A Latin American Feast in East Africa

Surely one of the most enjoyable ways to learn about other cultures is to sample their FOOD. My students and I have been studying South & Central America in our geography class, and I suggested to the parents that we hold a themed pot-luck meal. The response was enthusiastic, so we all started browsing recipes online. Oh boy, so many tempting choices!

And the result was a delightful Saturday lunch together with lots of mouth-watering dishes.

The teachers, students, and little brothers pose with the "class project".

Warning: Continued scrolling may send you running to the kitchen. Because here is the final menu:

Seco de Carne con Tamarindo (Beef Stew in Tamarind Sauce)

Pupusas con Curtido y Salsa Roja (Corn Fritters with Coleslaw and Salsa)

Feijoada (Black Bean & Mango Stew) with Pao de Queijo (Cheese Bread) 

Empanadas, choice of meat or bean/veggie filling

Hungry yet?

Not pictured are some neat fermented drinks: pineapple, hibiscus, and tamarind.

We had desserts, too: Baked bananas, Brigadieros (chocolate-caramel candies), and my first attempt at a mousse. (It didn't come out quite right, but hey--It set, I was able to remove it from the mold, and most importantly, it was saturated with passion fruit!)

Thank you, parents, for putting in the effort to make this such a fun event--and for involving your kids in the preparations. I think they enjoyed it all the more for that. (Note to those reading this in more developed countries: Every component of every dish was made from scratch. No shortcuts are available here.)

Next semester we'll study Asia, so who knows...!


Photo credit (for all but the last two) goes to Michael Nicholls. Thanks, Michael!

Airplane Field Trip

We had a real treat today--a guided tour of the SIL/MAF airplane!

Some colleagues from the south of the country are in town this week, and they traveled in style--the organization's five-passenger plane. (The airplane means that the group could make the journey within a single day, which helps these meetings happen at all!) The plane is flown by our colleague Steve, who is an experienced missionary pilot and like his plane now serves both Wycliffe and Mission Aviation Fellowship.

While they're here, Steve agreed to give the kids an airplane show-&-tell. We gathered at the learning center, where Steve taught us how an airplane flies, explaining the various parts involved. (Did you know all those flaps are not called flaps? Ailerons, elevators, the rudder, spoilers... and yes, some are flaps...) He also shared about the process of becoming a pilot and specifically a missionary pilot. He sure had the kids' attention!

But the classroom time was just a warm-up for the main event, when we all drove down the street to Musoma's air field to check out the plane.

Look at those smiles! These kids are no strangers to air travel, but here was a plane just the right size to examine in detail.

And of course, they had Mr. Steve to actually show them how everything works.

He demonstrated all of the... flaps (a category name is just easier!)... that he'd explained in the classroom.

He even let the kids take turns climbing into the cockpit!

Talk about best field trip ever!

Afterwards, a couple young flying enthusiasts (and their dads) got to go for a ride in the plane. Back at the learning center, we heard them coming and rushed outside to wave as they flew overhead. Don't know if they saw us, but I do know that flight made the day for those boys!

Happy Australia Day!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Aussie! Oi!

Aussie! Oi!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Had you visited the learning center today, you could have heard this chant ringing out loud & clear throughout the morning. Why? It's Australia Day!

One of the joys of working on an international team is sharing each other's holidays. It's especially good for the missionary kids, giving them a fun way to remember their passport country. For their friends, it's a great enrichment of their multicultural life!

Yesterday my teammate Kelly helpfully reminded me about Australia Day, and we invited all the kids to wear Australia stuff (including the colors green & gold). As always, some remembered and some forgot, so I supplied everyone with paper crafts--flags and koala masks. Our two Australian students even brought their big flag from home.

I am told that the classic way to celebrate Australia Day is to enjoy a barbecue on the beach with family and friends. So I decided to move our chai time from the veranda down to the edge of the lake. Not quite the same, but a deviation from the routine always feels special.

Of course, koalas gravitate toward trees...

And if the oldest koala climbs a tree, the others will follow!

Took a while, but they all made it.

Whether legitimate or borrowed, we all had a blast showing off our Aussie pride!

Studying Aquatic Life at the World's 2nd Largest Lake

Lake Victoria is HUGE, more like a small sea than a lake. You'd think it would be a great location for  teaching kids marine biology, right? Not so much.

I was reflecting on this irony as I planned for this semester's science. Last semester, when we studied birds, we were able to take advantage of East Africa's rich variety of birds to bring our classroom studies to life. And here we are, right next to this huge lake... surely we can at least comb the beach for tide pools?

The problem is that Lake Victoria (along with most other East African lakes) is home to the bilharzia parasite. Contracting bilharzia is a pretty nasty experience, so I'm told. So we won't even get our feet wet. Sigh.

But perhaps we can do so figuratively? The textbook we're using is no help sometimes. We just finished our chapter on fish, and it suggests experimenting with the affects of water temperature on pet goldfish. We have a lake full of tilapia, nile perch, and a bunch of other things, but we have no pet store that sells aquarium fish. Plus, I'm slightly disturbed by the idea of intentionally messing with live fish.

However, I have no problem messing with an already dead fish! If we can't do the recommended activity, let's introduce the classic biology project: dissection!

We had already been intrigued by certain aspects of fish anatomy (Did you know they have nostrils? Four of them?), so even my more skeptical students were willing to give the idea a chance.

Now is when our proximity to the lake finally pays off: it is super easy to get a fish. The day before I wanted it, I asked my gardener to purchase a sizable fish first thing in the morning. He stopped by a fishermen's landing spot (not far from my house) and brought me a nice fresh nile perch--for about $4.

Love Ellie's face (on left, pink headband)

Just to be clear, I know nothing about fish. I last dissected one in high school. So I'm very thankful for the internet and the nice guide full of photos that I found. With that help we were able to identify the major organs.

"And there's the heart..."

We were especially interested in the swim bladder--this "balloon" we'd read about that enables the fish to control its depth in the water. I was very pleased to find the thing intact, still inflated. We successfully floated it in a tub of water; believe me this is very cool.

Throughout the operation, I made sure the kids knew they could take a break. I remember feeling squeamish about this stuff! In fact, I gave them the same option I took when my cat was being cut open on this very table--escape to the nearby living room furniture. All the kids were interested to see the various parts of the fish, but some appreciated my warnings of, "I'm going to try to take this out now," and they'd retreat. Towards the end it was sometimes just me and the boys. :)

But they always came back to see each new discovery! I'm very proud of them.

Besides, at their age pronouncements like, "This is the grossest thing we've ever done!" are very positive! (And I heard that several times.) I bet they'll remember how fish breathe through their gills, too.

Meanwhile, my educational experience continues: I'm going to try to learn some easy ways to cook fish!

Archaeology Dig

I love history. If I have anything to say about it, my students will share that fascination! But how to pass it on? That's a question I continually ask myself.

We started our new semester this week (Whoop!), and I've been entrusted with some new students to brainwash into thinking history is the best thing ever. Meaning, I haven't taught them this subject before, and I have the next five months to give them a basic framework for the whole of human history.

As with these kids' older siblings, I began by asking them to think about how we find out about the past. (Archaeologists Dig for Clues is a fabulous book for this, by the way.) This time I decided to finally stage our own dig!

Ready to begin our dig!
(Sadly, we were missing one student who was at home convalescing.)

This girl has quite an eye for anything that stands out. She found all sorts of interesting rocks in addition to the objects I placed in the dig site!

Discoveries!

We practiced carefully brushing dirt away from a find... and recording its location on a chart.

We've found so much stuff!

Here are the proud archaeologists--back in the "lab", writing up their conclusions.

Well, the kids loved it. Shoot, I loved it. (Later I found out that both of them rejected any suggestion that their teacher may have hidden the "artifacts" for them to find. Lol, I promise I didn't lie to them! I guess it felt very real!)

One of my jr. archaeologists expressed this as we returned to the classroom (something he's repeated several times in these first history and science lessons): "Oh boy, I already knew what I want to do when I grow up, but now I'm getting all these other good ideas, too... How am I going to choose?"

Mission accomplished. I'm in the business of complicating kids' career choices by exposing them to more fascinating aspects of our world than they can handle!

My Creative Kids

My students are a fun, caring, brilliant, crazy, and creative bunch of kids. When they get an opportunity to pour themselves into a topic, we adults get a treat! Here are a couple examples from the kids (ages 7-10) I taught this semester.

Our history focus was the Middle Ages, and the kids dove into preparing medieval food and costumes. Parents and siblings joined in the fun, too! My students also wrote a play set during the time period, and they had a blast performing it with stick puppets. 

(The play described the misadventures of a peasant who broke the law by dressing above his station--it was a riot!)

(As you can see, each student also designed a coat of arms.)

Here we are, looking like we just stepped out of a time machine! (Right?!)

Meanwhile, the students were learning all sorts of things about plants with my co-teacher, Sarah. For our end of semester program they decided to showcase their science class with a skit... and oh my goodness, we in the audience absolutely loved it. Fortunately, cameras were rolling, so you can see it, too! 

(In the first half, the kids explain how plants grow from seeds--fairly straightforward, but it's fun to hear them pull out the scientific vocabulary. Then in the second half they demonstrate how different variables can affect plant growth: what a gem!)

Lake Flies Again

Every house has its drawbacks, right? Here in Musoma, it's not too difficult to find lakefront property. (Just one of the perks of a town located on a peninsula.) I am privileged to enjoy my house on the world's second largest lake and the beautiful sunsets just outside my back porch.

taken about this time last year

But, like I said, there are always drawbacks. We in Musoma pay for our picturesque location by suffering seasonal (i.e., returning, over and over again) plagues of LAKE FLIES. If you aren't familiar with this useless creature, take a look at the post from my memorable introduction to the species.

In fact, if the term "lake flies" doesn't make you cringe, take a look at the post anyway. You need context for what I'm about to show you.

This week we were invaded by massive swarms of lake flies, one of the worst assaults I've seen in a while. While we adults went about sweeping out the classrooms (as much as possible) and, in general, trying not to inhale or swallow the tiny insects swirling everywhere, guess what the kids did?

They did what creative, resourceful kids do: They used the lake flies to create games.

First game: Grab handfuls of the insects from where they've collected, say in my windowsills, and throw them at each other. We don't get snow in Musoma, after all. This first game was soon outlawed, when certain students responded poorly to receiving clouds of bugs directly in their faces.

Second game: Build a lake-fly man. Again, we have no snow. Although plenty of building material was available on my porch, the kids soon abandoned this second game. Little dead bugs don't mold or stack very well.

Third game: Run through lake fly swarms with mouths wide open, to see who can capture the most and keep them in their mouth the longest.

I kid you not. 
Seriously, how could I make this up?

See the cloud of specks against the background of the tree? Lake flies. See what my students are doing? I told you I wasn't making this up.

All through the morning break, I'd hear, "Cloud up!" and the kids would ready themselves to one side of an isolated lake fly swarm. They'd wait for the right moment, when someone would yell, "Cloud down!" and they'd charge through, mouths stretched open.

And yes, they found it disgusting. That must have been part of the appeal, because they'd run back and do it again. Kids came back into class complaining about their empty water bottles, because they needed to "swallow down the ones still stuck" in their throats.

Yeah, I have nothing else to say!

Investing in the Next Generation

The missionary kids I teach have to be some of the most awesome kids on the planet. I treasure the days when a window opens into their hearts and I see how God is growing them. Last week I gave one of my students (age 9) a choice of writing topics, and he chose to imagine his life as an adult. Here is his composition:

Braden at Age 35

My name is Braden Gilmore, and I live in Africa. My job is translating the Bible with SIL in Tanzania, following my parents' footsteps. I own a float plane, and I fly to remote villages to find people who don't know about God. I have a wife and three kids: two boys and one girl. We have three dogs and one cat. My hobby is to make things for my kids to play in and things for other people. We thank God for bringing us to Africa to help others know about him. 

Braden flying his float plane

Braden reminded me that he doesn't really know what he will do when he grows up, and I assured him that I understand. I find it significant, though, that of all the possible lives he could have imagined for himself, he chose a life focused on spreading the knowledge of God. Whatever life holds for him, may he keep a heart for God and for people!

Thankful for Big Things

Along with my post about small blessings, I want to also mention two huge, exciting reasons to thank God.

I now have a colleague!  Crystal Lucas arrived in Tanzania the same year I did, and she taught missionary kids (and others) at an international school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city and unofficial capital.  When she told me she was thinking about coming to Musoma to join me in teaching the MKs here, I was so excited!

And now she's here!  We can brainstorm and plan together and divide the teaching between us!  (Parents will still be helping, too, thank goodness, but it's so nice to have two of us full-time MK teachers!)  Already this semester I have been feeling that I'm not teaching all the ages and classes well, and we have more families coming, more preschoolers and toddlers on the horizon!  You know how you sometimes wish you could clone yourself?  Well, this is even better, because Crystal is a fabulous teacher with different areas of training and experience than I have.  The Musoma families and I are very thankful for her!

We are also very thankful to be seeing some of our team's hard work finally in print.  In the past year, there have been seven Scripture dedications!  That means people from seven different local ethnic groups have seen and heard God's Word in their own languages for the first time.  Wow!  These dedications celebrated (and distributed) the Gospel of Luke, and in several instances, the smaller books of Ruth and Jonah, as well.

Check out this slideshow, made by my teammate, Michael Nicholls.
Scripture Celebrations in the Mara Region of Tanzania

Thank You, Lord!

My First ESL Student

(ESL: English as a Second Language)

I find that people often assume that if you're a teacher, you must be able (and willing) to teach anything.  "Oh, you teach kids?  Cool, how would you like to give some English lessons on the side?"  This is my response, more or less: "NOOO!"  Teaching Math or History to young ones in a shared language is completely and totally different from teaching adults to understand and speak a new language.  I know people who can do both, and enjoy it, and I have loads of respect for them.  But I can't.

God has His ways of working on me, though.  He gave me friends whose first language is not English. I've played with their children for over three years, and in our efforts to communicate, they learned my language far more quickly than I learned theirs!  And this August, Michaja Kamphuis from the Netherlands started regular lessons at our (English speaking) co-op school.

Left:  Michaja, age 3, at the camp where we (adults) studied Swahili
Right:  Michaja, age 6, at our co-op school

Even up to this year, I honestly did not know how much help I would be with the Kamphuis children's education.  Both Michaja and her younger sister have attended weekly programs (like the Group Days), but those events are less academic, more accessible to kids who are not entirely confident in English.  My friend Dorien has done an excellent job teaching Michaja at home these past couple years, and Michaja has become quite a reader in her own language.  Then this last semester Dorien began teaching her to read in English.  Michaja progressed so quickly!  So they decided she could start attending regular classes with the English-speaking kids.  She now has English school with us in the mornings, and Dorien continues her Dutch instruction in the afternoons.

That means I get to teach my sweet Michaja!  Now, do I really know what I'm doing in this situation?  No, it's a new one for me.  And I generally do not relish new situations!  I wonder, would I have embraced this opportunity if God had not already made the student in question especially dear to me?  I guess I'll never know.  As it happened, knowing the child and seeing how well her parents had prepared her, I was happy and excited to try this new challenge.

I still didn't know how it would work.  Michaja is pretty quiet; how would she respond to all this English?  Whatever we teachers unconsciously expected, we were blown away the first day.  I decided to ask Michaja to read to me from a children's Bible story book--and she read easily, only stumbling over a few tricky words!  Her other teacher, one of the mothers, reported that Michaja joined right in their discussion, making jokes!  I think she is doing VERY well.  (It is so much fun to see how quickly a child can learn to read a second language, even a crazy one like English, when they already understand decoding!)  This is all still new, and both of us--teacher and student--are learning.  Each day is its own adventure, as is any teaching situation, just with a little extra twist. :)

I'm blessed to have this new role in her life!

Me and my girl, kicking back (not at school!)

Fridays Are Group Days!

Despite the boring name, "group day," I am really excited about this!  I've been hoping and planning for it since last year.  In our area we have some missionary families, both from our team and from other organizations, who cannot use our co-op as the main school for their children.  However, they all desire opportunities for their kids to get out of the house and spend time with other kids.  So this semester we are trying a new format: one day each week for all the kids to come together for some special group activities.  Thanks to several talented, servant-hearted folks, our first few group days have been a success!

We begin the morning with a Bible session for all the kids.  (Sunday school is another thing not usually available to the kids here.)  I lead that "class", but for the rest of the morning I am usually just assistant or facilitator.  I'm so thankful for the people who contribute far more than I could on my own!

After Bible time, we divide the kids by age.  The elementary kids get Art class with drawing lessons from Shelley.

Kelly Nicholls, one of the parents, leads the preschool.  I'm often around to help with these precious (but active!) little ones, and I can report that Kelly does a wonderful job with them, preparing all sorts of fun activities.

After the chai break we further the divide the older kids, this time by gender.  A married couple on our team are graciously investing in these kids, Eric with the boys and Allison with the girls.  The girls have been SO excited about the chance to take ballet lessons!  Yes, ballet lessons!

Right now we only have two older boys, so athletics are limited. :(  Undaunted, Eric leads them in various fitness and skill exercises.

Before the kids leave, I try to give them some library time, so they can take a few new books home.  Shelley or I will also read a story aloud to wrap things up.  All in all, it's a pretty neat program!  (I can say that because I do so little of it!)  As we proceed, we'll see what else we can build in.

One video for you, to give you a taste of what I enjoy each week. :)  The kids are faithfully memorizing the verses I assign them, and they each recite for me on the following Friday.  We have kids from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.  (If you turn your volume up, you may hear Luke's response to my compliments at the very end--ha ha!)