School Field Trip to "Native Land".

"Africa" - if you look closely you can see the shadows - I honestly believe

they were watching a big screen TV in there. Anytime kids came

near the tent they came out and told them to get away.

A SMALL sampling of the magnitude of people there.

Cowboy Willie and his horse.

Friday was Heather's second grade field trip - since the Senate was out of session, I was able to chaperone. I was assigned Heather and three other girls from her class and off we went to Native Land at Bull Run Park. When I looked it up on-line it looked like an interesting place. I noted the warning of no water and packing a blanket and stuffed both into my backpack. Off we went to Native Land! When we got there, we had already missed the first "act" of the day and thus had to start at the end and work our way back. The place was SWARMING with kids. I seriously believe every school in Fairfax County was there. The teacher told me they had cancelled two days that week due to rain and thus everyone was there then. We went and experienced the "comedy act". This consisted of a cowboy - Cowboy Willie. Cowboy Willie did not seem very experienced to me. He kept missing with his lasso during his tricks and after the third time it became apparent that it was not part of the act. He brought out his horse which was a dog. The kids thought it was very, very funny. I didn't ask Cowboy Willie for his autograph. After that we decided to go to the trading post and buy the crap they sold - Heather bought a drum and a sticky lizard. Two of the other girls in the group bought sticky lizards. The fourth girl opted out of the sticky lizard. We then attempted to move to the Native act which was the whole reason we were there I assumed. It consisted of two indians and a teepee. The kids were not allowed to go in the teepee. We waited for a bit watching about 100-150 kids run around in a circle like crazed midgets. I was scared. The girls were scared. They said lets go to lunch so we went to act three and waited for that act and ate. This was "Africa". Africa consisted of two huts and three black people (I'm not trying to sound racist). I had to explain to the girls that they were african and not natives and not indians. Heather wanted to know why they had the same rainboots from Target as her. We settled down and waited for the show. After the show, the girls started begging if they could go back to the bus. The fourth girl who did not opt for the sticky lizard purchase also started to have a meltdown about how she did not have a sticky lizard. We ended up going back to the bus. I asked Heather what she learned at Native Land - she said - I learned that Africans have my rainboots and they have two-sided drums. I kid you not - So.....I'm not a big fan of Native Land. Apparently next month is a trip to the zoo. Can't wait (you may detect some sarcasm in that comment).