Day 10 (Africa)

We started with a game of Ampe. Then we went inside to "visit" the Nile River and learn about the Egyptians. We discussed how papyrus was made. Then we looked at hieroglyphs at Luxor Temple and stamped our name on papyrus in hieroglyphs. We visited Côte d'Ivoire where nearly half the world's cocoa beans come from and talked about Fair Trade Chocolate (how farmer's get a fairer percentage of profit for their hard work). We then ate chocolate covered strawberries dipped in melted fair trade chocolate. We learned 1 version of the game Mancala (there are several slightly different versions). Then we went to Ghana where they do Adinkra cloth printing (which was originally only for royalty or sacred occasions but now it is worn by anyone) and we learned the meaning of some of their sacred symbols. After the lesson, we created bandanas with the Adinkra symbols/meanings . We also sanded , tuned and decorated our own kalimbas. A bit later, we discussed KAZA Conservation Area and the animals it helps protect. Then before we went to the creek, we put on the play "Stealing the Sun" from Lake Tumba. When we came back we talked about how our body can only go 3 days without water, how a great deal of the water in Africa is polluted (even the Nile) and how to clean creek water in order to drink it. We used natural elements (sand, pebbles, gravel, grass) and activated charcoal from a fire pit to make a filter to clean some muddy creek water. We also talked about how it still wasn’t safe to drink and would need to be boiled or placed in a PETE plastic bottle in the sun for at least 6 hours for the UV rays to kill the germs/bacteria (SODIS Method). This is how many Africans clean their own drinking water.