This week I took a look through the past of mankind on a website called Out of Eden, created by National Geographic. A journalist set out on a decade long experiment in 2013. The journalist Paul Salopek, walked in the footsteps of the first humans who migrated out of Africa in the stone age. With all of Paul’s photos, videos, and audios, a global record of human life was created. Technology today allows us to rediscover our world and how those first humans made earth ours.
As I explored through the website and took my own walk, I learned some pretty amazing things and believe that everyone should have insight into what exactly this website entails. In school, students do learn about migration and how life started on learning but never get to fully dive into how it all really happened. Using this website in the classroom is a great way to teach students about all the steps the first race of humans went through as they started migrating. Having students dive into the Out of Eden Walk website they’ll be able to really understand what it was like during migration in the stone age. Three journies that I took on my own as I took a walk through the website were Chapter 1 “Out of Africa”, Chapter 2 “Holy Lands”, and Editors Pick “Troubled Currents”. I would incorporate these into my lessons as a teacher before even letting my class explore the website on their own.
While going through each of the chapters I decided to use the option Editors Pick to read an article about Salopek’s journies. Starting with Chapter 1, I read the article Milestone 6: Red Sea. It was day 108, mile 500 of Paul’s journey. He recorded the landscape and a person that he had met. He was on the Syrian ship and went into one of the cabins. He recorded that in that particular cabin it was strung with salt-hazed Christmas tree bulbs. A stuffed red heart was hanging above the bed swaying left and right but would stop in the middle like it was being held. The ship was traveling through the Red Sea, over crashing waves yet looking through a porthole, Africa was calm & quiet. Paul Salopek would record about a person he met & the landscape of his surroundings every hundred miles that he traveled.
Chapter 2 “Holy Lands” was Paul’s journey from July of 2013 until July of 2014, a whole year! The Holy Lands that he walked included Jordan, West Bank, Saudi Arabia, and Isreal. The Editor’s Pick article that I read over was Exit. Paul and his walking partner were going through the lands, snapping pictures of the beautiful landscapes, and learning about each other. They would sing, talk, and enjoy each other’s company. On the website, Paul added the audio of his Israeli walking partner singing. Listening to him sing made the days seem easier as they went through caves that the first humans once lived in. (The audio can be found on SoundCloud by searching “The Kukal Road” or by clicking here)
The final article I read is Troubled Currents. Children in the United States do not know what it is like to not have fresh water to drink or cook with. This is something important to teach students about because plenty of places around the world have to go through their lives with no clean water. Having my students read this article can bring their attention to why we should not take having water for granted and can bring awareness to those countries that do not have access to water like we do. In this article, Paul explains what water really is and how humans are born onto a water planet and have a love for the water. Although there is water all around us and the globe, water is not the same for everyone. Here in the U.S., we have plenty of water to drink but in the village of Rajasthan, they have little to none to drink. The water there is not clean nor fresh.
The Out of Eden Walk, Paul Salopek’s journey is a website that not only teachers can have their students go through but it a great read-through for anyone. Learning about how the human race evolved and lived compared to now is something people should have the knowledge of.
