Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

Before I left for South America last year I went over to my friend Josh’s house and hung out with his wonderful family. Over the years I have become very close with his wife Amy, and his children Maddie (third grade), and Tyler (kindergarten) . Maddie–who at 9 might be smarter than then the average high school senior– was extremely interested in my trip. The two of us sat down with a map and outlined where I thought I would be heading at the time. At that point–Late December 2006– I was scheduled to do a one year world trip and had a plan to hit 6 continents. Little did I know that I would end up falling in love with South America and stay the entire time.

So, when I got back home and Josh asked me if I wanted to speak to Maddie’s 3rd grade class about South America I had to jump at the opportunity. The class was following the blog while I was traveling. So, last week it all came to fruition and I went in front of my toughest audience to date.

Looking back, I have come to the conclusion that the last time I hung out with 9 year olds was when I was 9 years old. I was not really sure how big they would be or how in depth I would be able to go with the material. Despite my lack of interaction with children of elementary school age, the presentation—a 45 minute slide show full of pictures from my trip–went really well. The kids seemed very interested and asked a lot of great questions. It had started snowing on my ride into the school and I had half expected them to be going crazy with the thoughts of after school snowball fights and snowman building. But to my relief, they were very well behaved and polite.

Here are a few of the more entertaining moments:

1. They asked if I ate any “weird” foods. So, I told them about the time I ate Guinea Pig in Peru. The room immediately erupted and their faces were a mix of shock and disgust. I imagine the realization that I had eaten “fluffy” or “snowball” came across many of their minds. They also did not take too kindly to the idea that I had enjoyed llama and alpaca morsels. In reality, I probably should not have disclosed this right after showing them an adorable picture of a cute little Peruvian girl with her pet baby Alpaca.

Sidenote: The kids did seem to enjoy the fact that both Alpacas and Llamas spit at people.

2. One little girl asked me, “How old is Bolivia”? To which I replied, well, um, the Spanish invaded South America in the 1500’s, and um, actually, I have no idea.. But, you could look it up on the internet tonight if you would really like to know.

Sidenote: I just looked it up, August 6th, 1825.

3. I think they got the biggest kick out of the different kind of animals that I saw. I showed them quite a few of my pictures from Antarctica (penguins, seals), the Galapagos (blue footed boobies, sea lions, turtles), and the Bolivian Amazon (pink river dolphins, sloth, capabara). One of the kids was very upset that I did not see more snakes on my journey.

4. One of the students, while I was talking about Antarctica, asked why I did not fall off of the bottom of the earth and into the sky when I was at the South Pole : )

All in all it was a great day and I found the experience extremely rewarding. I also have a whole new respect for elementary school teachers. I was ready for a nap after 45 minutes.

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