We were donated some clothes, so we decided to have a jumble sale, along with some home made cakes and drinks, and managed to raise the money for the entrance fee.
On Friday, 18 teenage girls were excitedly waiting for the minibus to come and collect us.
The trip was a special treat for them, as they had never had the chance to see such animals before. It was also a day of fun, time with friends and a change from the usual routine. Such adventures lift the spirits and create wonderful memories. Before I left home, I prayed that as well as being a day to deepen friendships, it would be a day where they would enjoy Creator God.
The trip round the zoo was accompanied by many squeals, shrieks and exclamations of delight. I am sure you can imagine the noise 18 high-pitched squeals make! They ran from the ostrich, played with the tigrillo through the wire, and talked with the parrots. The crocodiles and giant turtles were greatly admired. But by far the most exciting were the monkeys. Some of them were allowed to roam free, and they caused endless entertainment. These cheeky monkeys loved to sit on heads, steal food, play with shoe laces and tease while hanging from tree branches. It was hard to drag the girls away.
A picnic lunch followed, and then a refreshing dip in the swimming pool. The girls all had a wonderful time.
Later, when they were posting their photos on Facebook, one of the girls wrote, "Perfect Creator God, precious animals."
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| Tigrillo |
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| Monkey |
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| Tigrillo |
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| Picnic |
Dear Andrea,
ReplyDeleteAs a woman who loves to travel, perhaps there’s one story you’re afraid to remember. It’s the story of two women, Marina Menegazzo and María José Coni, both in their early twenties, who in 2016 packed their bags, hugged their friends and family goodbye, and set out to see the world.
Those two women never returned home.
Marina and Maria José were together when they were murdered in a small beach town in Ecuador, some three thousand kilometers from their homes in Mendoza, Argentina.
The news of their tragic death reached far beyond those who had ever known them personally.
Among those who reacted were women travelers around the world. Women who love to travel easily understand why two women would leave home in search of adventure, filled with a desire to uncover new cultures and a thirst for new experiences.
However, in the outcry that followed their deaths, some furious online commentators expressed anger that Marina and María José had taken the risk of traveling without male companions. They asked how two young women could be allowed to travel "alone," even though they were together.
Perhaps it was that question that hurt us the most. As women who travel alone, we turned to one another and said:
“Wait...They are wrong.”
Because we know that women can travel alone. We can travel by ourselves, or we can travel with friends in groups small or large. We can do it as freely as men do, and have positive experiences that change our lives forever. In huge ways and small ways, our travel experiences enrich us and shape our future.
And we knew that we had to celebrate that women can travel alone. All three of us on the WTLA editorial team are involved in the publishing world, and we know that one of the best ways to get a message out is in a book. But we knew we couldn’t write that book alone. We had to write it alone together. Which is why we need you to help us with the 2017 Women Travel Latin America Anthology, Alone Together.
Alone Together will be a book of travel writing by women and for women. We want to inspire women to travel to Latin America and beyond. We want to help others see how they can travel safely and confidently. And we want to remind those who haven’t wandered in a while exactly why they love traveling so much.
Share your stories with us; your unexpected triumphs, your moments of laughter or tears, the risks you took, the people you met, and the invisible barriers you broke along the way. From Mexico to Argentina, from El Salvador to Brazil, we want to read about your experiences. We know every single one of you has a story worth publishing.
Please join us in our goal of showing others that we can, indeed, travel alone - together.
- Karen, Victoria and Emma
Editorial team at Women Travel Latin America (http://www.womentravellatinamerica.com)
Find out how to enter the 2017 Women Travel Latin America writing competition on our website. It’s free to enter – the top prize winner will receive US$100 and the best thirty entries will be included in the anthology, published by the Bogotá International Press.
Visit our submission tips page for more information.
Please share this call for submissions with other women travelers! There are two easy ways to share, you can simply forward this email or use the share buttons on our website.
We look forward to hearing from you!