Gibson’s World

A sandfish despite its name is a type of skink (see Super Skinks).  They “swim” in the soft sands of the desert and inhabit Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East.  Often times, you will see a dart of a lizard and then it will be gone into the sand.  This is usually a sandfish.

Sandfish are usually about seven to eight inches long with a tail shorter than the body which is very unusual for lizards.  They are mainly yellow/gold colored with black cross-bands and white sides and belly.  Sandfish also have short legs and a long, pointy snout.  To keep the sand out of its eyes, nose, and lungs, sandfish have very small eyes and nostrils. Because sandfish have such unusual characteristics, they are commonly sold as pets.

Sandfish have some very interesting behaviors.  They are insectivorous and eat three to four times a week with 4 crickets per meal.  To hunt they emerge from the burrow.  They can also hunt by listening to the vibration of insects walking over its burrow.  Then the sandfish will attack.  Since it is very hot in the desert, sandfish have developed the ability to “swim” through the sand in order to cool down.  They also use this method to escape predators like snakes (vipers). Scientists found out only in 2000 that sandfish created less friction than polished steel, glass, or nylon which enables them to swim through the sand so well.

While we visited Dubai, we went on a “desert safari.”  On it, we saw a sandfish, so of course we caught it.  I was amazed at how fast it could disappear into the sand.  Sandfish are very interesting animals and I am glad that we could see, catch, and hold one in the wild.

Jerash is an ancient Roman city 48 km. north of Amman.  It was inhabited for about 6500 years by the Romans and at one point had 20,000 people living there.

If you went to Jerash, the first thing that you would notice would probably be the columns.  They are huge and are in rows.  There is also a hippodrome which held chariot races and gladiator fights.  Nearly 1/2 of Jerash’s population would attend these events every day.  Other items in Jerash were fountains, a city wall, towers, the oval plaza, amphitheaters, and gates.

Jerash developed into a big town in the 4th Century B.C., but it wasn’t until the 3rd Century A.D. that the “Golden Age” took place.  The Golden Age was the most prosperous time in Jerash and it was then that Jerash held 20,000 people.  Then, in 749 A.D., a series of earthquakes took place which caused serious damage to Jerash and the population declined to about 4,000 people.

Today, Jerash is one of the largest and well-preserved ancient Roman cities.  The reason for this is that Jerash was covered in sand, so it wasn’t exposed to wind or rain.  It was rediscovered in 1806 when Ulrich Jasper Sutzen (a visitor) found part of it.

While we were in Jordan, we visited Jerash.  We saw not only the ruins, but also got to see lots of animals.  We ended up seeing Starred Agamas, a Gecko, a lizard, and a Red Whip Snake (Our guide had never seen a snake before in Jerash).  Jerash and Dana National Reserve (see Sterling’s report) were my two favorite places in Jordan and I hope to return some day.

Death-stalker Scorpions are super-cool arachnids. They are one of the world?s most dangerous scorpions and kill a few people each year especially young children and old people. The reason for the name Death-stalker is probably because when it bites you, death is stalking you, but some people keep them as pets, anyways!

Although these creatures are highly feared, they are not completely bad. One good thing about Death-stalkers is that scientists think that parts of the death-stalkers? venom may be able to treat brain tumors and diabetes. Luckily or unluckily, Death-stalkers are very rare, so not many people get bitten by them, but the medicines to cure brain tumors and diabetes are harder to find.

Death-stalkers are super interesting looking animals. They are light yellow colored with black on the end of its long, slender tail and grey on its back. The black on the end of the tail is not always present which only confuses identification. When talking about Death-stalkers, most scientists use the scientific name (Leiurus Quinquestriatus) as not to confuse it with other dangerous species of scorpions. The scientific name (Latin) (Leiurus Quinquestriatus) translates to ?Five-striped Smooth-tail?.

Death-stalkers are native to northern Africa and the Middle East and live in natural burrows and under stones in deserts and scrublands, so right as we got to Dana National Reserve, Jordan, I started flipping over rocks. I was very excited when under the first rock that I flipped over was a Death-stalker Scorpion! Right away I started taking Macro pictures of it and looking at it. Death-stalker Scorpions are really interesting creatures and I am glad that I got to see one in the wild.

Common vine snakes are really interesting snakes for many reasons. A common vine snake is a long, bright green snake with a pink tongue and a thin, pointed snout. Common Vine Snakes inhabit South India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the northern part of mainland Southeast Asia and are

usually found in forests, gardens, or bushes.

A mahout is a person who drives an elephant. A mahout is assigned an elephant when he is a young boy. The boy will stay with that elephant for the elephant’s whole life. While the mahout is with the elephant, they will give the elephant baths, ride on it, give it lots of food, and work with the elephant. Some of the things that the elephant might have to do are moving huge logs, begging on the streets for food, or even taking part in religious ceremonies.

Mahouts are usually nice to their elephants, but they can often be mean. They might overuse their anlius, not give the elephant enough food, or work the elephant way too much. To guide an elephant, the mahout must use a tool called an anlius. An anlius is a short stick with a sharp hook on the end. The mahouts poke the elephant’s head with the point of the anlius. They poke the elephant in order to get the elephant to turn, go, stop, or slow down. While the mahout is poking the elephant, he must also say “by!” When an elephant feels the anlius and hears a loud “BY!” it knows that he has to start moving.

While we were in Chiang Rai, we got to ride elephants and meet the mahouts. The mahouts lived with their families next to the elephants’ stalls. Every morning, the mahouts would wake up, give the elephants a bath, give them some bananas, sugarcane, and water, and then we would ride the elephants for a few hours. Riding the elephants in Chiang Rai was really fun and I hope we do it again sometime.

Asian shopping and American shopping are really different. So far, we have been to markets in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Cambodia. This is how they are different.

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Asian markets are made up of lots of different little tiny stores that are really close together. Each “store” is usually small, and owned and run by one person. People also don’t have refrigerators, so they need to come to the market every day. In this picture, a man is selling live ducks on the street.

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You can buy all sorts of things in an Asian market. They sell pig noses, pig tongues, pig hearts, chicken heads, live ducks, live chickens, live eels in a bucket, and much more. They definitely don’t like to waste any parts from an animal. In some places, certain streets can be for different items. There are shoe streets with people only selling shoes, dress streets, lantern streets, metal streets, toy streets, flower streets, and even fish streets.

Since there are so many stores and everybody wants you to buy from their store, you can bargain with almost all of the stores. One time, my dad was in a store when a lady tried to sell him something. At first, it was 350 yuan, then it was 250 yuan, and then they asked him to write down what he would pay for it. In some places, though, they would increase the price if you seemed interested. This picture (above) is of a lantern street in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The stores need to be so close together because local people walk to the market every day and the more room it takes up, the longer people would have to walk. The market is also easy to walk to because it is downtown. Most of the people don’t have a car to drive to a Super Stop and Shop or Walmart with every 1 or 2 weeks to fill up their car with food. If Walmart took over, fewer people would have jobs and there would probably be more homeless people. There are Walmarts in some of the big cities, though. This picture (above) is of the flower market we went to in Bangkok.

Asian markets and American markets are different for many reasons. I think it was really interesting to get to see the differences between Asian and American markets.

Gibson’s Shadow Puppet Play

Once upon a time there was a king named King Joe and a queen named Queen Thickbrick. King Joe and Queen Thickbrick had a son. His name was Prince Baaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. His nickname was Peanut Butter (P.B.).

One day, Peanut Butter decided to go into the forest in search of a flower for Queen Thickbrick. While he was searching, he came across a jewel. As he was reaching down for it, he heard a loud hiiiiiiiiisssssss and saw a huge three-headed King Cobra coming towards him. He immediately ran back and forgot about the jewel. While he was running, he saw a lotus and a daisy but he was too scared to pick them up. When he got back, he told his father the news. King Joe told Peanut Butter he would get their eagle to come with them in search of the two flowers and the jewel.

First, they got to the lotus now guarded by a pink demon. The King thought it was so beautiful though, so he told them that he thought that they should hunt the demon for the lotus. They fought the demon and finally got the lotus, but noticed that the eagle had been killed. Then, they found the daisy, but it was guarded by another demon. They killed that demon too and got the daisy.

Finally, they found the jewel now guarded by the same huge three-headed King Cobra. The King and Prince fought and fought. Finally, they killed the snake. But the Prince noticed that the King had also been killed. Peanut Butter was really sad as he picked up the jewel and walked home. When he got home, he gave the items to the Queen. She was also sad about the news, but after awhile, they both got over it and lived happily ever after.

Check out the video of this great shadow puppet play.

Once upon a time, there was an animal called a mammoth-horned doggie. They looked like a dog, except they had a horn sticking out of their head and its back. The two horns connected and another horn came out of the two in the middle. They looked like this. The tip of their tail also had a sharp bit of horn, so that they could cut people with it if they were attacked. The mammoth-horned doggies were unusual because they could burrow, stay under water for up to two hours, climb trees, inject venom when they bite, poke at you with their horn, and run up to 45 miles per hour.

Once, there lived a mammoth-horned doggie named Scallop. Scallop lived in Beijing with her three other brothers and sisters named Murphy (her brother), Magazine (her first sister), and Duchess (her second sister). They all liked Beijing. It had lots of skyscrapers, it was flat, the sky was usually cloudy, and there were lots of bikes, but one day, a tragedy happened. The government said that mammoth-horned doggies were no longer allowed in Beijing because Boo, an evil mammoth-horned doggy, was eating too many people. All of the mammoth-horned doggies were really sad to leave Beijing.

Scallop, Murphy, Magazine, and Duchess all were forced to move, so they chose to go to Hong Kong. When they got there, they were amazed at how many shops there were and how clear the sky was. They also liked how there were lots of birds for them to eat. They were really glad that Hong Kong didn’t ban all mammoth-horned doggies. While Scallop and her three brothers and sisters were there, they started a baseball league. Scallop, Murphy, Duchess, and Magazine all played in the league and all turned out to be really good. Eventually, they were so glad that they had moved to Hong Kong and they lived happily ever after.

Before I went to Hong Kong, I thought that Hong Kong was just a city in China or Japan or somewhere, but after I went there, I realized it is its own country. It isn’t completely obvious that it is a separate country though.  Hong Kong is small – you could fit two Hong Kongs into Bullo River Station.  And Hong Kong is right next to China, which plans to take it over by 2047. 

These are some reasons why I think Hong Kong is a separate country.   Hong Kong has its own currency, its own language and its own legal system.  You also need a visa to go from Hong Kong to China or from China to Hong Kong.  However, you don’t need one to go from city to city within mainland China. 

People in Hong Kong believe that they are a separate country.  In the Special Olympics, there was a team from Hong Kong and a different from the China.  The Special Olympics was in Shanghai and, even there, they thought Hong Kong was a separate country.

The Three Gorges Project is really interesting.  It involves building a dam on the Yangtze River that will be longest dam ever in the world on the Yangtze River. It will cost 25 billion dollars and will be used for flood control, power generation, and navigation, but over 1 million people will have to be moved because the water level will have risen.

On December 14th, 1994, the Chinese announced that construction of the Three Gorges Dam had begun.  When we visited it, it was mostly done, and the government says it will be done in 2009.  It is a really, really big construction project, using more concrete than any other man-made project in the history of the world.

The dam is 2.3 kilometers long, which is about 18 times longer than it is from home plate to center field in Fenway Park, and is 181 meters tall.  The dam has a five step ship lock, which is 1,607 meters long.  A ship lock is like a bath tub that boats come into, with gates behind it and in front of it.   Once the doors are closed, they pump water in or out to move the ship up or down, before opening the front door and letting the ship move to the next lock.  It took our boat about three hours to get through five locks.

The dam will also have a ship elevator to lift smaller boats more quickly, but it isn’t ready yet.  The elevator can lift 3,000 ton ships in about 45 minutes and is the biggest ship elevator in the world.   While it is lifting a 3,000 ton ship, it is also lifting 7,000 tons of water so that the boat can float on water as it comes up or down.

The power generator is so strong that it could provide enough energy for 4 to 5 New York Cities.  The dam includes two power generators.  It provides energy by using turbines that water runs through to make electricity without pollution. 

The dam is really cool and it’s one of my favorite things in China.