Marky's Really Cool African Adventure

JUDITH M ECHOLS When I was in third grade I had to take a geography quiz and one of the questions was ‘Egypt is on what continent’? Of course, I answered Africa. The teacher marked it wrong and I promptly took my paper up to indicate to her that she had made an error. Well, she told me that Egypt was not in Africa. That Egypt was too beautiful to be in someplace dirty like Africa and that Egypt was, in fact, in the Middle East. As an Army brat who was born in Japan, I had lived in small towns and big cities and knew a little bit about the world. At home after discussing my teacher’s incredible lack of knowledge with my parents, I took my encyclopedia to school the next day to educate my teacher. In my eight year old mind she must not have known how beautiful Africa is and that Egypt is indeed there. She slammed my book shut, shoved it at me, told me the encyclopedia was wrong and I was not to bring the subject up again! I was in such a quandary and very upset. I couldn’t fathom how I was going to learn from a system that wouldn’t teach me the truth. I think it was then that I decided to challenge myself to learn what positive things the world had to teach me. I love being an experiential learner, and my son Mark and I have had many wonderful adventures. I wanted this book to expose children to the gift of travel from an African American child’s point of view with the hope that the subject would be relatable. My son Mark and I now live in Florida and we continue to travel and educate ourselves about our big beautiful home which is the world.