" if money were no object.

Unfortunately, after the rush wears off- and it does, the park falls flat. There's just not enough real Disney attractions! Time to move on those plans for expansion. Animal Kingdom probably has the most untapped potential of any stateside park. And, for now, the potential stays untapped. Too bad. (If you want to learn more about this place, its design, creation and evolution, start reading my multipart series here.)