February 23, 2000
Seventh-graders wowed by tales of Africa
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Surrounded by stuffed heads of his many hunting trophies, Marty Cotanche wowed seventh- grade geography students with tales of African safaris. He told of his numerous trips to distant countries, including Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where he stalked and bagged big game.
He spun tales of lions, elephants, water buffalo and hippos, giving the students a taste of the life, economy, politics and history of areas that are just colors on a map to them.
"You can't even imagine the life over there," said Cotanche, who began taking safaris a few years ago with his wife. "Only in the cities is there any Westernization, where a city with a population of one million has 850,000 people living in squalor in tin shacks."
"But in the rural areas, until we take our values over there, they are happy. We perceive them as poor, destitute or deprived but they don't see themselves as that."
Jennifer Irway also gave a presentation and slide show of life in Africa, which she learned about during her month-long mission trip to Zimbabwe two years ago. She accompanied Dr. Paul Kropf, a local optometrist who took more than 3,000 pairs of donated glasses for distribution to people there.
A registered nurse, Irway also worked in a medical clinic and helped build a home during her stay there. She told students that something as simple as receiving a pair of glasses, which cost nearly eight times a person's annual earnings, altered lives.
"People would say they had to light a third candle to be able to see at night, so they knew they needed glasses," said Irway, who works as a personal trainer at the Grand Traverse Athletic Club. "There are widespread cataracts because of the sun and no one has sunglasses. Here, cataracts are easily cured, but there they cause blindness because there is so little medical care."
The living geography and culture lesson captured the students' attention as more than 350 Traverse City East Junior High School seventh-graders attended the Cotanche and Irway presentations. It is a life where people eat cornmeal mush three times a day (if there is enough food) and only eat meat during celebrations.
In most of Africa, only the very rich have cars. The rest of the people have no transportation and everyone either walks to their destinations or waits for a bus. The average income is $400 a year and building a house takes three years and all steps are done by hand.
Trying to grasp these huge cultural and economic differences without experiencing them was a challenge for students.
"I liked hearing about how a lot of people go over there to help people," said Claire Gibbons, a seventh-grade student. "It makes you think about how less fortunate these people are than us."
Students were also impressed to hear how important religion was to people of all ages in Africa. In areas of abject poverty, both Cotanche and Irway told students how prayer and religion keep people going. Many of the clinics, schools and orphanages in Africa are run by religious organizations and inspire loyalty and reverence among the people they help.
"I was surprised to hear that even if they had no food, they get through the day by praying," said Dominic Marica. "It seems kind of weird to us to kill an elephant, but there they use all of it, eat all of the meat and don't waste anything."