Real Captivity is Inside Your Mind

I went to Las Vegas recently, and inside one of the hotels, there were lions on display in a glass enclosure. The enclosure was pretty big, held toys, water, food, and all sorts of artificial habitat items.

From the information that was available about the "attraction," I gathered that the lions in the enclosure were actually not there every single day. They did a short stint, and then were subbed out. I guess they do this so that the lions don't suffer any adverse effects from being gawked at for 24hrs at a time in a city that never sleeps.

Watching them brought back a few memories from a few years back.

While I was doing my teacher-training program there came a day when we had the opportunity to take ourselves on a field trip. We were specifically asked to partner-up and visit a local attraction with the purpose of evaluating what features made it an attractive field trip.

I went to the zoo.

I picked the zoo because although I know that I had been there before (perhaps as a child), I couldn't remember what it was like there, what my impressions had been, or even what animals were on display.

Immediately upon arrival we were greeted by some elephants that were chained up outside the front of the zoo - which happened to be located directly off a busy highway road. Going inside, there wasn't too much more that put me at ease. I saw tethered birds, big cats pacing back and forth at their cage fences for hours, and other animals who seemed rather big for their enclosures.

It was upsetting. I started thinking about how kids are brought here to view these animals outside of their natural habitat. How they probably think it's "cool" that they get to see a zebra, an elephant, a hippo. How they are probably not thinking about some of the larger issues like the effects of captivity on the mental & physical well-being of a wild animal. At the time I swore that I would never bring kids on a field trip like that.

I do think that there is value in talking with kids about the effects of captivity on animals. I don't know that it would be as valuable to younger students, but I believe that older kids would be able to identify some of the stressors on an animal in captivity. And it's relevant; there are animals (wild and otherwise) in captivity all over the place. What about animals born into their situations? What about aquariums, circuses, or other shows? What about animal rescue shelters? Our own homes?

Sometimes it's absolutely better for the animal that they have been taken in. Clearly, sometimes it's worse. What I'd like students to do is to think more about the factors under which we decide that one situation is "good" and another is not. That's all I want - a conversation, a debate, a critical look -- rather than a passive acceptance or spectator sport.

With all of the live web-cam feeds into various animal habitats, I feel that zoos are becoming less of an attraction. People don't need to pay admission to see live animals if they can just turn on a computer. The same kids of conversations can still be had. The kids can still ooh and ahh. Furthermore, they can talk about it at home - and maybe parents can even join in the conversation.

So, is the zoo a good field trip? Maybe. Honestly, I don't think it's likely I would take students there. But I have changed my tune a bit about how useful it could be in terms of education. It's certainly an opportunity for a great conversation. Animals in cages; let's think outside the box!

One Child Inspires

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 3:09 PM


The News Tribune / Tacoma, WA
Word on the Street
December 16, 2009 - Tacoma, WA

Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am

A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department
station last Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an
officer enough that the officer wanted to share the story in a Christmas
letter to friends.

One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike
Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that
they thought it should be shared with the community.

Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we
have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it
is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other
love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:

December 13, 2009

I'm not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn't
even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at
all. I'm sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here
in Lakewood two weeks ago today - four of our officers, four people that
have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together,
were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother -
all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families - now dead. The
grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have
all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and
for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since
this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of
individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming
to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our
composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.

It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our
minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want
to send out a Christmas letter. I'm here at work and was just out in our
secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car
to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I
heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4
years old, calling, "Excuse me...." through our locked gate. She had
apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there,
it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I
walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy
containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed
dinosaur.

The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4
slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way
from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these
officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy
containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had
written "AJ....From me to Pleec. I Love You." And then, with tears in his
eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ's mom explained that he wanted
to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he
owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.

I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I
thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to
keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged
his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him
tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.

We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2
weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever
imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven't talked to for
years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the
future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department
challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest
and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how
much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood
Police Department today.

So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love
and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.

I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays
with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little
longer today because life really is precious. Merry Christmas!

Great Quotes About Learning & Change

Found in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/858082@N25/pool/show/

The Grand Adventure - Wordle

www.wordle.net

The Grand Adventure is Drawing to a Close

Hi everyone,

At the moment I am in London and this time tomorrow I will be happily in my own bed, so you're looking at the last of my emails (yay!). I am looking forward to enjoying so many familiarities and comforts of home that I have been doing without for the past 33 days, including not-living-out-of-a-suitcase!!

So, we went to Spain. Dan, Tracy & I piled all our stuff into Dan's car and we took a road trip north. The border between Morocco & Spain is totally insane. These guys run up to your car and give you a border entry card, (and expect payment, of course), then you fill it out and have to park your car - right at the border - and go to a wicket to get the stamp. Then you go through about 4 or 5 passport checks and questions from men who sometimes look like they are buddy-down-the-street and are sometimes carrying guns. It's all chaos - people bud in line, yell over top of each other... and it was a Sunday when we went!

Anyways, we arrived in Ceuta/Sebta (Spanish/Arabic) and it was a lovely departure from our travels so far. Like being back in Europe. Tracy got us by with her Spanish skills (is there any language she doesn't speak?? apparently she hasn't been formally trained in either Pig Latin or Arabic) and we had an awesome time, soaking up the atmosphere. We walked around town, ate ice cream, took photos, soaked our feet in the Mediterranean and went to a pizzeria for dinner.

Ok, so we're at the Pizzeria and the server asks if we want to share a Caeser salad to start, and we agree. Let me tell you what was in the salad. No, wait, let me tell you what wasn't in the salad: the kitchen sink! It had lettuce, tomato, corn, artichokes, rice, olives, carrots, cucumbers, palm hearts, tuna, beets... and more. We're not kidding. And strange thing is, it was pretty good! But it ain't no Ceasar salad!!

The next day (Monday), we got up early and drove back to Rabat. Dan only tried to kill us a couple of times by looking somewhere else other than the road, but little does he know how hearty we are from weeks of crossing the street in Egypt! So, we made it all the way to the train station unscathed. Sad goodbye to Dan who was a very generous host - thanks Dan!!

Arriving in Marrakech, we checked in to our Riad and two young guys seemed to be running the place. They amused themselves greatly by continually quoting us ridiculous times for things - i.e. 4 hours to get to the airport, 3 hour walk to get to the main square, etc. However they were really friendly and helpful once they had their laugh. The Riad was very nice, as well. My only complaint is that there was no door on the bathroom (just a curtain), and you don't realize how important that is until you don't have one! Yeesh.

We walked to the main square which was called Jemaa El Fna, and it was crazy there at night! So alive with kiosks selling orange juice, crowds of people around storytellers, food stands, henna tattoo artists, kids trying to sell you tissue, and shopping shopping shopping. Marrakech is the Moroccan city most like Egypt in that people hassled us the most here out of any place in Morocco.

Tracy had another henna done on her hand and we decided to walk back to our Riad. Then, I was rudely welcomed to Marrkech by having a tomato thrown at me!! I was shocked and dismayed; I certainly do love my vegetables, but not when used in an unfriendly projectile sort of manner. There were Arabic guys walking on the street towards us and they were really shocked too, apologizing and making sure all was ok. I was pretty upset - but we wrote it off to random kids driving by and being idiots. Everybody else in Morocco has been so nice, it was such a shame, really. Washed out my clothes when I got back to the Riad.

The next day we took Marrakesh by storm and we spent time again at Jemaa El Fna (saw snake-charmers!), the Tombeaux, Marjorelle Gardens (an oasis in the middle of the insanity; we loved it), Palace ruins, Marrakech Museum, Ben Youssef and some famous monument thingy that we don't even know what it was - but was neat anyways.

Totally strange coincidence - while at the Museum we ran into 2 people that were staying at our Dar in Fes! Really specific places to be running into each other. Almost creepy... :) And then at the airport later we ran into more people that were staying at that Dar in Fes! What a small, small world. There were only 3 people at the Dar that we didn't see in a different Moroccan city (the strange English/French family that kepy insulting Tracy... maybe it was good that we didn't run in to them).

Our last Moroccan meal was delicious; cucumber soup, Moroccan chicken curry, vegetable pastry and poached pear & ice cream for dessert. We will definitely miss the food! Our last night in Morocco was a little annoying because there was really loud music going on at some neighbouring building - and it went on all-night-long!! Seriously, it was still going when we woke up this morning at 5:45am.

So, we flew to London. We had a proper English meal of fish n' chips and we stocked up on snacks and whatnot for travels ahead. I fly home tomorrow and Tracy has a few more days in the UK before she's back in the GVRD.

Here's some random thoughts:
- we've tried 4 types of Fanta: apple, orange, black current & lemon.
- the Moroccans eat their french fries with dijon mustard; Tracy has now converted.
- we saw several instances of Moroccans hitting their children out in public. Hard. :(
- shoving clothes into your bag willy-nilly makes them really wrinkled, but sweating de-wrinkle-fies anything pretty quick.
- there was regularly no shower curtain and you need a certain amount of skill to not get the bathroom floor flooded.
- I have eaten more pizza and drank more pop on this trip than any other one food/drink.
- there's no row 13 in airplanes? Like elevators I guess. I mean, who wants to sit in row 13 in a flying tin can?
- my Canada flag keychain was stolen off my suitcase. It would have been very difficult to remove. My carabeener clips got stolen off my luggage, but they would have been easy.
- a bunch of songs I paid for through iTunes, about 30 of them, still 'play' on my iPhone but with no sound. I have restarted the phone but to no avail. Strange! They were definitely working before, and went blank about halfway through my trip. Anyone know why?
- I have played inordinate amounts of cribbage on my iPhone and am now convinced that I am a better player. Anyone wanna take me on?
- if I were to do Morocco again, I would do Marrakech first, then Fes, then end with Dan in Rabat because it was so nice to have some real relaxing time without a crazy agenda.
- how do pilots know, when they are flying right IN the clouds, that there isn't another airplane in there coming the other way?? Karl??

Thanks all of you for reading these emails (or, well, for receiving them anyways!). Typing out my experiences is much faster than writing them all down and they are often things I want to remember too. Hopefully you've gotten a giggle or some helpful info out of them at one point or another. I'll send links to photos sometime in the next few weeks.

If you are in the GVRD, look me up before I go back to work on Sep 8th! If not, I hope we can get together sometime soon for a visit. Take care, and be good.

Cheers,
Elaan

Rock the Kasbah

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note this time.

We are in Rabat, staying at my friend Dan's place and it has been awesome - a great change of pace and nice to actually be in someone's home rather than dealing with room cleaners, check-out times, and sometimes unfriendly staff! Dan has been great and his two kids are a riot - two girls, 9 and 10 years old. They and the cat, Fudge, keep us entertained all the time. :)

Yesterday Dan took us out and we went to the Chellah (my nickname for it: the Chinchilla) which was like old castle ruins dating back to the Roman civilization. It's also a breeding ground for storks. Storks are very large, and it's certainly something to watch them fly around. We saw more lush greenery, flora & fauna in the Chellah than anywhere else on the trip so far.

After the Chellah, we went to the beach and the Kasbah. It was amazing. There were locals jumping off huge rocks into the crystal blue water (posted a photo on FB for your viewing pleasure). Yesterday was Tracy`s birthday and she had the choice between McDonald`s McFlurrys or an ice cream cake. She chose the McFlurry and we ended off the very hot afternoon with a great treat. N.B. - Moroccan McFlurrys are just sundaes; they don`t mix anything. They were still pretty good.

Came back to the pad and relaxed and then Dan made an amazing dinner of salmon, potatoes, pasta salad and garden salad. Yum & double-yum. The great day was capped off with a view of the ocean sunset from the roof, accompanied by a glass of lovely Spanish wine.

Today we went to the Rabat medina. Very different from the Fes medina. We did a little shopping and now have no idea how to fit anything in our luggage or how to get it home. Woes of a traveller!

Dan & the girls went out tonight so Tracy and I made our own dinner of pasta & salad and it was pretty scrumptious if we do say so ourselves!

Tomorrow, we go to Spain. A city right on the tip of Morocco belongs to Spain and we have to go across the border to get there. Should be great. After that we part ways with Dan & his family and head to Marrakech - and then London - and then home! Not sure how many more emails I will be sending. :)

Hope all is well at home and things have cooled down for you guys,
xo
Elaan

Funky Hot Medina

Hi everyone!

Ok, so it's my intention to send this email to you twice - the first time with an attachment (a voice clip from me!!) and the second time without, in case some people have trouble downloading/opening attachments. If you get the first email ok, then just delete the second one. :)

Where did I leave you last...? Ah yes, back in Egypt.

On our tour they would often give us a "welcome drink" at some of the places/businesses that we visited. It was Tang. Tang is big in Egypt, it seems. Strange thing is, we were advised not to drink the tap water in Egypt, although the locals drink it with no problem. Given that Tang is an orange-flavoured powder, I asked my tour leader if these places were mixing their Tang with the tap water, and he said no - that it was made with bottled water. RIGHT. I don't believe that for a second. And neither should you.

When going to an Egyptian restaurant, this is how it will generally go:
1. You tell them what you want.
2. They bring the food and you tell them what you ordered so they can give it to you.
3. They will not bring you your bill until you ask.
4. You have to tell them what you ordered so that they can figure out how much you owe.
5. What they say you owe is not actually what you should owe according to the menu, and they hope you don't notice this.
6. You pay with cash, and they will deny that they have any change.

Oh, and the cleanliness of food and drink? They don't have standards like at home. I mentioned that they drink the tap water, right? And that they get the tap water from the Nile? And that their sewage goes in the Nile? (I hope your sister doesn't do much travelling Lauren - she'd never eat!)

The light switches here are backwards - you push down to turn them on and upwards to turn them off. When I get home I will probably be doing it backwards. I will also probably ignore people when they talk to me, be afraid to cross the street, and brush my teeth with bottled water. I wonder if my daily pop quota will make its way back to North America, too - all the good dental habits I acquired are going to waste! D'oh.

For our last night in Cairo, we changed hotels and stayed in a really nice one called the Meridien Heliopolis. The guy that drove us there was the only person I had seen in Egypt that used turn signals. It was neato! His name was Ehab. I remember his name because I was thinking about Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. Ya, ok, random. Whatevs.

In the fancy hotels that we have been staying in, there is usually a bidet in the bathroom. How exactly do you use a bidet, anyways? I mean, are you supposed to SIT on it? IN it? I can see all sorts of SNL skits coming out of the experimentation with the bidet. What if you got stuck in the bidet? My butt is a little wider than some of the ones we've seen... hehe.

So, we travelled from Cairo to Milan, and all I have to say about that is: it's nearly impossible to not notice when then guy beside you on the airplane is having an anxiety attack. Yep, lucky me, the guy beside me seemed very afraid of flying. He nearly hyperventilated during takeoff. Thing is, when it's an Arab MAN, you pretty much don't want to be friendly for fear that you are giving the wrong impression. Anyways, the flight was not full and he eventually moved to an empty row so he could spaz-out in private.

Then we were back in Italy. Ahhhh, being able to trust the food/water again is such a luxury! We only had a few hours there - stayed at another very lovely hotel and then were up at the godawful hour of 2:30am to get on our airport shuttle bus. This time we were flying out of Bergamo airport. Note to self: Italian airports don't make finding bathrooms very easy.

Back on the airplane again. This time flying Ryanair from Milan to Fes in Morocco. Ryanair is the cheapest airline ever, and they nickel and dime you for every service you could possibly want. Which means, it's not very good service. Case in point: they let a woman on the airplane that shouldn't have been there. SHE thought she was supposed to be there, but they did not. Why they didn't discover this before she actually made it on the plane, I don't know. So we sat on the tarmac for an hour and Tracy & I had a front row seat and watched the woman scream at various airport employees. The police finally came, she was taken away, and the whole airplane erupted in applause. And so we were off to Morocco.

When we arrived in Fes we had to go through customs of course and we got pulled aside for a health check and I got interrogated a bit. I got interrogated in French. Did I mention that I don't speak French? I actually knew what the guy was saying, but couldn't answer him appropriately ("zut alors!" , "mon dieu!" and "j'adore le francais, ca va?" came to mind) or quickly enough. Thank goodness for Tracy!! She saved me. I had visions of being hauled off to a Moroccan jail before she came to my rescue.

We were picked up at the Fes airport and taken to our Dar - a Dar is like a guest house. We stayed in Dar El Hana, which was right in the center of the medina. The medina is a section of the city, usually enclosed by walls, that has a billion streets that run in every direction and is home to a bazillion people and shops. There are 9000 streets in the Fes medina - okay, so that's not a billion, but it might as well be. It's still insane. You can get lost for hours in there - another reason why we needed to get picked up.

As soon as I got in the medina, I noticed very strong smells. I thought it was going to be like the Egyptian markets, but it was different in a number of ways. For example, we rarely got talked to. Where it's a constant harassment in Egypt everywhere you go, for the most part in Morocco they leave you alone. The odd person tries to talk to you or sell you something, but coming from Egypt we were well-rehearsed in ignoring people. There are donkeys and carts and motorbikes all vying for space in the narrow roads, whereas it was mainly pedestrian traffic in Egypt.

There are cats everywhere, like Egypt. They seem to get fed more in Fes - the shopkeepers will give them raw meat scraps and such. It still strikes me as rather sad.

We had dinner at our Dar, two nights in a row. Oh wow, is Moroccan food ever GOOD. The cook made Tajine, which is slow-cooked meat and spices and fruit in a clay pot. Last night we had chicken and apricots - yummm. The breakfasts are good too -- fruit and yogurt and honey and Moroccan pancakes with butter and jams.

While staying at the Dar, we had dinner with another family. They live in France, but the husband was English. Tracy talked about her family connections to England, and the husband proceeded to say that everyone from that her particular town were redneck hicks and strange ducks. She wasn't impressed. Then he asked me about Canada's political position in Iraq - to which I almost laughed. Can you imagine someone asking me about Canadian politics? Ha ha ha. Well anyways, despite those things, the family was pretty nice.

Yesterday we did a little shopping in the Fes medina and I picked up a couple of things but I am not much of a shopper when I travel. I'm not much of a shopper at home - when I have to carry it around on my back it's even less attractive. Still, I bargained myself a little Moroccan bag even though I hate bargaining! Why can't people just say what the actual price is?? Sheesh. :)

Today we left Fes and carried our heavy bags all through the medina, and I have never sweat so much in my life. I was the Elaan-filling in a donkey sandwich a couple of times, when I was caught in an inopportune moment in the medina. The donkeys give way to nobody. I almost got knocked over, too. It is rather treacherous at the best of times, and when you add another huge pack on your back, medium pack on your front... it gets even worse. But hey, what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger! And sometimes smellier!

We caught a lovely air-conditioned train to Rabat, and there my friend Dan was waiting to pick us up with his 2 lovely daughters. He gave us a quick tour of the school where he works, then took us for a "North American" meal at T.G.I. Friday's. Then we saw an amazing sunset at the beach, went his place where Tracy & I high-fived over the washing machine (yay!!) and settled in. Can't wait to just do whatever, without a schedule and stress.

Home soon, hope y'all are well!
Elaan

p.s. thanks for making it to the end of the longest-email-EVER!