Uganda Pen Pals

A few months ago, a friend had posted via Facebook about a pen pal project that was available through Fitness For Africa. After doing a bit of research, I sent in an application to have my children approved and matched. It was a very easy process and we were matched within a week. The reason for the application is to match your child with a child that has the same interests. Pictures of the children are also exchanged during the application process to make it more personal for the kids. Letters are exchanged once a month via email with the opportunity to Skype once a year. Although, we missed out on the Skype session this year, both of my kids have enjoyed exchanging letters with their new friends! While this is fun way for the kids to develop possible lifelong friendships, it has an educational perspective, as well. That's a win-win!

 A pen pal project for women is also available. There is an application process required for this as well as a 10 dollar monthly donation to help sponsor a literacy class for women of the community. I have not looked into this as much as I would like, but I believe that you are sent an email address to the individual you are matched with and exchange letters in that manner. I am planning to send in my application for this project soon!

If this sounds like something you or your kids would be interested in, you can visit their website @ https://fitnessforafrica.org/ to learn more. There will be a pull down menu, you then click on the project you are interested in. The applications are also available on their website to download.

Mother's Day at Memphis Zoo

We took a 3 hour road trip to the Memphis Zoo with 3 "to do's" at the top of the kids' list- seeing the panda bears, feeding the giraffes and interacting with the stingrays at Stingray Bay. I think we could have skipped every other exhibit but these three and they would have been ok with it. These three things ended being my top 3!

There are currently only four US zoos that exhibit pandas. Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego and The National Zoo in Washington D.C. The panda bears were near the front entrance so it was one of our first stops. They are a favorite animal of ours and we were excited to get to see them in person. They sat carefree chewing away on bamboo shoots and didn't seem to mind posing for pictures. Cutest things ever! We went on to see grizzly bears, elk, meerkats, swans, snow leopards, penguins, and even a red panda. Somewhere around 2800 animals call the Memphis Zoo home.

We loved every minute of feeding the giraffes and they were so friendly! We didn't have a huge wait even though the line was long. They allow several people on deck at a time. There is a 5 dollar fee, though, for the lettuce. Their tongues are long and rough and they don't mind slurping the lettuce right out of your hands. We were having so much fun though, that we didn't even mind the slobber . The kids were disappointed when they realized after 60 seconds, the giraffes had already eaten all the lettuce they had. I'm pretty sure they would have bought all available lettuce if we had allowed it.

On to Stingray Bay! I'm not sure how many zoos offer the experience of touching and interacting with the stingrays but for us, it was an awesome experience. Tickets to this exhibit are an extra 3 dollars but we were not disappointed. Its not everyday that you get to interact with stingrays! Once inside, there was a huge "touch" tank full of stingrays and a few sharks. There is no time limit so we were allowed to stay as long as we wanted. Stingrays were swimming all around the tank and would come right up to us. There was one stingray who was a little feisty and would almost give a scare every time he pounced by.

The kids are animal lovers and avid Animal Planet watchers. Meerkat Manor is one of their favorite shows. They had the opportunity to see a few of these guys along with bush babies, they are another favorite on their animal list. A black panther gave us a show with his "screams." A gorilla sat big and tall staring at us out of the corner of his eye every few seconds. We watched as a river otter ate his lunch and as a grizzly bear stretched himself out on a rock for a nap in the warm sun. The Memphis Zoo did not disappoint! We will definitely be going back!