Today, John and I walked back to the airport. The walk that had seemed long on the way here seemed so short now. John and I shook hands and said goodbye. I was sad to go, because I had had so much fun with John in Africa. As I left, John handed me a box, and when I looked inside, I saw one of the wood bikes. He said "I know you won't use it much in California, but you can have it to remember the time you had here."
"Thank you so much," I said. I waved as I left. I had learned so many things and had such a fun time. When When I got home though, I bought a lot of salsa, chips, and tortillas and sent them to John in Sudan. I hope he enjoys them!
John and I went on a tour today. We ate some bread for breakfast and then walked around the village. A lot of kids were walking around, riding rusty old bikes, and lined up in front of shabby schoolhouses. A few kids were riding home-made wooden bikes. They zipped right past us, laughing and playing. John and I laughed and chased after them.
We caught them at a corner where they were catching their breath. Near them was a little boy who was selling two similar bikes. John and I bought them and then spent the rest of the morning cruising down hills. We were having a lot of fun, but I still wanted to see more of the village. We left the bikes back at John's house, then we went back to the market. We met a lot of people and I bought a lot of food to bring home and share with my family.
I found something in the market that was similar to a tortilla, which gave me an idea. I asked John and his wife if they would like to try something that we eat in California, and they said yes. I began with warming the chicken over their fire stove, and then I rolled it up in the "tortilla." I added some chopped up vegetables that I had found in the market. Finally, I baked some of the "African tortillas" into chips and served everything with a bowl of my makeshift salsa. We sat down and ate our African-style burritos. They were delicious. I showed John how to dip the tortilla chips in the salsa. John and Martha thought that it was delicious, too.
Today we got up and dressed by 7:00. John was taking us on a safari to see the wild part of Africa. We went outside and saw a mud-splattered jeep spray painted in camouflage colors.
We loaded into the jeep, which had no seat belts, windows, or doors. Then we set off down a dirt road heading towards the jungle.
It wasn't long before we saw our first animals. A troop of baboons walked by the car and hissed at us. They acted very hostile and we didn't get too close.
We traveled through the jungle and in the savanna, too. We saw lions, leopards, cheetahs, monkeys, antelopes, wild dogs, giraffes, zebras, and my favorite, elephants. We then came to a shady spot by a river. We saw water buffaloes drinking, and being wary of the giant crocodiles that lurked in the muddy water like floating logs. We saw a lot of hippos lumbering around in the shadows, and we even saw a shark swim up the river! John and I pulled out our lunch and ate it in the jeep.
After we were done seeing the animals, We went 4-wheel-driving. As our guide maneuvered at full speed around potholes and rocks, going down canyons and splashing through puddles, John and I bounced around in the back laughing and holding on to the seats. It was so fun. The guide even let me drive.
We had so much fun, and we got home in time for dinner, which was leftovers from the night before.
I had been staring out the window for 10,12,15 hours. It was nighttime, and I was on a plane to Duk County in South Sudan to visit John Bul Dau, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Unable to sleep, I watched the lights of America grow and fade away, then grow and fade again. Then lights seized to exist as we passed over the Atlantic Ocean, except for little boats like glowing ants on a dark blue canvas. Then I saw lights again, the lights of Africa. this time they were not as bright. Eventually, those too faded away as I drifted off to sleep.
I woke up to overwhelming senses. I smelled lots of animals and people, and fresh food like bread, meat, and something else that I later learned was called kofta. I head children yelling to their friends, merchants advertising their products, and livestock being herded trough the streets. As I stepped outside, a wave of hot, muggy air hit me. Flies buzzed around my sweaty face. The second I set foot on African ground, Thousands of black hands reached out, begging for money or food and feeling the new white person. I handed out a few leftover bars from the plane ride. After a while, when the people calmed down, I got to know them better. They were extremely kind and curious. The little kids loved to walk with me and ask me questions in their language that I didn't know how to answer. They clapped and laughed and acted very happy. When I came out of the seemingly endless process of getting my passport checked and waiting for the luggage, I walked outside and saw a man holding a cardboard sign that said:
I went up to John and introduced myself. He was so happy to have a visitor that he could take on a tour of the town. We shook hands and started off towards his house. It turned out that his house was a few miles away, so it took about an hour to walk. John walked at a very brisk pace,and it was hard to keep up with him. He was very tall and strong, and I figured that he had walked this route many times.
On the way home, we stopped at the Sudanese equivalent to the Farmer's Market. Tables and booths were set up and down the streets, marketing products from clothes to pigs. African men and women bustled about, buying the food they needed for dinner. John bought some chicken meat, bread, and kofta. We went home and had an early dinner at 4:00, which was cooked by John's wife, Martha. The chicken soup and bread was good, but what I really liked was the kofta, which was like a meatball.
When we were done with dinner, we went to see the Sudanese rapper Lam Tungwar, who was playing live. We went to his concert, and it was amazing to be so immersed in the sudanese culture. People jumped around, singing and dancing, and we stayed up past midnight. I thought that Lam was very talented, and I thought that he was better than a lot of American musicians. After the concert, I got to meet Lam and talk to him. I became more interested with every word he spoke as his inspiring story unraveled. At age 7, Lam was forced to be a child soldier in the Southern Sudan Military. He dropped his gun and fled into Kenya, he pursued a career in music to help deal with his horrible experiences. He has been on tour and has won awards such as a designation as a messenger of peace.
Emmanuel and I woke up in our cozy sleeping bags. We climbed out and put on our hiking clothes. We made ham and cheese muffins for breakfast, and we wolfed them down. "Somehow, things taste better when you made them." Emmanuel put in.
We left soon after we washed the dishes in the creek. We walked for about a mile until we came to the perfect swimming hole. We all took turns jumping off of the rocks into the glassy water.
(Flying Mason Dochterman)
Then we moved on to the next creek crossing. There, we caught a alligator lizard. Emmanuel kept laughing and saying "It tickles," when the lizard ran up his back.
We then headed back to camp. We packed up all of our things and hiked out the way we had come. We got hamburgers and milkshakes at The Burger Barn. The milkshake refreshed us as it cooled our bodies down, and the burgers were phenomenal, but we ate the meal in silence. This would be our last meal with Emmanuel.
When we got home, we gave Emmanuel a photo album showing all the great times we had together. "Thank you so much for everything" said Emmanuel. Everybody was sad to see Emmanuel go, but happy for all of the things that we had showed him, and that he had showed us. We all understood now that the most important thing in the world isn't money, or power, or making yourself happy. The most important thing is making other people happy, which in turn will give you happiness.
As I watched Emmanuel's plane fly down the runway, a tear trickled down my cheek. Our amazing journey was coming to an end, at the same place it started.
My cheek pressed against the cold, smooth glass. I listened to the light rain pattering on the window as I watched plane disappear into the gray sky. I watched the plane grow smaller and smaller in the distance, and then finally disappear into the sky.
I woke up with a furry black face staring at me. I jumped out of bed, sending the animal flying across the room. Emmanuel woke up with a start as it landed on his bed. The creature waddled away to the kitchen, and I realized it was just my cat. Emmanuel was still startled, but when I told him what had happened, he busted up.
As we ate bacon, potatoes and eggs for breakfast, I told Emmanuel what we would do that day. We were going to ride from our house to the Mission, and from there to the Botanic Gardens, and then head down to the Courthouse and the harbor. Then we would get a meal somewhere on State Street before we went home.
We set off at 7:30 in the morning. Emmanuel proved himself to be an expert cyclist, because he powered up the hills and left me in the dust. When we reached the Mission, we went on a tour of the inside. We saw many religious statues and Beautiful altars. Then we went into the courtyard, which I had never been to. It was like a little island of paradise surrounded by unbreachable walls. Inside was a green lawn, untouched by brown spots and dead leaves. Palm trees shot up like spears from the earth. "Wow, look at that fountain!" Emmanuel pointed to an amazing central fountain overflowing with clear water. We hung out in this sanctuary for a while, just taking in the beauty and hearing the fountain bubble, and then we left for the Botanic Gardens.
We arrived at the Botanic Gardens 10 minutes later. We stopped there and took a hike all all around the gardens and in the woods beyond. We saw a lot of hawks, quails, woodpeckers, and lizards. Emmanuel found a fallen tree that was spotted with thousands of holes. I told him that the tree had been used by a woodpecker. We looked up and saw another oak tree with a woodpecker on it. The woodpecker was hammering furiously, trying to make a hole in the wood.
After the gardens, we went to the Courthouse. We took a tour through the different rooms. Then we got some lunch at Tupelo Junction Cafe, and ate it in the Courtyard. Emmanuel and I then rode down to the harbor, to see all of the boats and marine shops. Emmanuel especially liked the giant Harbor Patrol boats. But we could only stay for a little while, because we had something special planned to do next. We rushed home and found the car packed with camping gear.
We set off for the Manzana Creek Trailhead. Emmanuel was so excited he kept talking the whole way there. "How long until we get there?" "Will we have to catch our food?" "Are there Anacondas In Santa Barbara?" We answered all of his eager questions patiently, but we were just as excited as him. When we got to the trailhead, we met up with some other families and explained the plan. We would hike in to a campsite, where we would camp for the night. The next day, we would hike up the creek, and when we finished exploring, we would hike back to the car.
The hike in was very exciting. There were lots of creek crossings, and where Emmanuel and I caught snakes and lizards.
When we got to the campsite, we built a fire and cooked dinner. Then we told stories around the campfire until well after dark, so we got into our sleeping bags and slept under the stars.
When Emmanuel and I woke up, we found our car packed full of beach equipment. Surfboards, boogie boards, towels and umbrellas were jammed into the back. Emmanuel and I squeezed into the back, and we set off for Rincon. When we arrived, Emmanuel and I unloaded the beach stuff and carried it down to the beach. Emmanuel put on his wetsuit using his kelp goop technique, and I showed him how to pop up on a surfboard. His prosthetic leg made things a bit more complicated, but he got it down. We grabbed a longboard and headed out.
As we sat in the lineup, we chatted about what to do if a wave came. A small bump was making its way towards us on the horizon. A wave suddenly appeared in front of us. "Paddle! paddle!" I shouted as Emmanuel swung his heavy board around and slowly paddled for the wave. The wave picked him up. Emmanuel was in the curl of the wave. "Stand up now!" I cheered. He got up on one knee and then, slowly, on both feet. He was surfing! the whole beach was cheering for Emmanuel. The wave was only knee high, but it was still the coolest wave I had ever seen. As the wave fizzled out, Emmanuel gracefully hopped off the board and paddled back out to me. I high-fived him. He was grinning from ear to ear.
Then my dog, Dakota, jumped into the water and swam out to us. She came over to Emmanuel and splashed around. It was like she was congratulating him! Emmanuel laughed and splashed her back. soon we were all splashing around in the water and laughing hysterically like little kids. Dakota high-tailed it back to shore, but before long she came back out. Emmanuel and I put her on the surfboard and pushed her into a set wave. She looked back at us with a confused face, and then, after riding for about 5 seconds, she jumped off. Emmanuel and I were laughing so hard we almost cried. This all went on and on for a long time, but it seemed so short. When we noticed it was getting darker, we caught a tandem wave in and sat on the beach to watch the sun set. It was the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen.
For the first time in two days, we slept in. I woke up at 9:00 in the morning to find Emmanuel still sleeping. I tip-toed across the hardwood floors to the kitchen, and made some scrambled eggs. Just as I was finishing, Emmanuel stepped into the kitchen. We ate the eggs in silence. We didn't really have anything planned for the day. We slowly started to discuss options, and we decided on a bike ride. I picked out Romero trail, because of the view and the fun downhill.
We rode through the huge houses of Montecito and stopped where the homes ended and the mountains began. From there, we climbed up the first steep part of the trail and began to make our way up the rest of the long trail. We stopped at a big rock and looked out on the view of Santa Barbara.
The view was amazing. We could see all the way up the coast to Goleta and UCSB, and all the way down to Ventura.
After resting and gazing at the view, Emmanuel and I rode farther up the trail. The trail turned inland. Finally we hit the 3 mile marker, where we turned around. We bombed downhill the way we came. The cold air blew across our faces and froze our ears, so Emmanuel and I had to stop and put on our jackets. "Whoohoo!" shouted Emmanuel.
We got back starving. We ordered some food from Mexican Fresh. We got a Little Pepe Burrito (not little), which we cut in half and shared.
The burrito was great. "It would be so fun to go biking again, even though it is night." Emmanuel said. "I think I know something you would like," I said.
We dragged my skateboard ramp onto the street. I showed him how to catch air off of the jump and then land without going over the handlebars. He walked his bike to the end of the street, then he got on. He pedaled as fast as he could toward the jump. Then he launched into the air, whooping with delight, and landed perfectly right in front of me. The rest of the night until 9:00, we played on the bike jump. "That is the most amazing feeling, flying through the air and becoming weightless," Emmanuel said.
We went to sleep, knowing that tomorrow we would have a great time at the beach.
I woke up to a loud beeping sound. My watch's alarm was going off. I looked at the time, and it was 6:00. Uuugh. I rolled over in my bed, trying to go back to sleep. Suddenly I bolted out of bed and woke Emmanuel up. How had I forgotten that we were going to the Channel Islands today?
I told Emmanuel to put on his waterproof prosthetic leg. My Dad drove us down to the Santa Barbara Harbor. As we pulled into the Marina 2 parking lot, we saw our friend Paul and his son Jacob motoring around in their dinghy. We shouted "Hey Paul!" and he looked over and waved. We ran down the dock to his boat, dodging seaweed and fish guts and trying not to get splinters along the way. When we arrived (thankfully unscathed) at Paul's slip, I introduced Emmanuel to Paul. They immediately liked each other.
As we helped load wetsuits, snorkels, fins, and fishing poles onto the boat, I saw that Emmanuel looked a little nervous. "What's wrong?" I said. He answered "I've never been on a boat before. I'm worried to go out so far." We reassured Emmanuel that there was nothing to fear.
We sped across the channel. Emmanuel instantly forgot his fears as we passed the red and green buoys covered in sea lions. When they barked at us for getting too close, Emmanuel laughed and imitated them.
A pod of dolphins appeared on the horizon. Emmanuel and I rushed out out of the cabin to see them. The playful dolphins rode in the wake of our boat and squealed with delight as they chased fish through the glassy water.
We passed seals, dolphins, and a blue shark on the way out. Emmanuel's fears returned a little after seeing the latter, but we assured him that they didn't bite.
We finally arrived at our destination. We hurried to put on our wetsuits. After I had put mine on, I helped Emmanuel put on his. We had rented it from a surf shop, and it had probably been used by too many careless tourists. The suit was corroded with salt and ripped up in places, making it impossible to get on. Emmanuel and I tugged so hard on the suit we thought it would break, but it still didn't slip over his legs. We tried pulling on it again, but it still wouldn't budge. I gave a final yank, And Emmanuel went toppling overboard! I dove in after him, and we came up gasping for breath. My dad and Paul helped us onto the deck. Emmanuel's wetsuit still sat in a heap, not on Emmanuel's body.
We were about to give up hope, when I slipped. I went down hard on my butt, but I was okay. "Sorry, the seaweed is just really slippery."
"That's it!" Emmanuel said, "we can make my wetsuit slippery with the kelp!"
So we took his wetsuit and smeared it with slimy kelp juice. It looked really disgusting, but Emmanuel was happy and proud. his wetsuit slipped right on. "Oh, it's cold." said Emmanuel.
We hopped in the ocean. The cold water seeped in through our wetsuits and chilled us.
As we looked around underwater, we saw that we were in a amazing place. Colorful fish darted around us. Long stalks of kelp swayed with the waves. Crabs and Lobsters crawled along on the rocky bottom. An octopus swam gracefully through the eel grass. A seal swam up and nuzzled the fins of a surprised Emmanuel.
A flash of red next to Emmanuel caught my attention. A lobster! "Grab it!" I told Emmanuel, but I forgot I was underwater, so I ended up almost drowning instead. Fortunately, Emmanuel understood, and he grabbed at the lobster. But before Emmanuel even closed his hands, the lobster was nowhere to be seen. It had swam away in the blink of an eye. Emmanuel came up empty handed and disappointed. I told him that catching lobsters is one of the hardest things in the world. I gave him some pointers, and after an hour of practice, Emmanuel wasn't coming up empty handed anymore.
After we got out of the water, we put on dry clothes and cast out our lines. Emmanuel caught some calico bass and rockfish, and I got whitefish and a big halibut. We came home and had a great dinner of lobster and fish tacos.
I woke up at 6:00 this morning (something I don't usually do) and I ran out onto the street. "Yes!" Last night, the rain turned to snow in the mountains and the mountains were now glistening white!
Emmanuel and my whole family, including our dog Dakota, packed into our tiny Prius, along with sleds and other snow toys.
When we got to the mountains, Emmanuel stepped out of the car into a winter wonderland. It was his first time seeing snow, and he was fascinated. He loved the crusty feeling of snow in his fingers and the watery taste of it. Emmanuel swore that the snow had a crispy, cold smell to it.
We all went on a hike across the mountains to find a good place to sled. We stopped at a huge hill that ended in a snow bank. We all took turns flying down the hill and then catching air off of the snow bank. The wind blew across our faces and the frost nipped at our cheeks, but we didn't care. We were having a blast. Emmanuel loved sledding down the hill at full speed.
The day had unexpectedly cleared up, and the snow melted as we scrambled back. We were freezing and soaking wet when we got back to the car. We were also hungry, because squirrels had eaten our sandwiches. On the way back home, we stopped at Cold Springs Tavern, an old restaurant from the stage coach era. Emmanuel and I both ordered the charbroiled tavern burger, and we shared some chili fries.
We got home at 6:00, twelve hours after we left for the mountains. My mom made a delicious salad and pasta. Then we all went to bed because we were all really tired. We slept like rocks.
I waited patiently for the plane to arrive. The light rain pattered on the glass window as I watched the gray sky. My cheek pressed against the cold, smooth glass. I was at LAX to pick up Emmanuel Osofu Yeboah, who would be staying with me for the next week.
Suddenly the sound of an engine aroused me from my thoughts. A large plane that said Air Uganda on it's side emerged from the dark clouds and alighted on the runway. After about 15 minutes, the passengers started to emerge from the plane. An African man stepped down, and I saw that he had a prosthetic leg. This was Emmanuel! I made my way to the welcoming gates to greet Emmanuel and help him with his baggage.
As I stepped outside, the frigid air hit me like a blast. Emmanuel sat shivering on a bench, but when he saw me, he ran up and gave me a warm hug. "Hello Emmanuel" I said.
On our drive back, I told him about Santa Barbara and he told me about Ghana. He told me that he had never been this cold before, the weather in Ghana is warm and humid, even when it rains. I told him that we might go somewhere even colder in Santa Barbara. "Where," he asked. I just smiled and said "You will like it a lot," as I gazed out the rain streaked window at the Santa Ynez Mountains, now capped with shining white ridges.
When we got home Emmanuel was wiped out. He had been awake for about 15 hours, he said, because he couldn't sleep on the plane. We set him up on our guest bed, and he slept like a rock.
I woke up at 8:00 and made a bagel, then I ate it. Then I got my stuff together and I brushed my teeth and then went to lucas battelle's house (see his blog) then mason dochterman came over (see his blog too) and we carpooled to school. Then when i got home and i did my homework and then went over to mason's house who lives a block away and he helped me with my homework and then we wached tv and youtube and stuff like that till 10:00 then we went to bed.
