Small Town News

African adventure: Greenville youth takes trip of discovery

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Greenville teen Haley Fox is an experienced world traveler, yet what she'll remember most about her summer adventure in Africa is a discovery about herself and other Americans.

"It was definitely a culture shock," Fox said of her time performing service work in poor villages across Tanzania, including Masai villages of the Serengeti and more remote sites in the Usambara Mountains.

Witnessing the survival skills of some of the poorest people in the world was one of the most valuable lessons for Fox. "I didn't expect them to be so happy," Fox said in wonderment.

"You would think they'd be unhappy because they're so poor."

The trip changed her in a fundamental way. "Now I realize how fortunate we are, how spoiled we are because we always want more," she said with an embarrassed smile and duck of her head.

The African children would wear whatever clothes they could find, regardless of gender specificity. For example, one village boy wore a pink outfit with a Barbie logo on it.

She also learned what it's still like for many women in the world.

When the youths were introduced to the Masai tribe, the girls in the group had to bow down and were instructed not to meet the eyes of the men, because that would be a sign of disrespect.

The chief would embrace and vociferously greet the boys, and just lightly touch the heads of the girls in acknowledgement of their presence.

It was another surprise when she discovered that every person in the village was related to the chief, mostly his 108 children and 32 wives, several of whom were pregnant.

She discovered she didn't really like goat meat, or the blood she was made to drink. "They don't waste a thing," she said with a grimace. "It was horrible."

One day, the young men culled a member from the cattle herd for a celebratory feast. Fox watched them calm the animal and settle it on a bed of leaves before the slaughter.

"It was horrifying at first," she said. "I almost passed out."

She learned cows are money --literally--and they are used to buy wives, at 10 per.

She watched a medicine man diagnose an illness with a bag of rocks. He'd shake up the rocks, spit inside, have the patient spit too, and then he shook them some more and dumped them out. He picked up a few of the rocks, looked at them and made the diagnosis.

Fox also learned about the wildlife of the African savanna, including Cape buffalo, rhinos and other animals.

She was amazed that a giraffe could wrap its tongue around a thorny acacia branch and strip the leaves off without injury.

She saw a sleepy hyena with a full belly and a cheetah with a gazelle meal that nearby vultures kept their eyes on.

She spent four days in a small village where she helped paint the school and build a soccer field that drew hundreds of people who walked from all over the countryside to attend the first game.

Fox was surprised when the children swarmed around her and the others to have their pictures taken and were so appreciative of just a handful of ink pens.

Fox and other girls stayed with a schoolteacher who, impressively, cooked for them a meal of stew and flat-bread, all from scratch and with no electricity or modern appliances.

On the whole, the purpose of Fox's trip was for service, 40 hours of service to be exact, spread out over a 25-day adventure that included a safari on the Serengeti and scuba-diving certification on the tropical beaches of Zanzibar, where the girls had to cover their heads, arms and legs on trips into the mostly Muslim town.

The covering was worth it when they tasted the pizza made for them with octopus, vegetables and other seafood.

At a nearby spice farm, the boys working there gave each of the girls a shoulder bag they had crafted out of wide leaves; they also smiled and tried to get the girls to give them money for their education.

Fox's trip was arranged for her through Adventures Cross Country, an adventure travel group for teens that provides opportunities for service, leadership, language and blue-water adventures around the world.

Her adventures included an education in culture, wildlife biology, ecology and many other facets of life on the African continent.

She came home with T-shirts, Masai jewelry, spices and about 600 photographs of wild animals, people and landscapes, as well as a, big part of Africa in her heart.



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© 2009 The Chester Progressive Chester, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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