Did you know that the phrase “hakuna matata”–immortalized in the Disney classic, The Lion King–is actually Swahili for “no worries”?? This is a little factoid that we learned yesterday as we wrapped up the week with a trip to Kenya!
We started the afternoon by talking a little bit about Kenya. We learned that schooling in Kenya is free for children, but many of them don’t take advantage of it because they choose to stay at home and help their parents work the land, cook, and fetch water. We asked the campers if they would rather go to school or stay at home to do the housework and quite of few of them opted for school…it’s all about perspective, right? 🙂
Sophie quizzing the kids on their Kenya knowledge
We also learned that oral storytelling is a very important part of Kenyan culture. We told the kids a Kenyan tale called “Why Zebras Have Striped Skins.” Ask your kids if they remember what happened in the story. (Hint: there were donkeys, a Hare, and whitewash involved…) Then, we created our OWN one-word story to tell the tale of how the elephant got its trunk. You can read our story here:
“One day, an elephant drank water from a straw and got a trunk! He got it stuck on his nose. The other elephants laughed and the nose looked good. The elephant was happy because his trunk was awesome! The end.”
Once we finished our one-word story, we learned how to play mancala. This is a game that has been played in various formats around the world. In our version, we used egg cartons as our game boards, and beans as the pieces. The goal of the game is to get as many beans in to your “mancala,” or pile, as possible. Its a game that is quite fun, but can involve quite a bit of math skill!
Taylor, carefully moving her beans. Alex, Brett, and Jayce are in the background.
Dylan and Sabian plotting their next move
After some free time at the park, we returned back to the Community Building for a snack and for our last activity. With snack, the campers got to try some Kenyan tea–a blend of (decaf) black tea, milk, and sugar. A few of the campers gobbled it up, but many others were a bit hesitant. Ask your kids what they thought about it!
Once we were done with snack, we started making friendship bracelets. In Kenya, it’s common to use friendship bracelets to barter for other goods. There were a couple different techniques that we came up with, and most kids tried both. The first technique was a “bandana bracelet”, in which the kids soaked a strip of fabric in water, then twisted it into a cord and tied it on their wrists dry. The second technique took a bit longer and a bit more skill: traditional friendship bracelets are made with embroidery floss and involve tying different kinds of knots on certain strings, which can take a while, but the results are quite cool! If your kids need your help with their bracelets, there is a video tutorial similar to what we did that you can use. (In the video, she works with four strands, but our bracelets will have three.)
Jayden twisting his blue bandana bracelet
Sophie explaining how to do the string bracelets to Jayce and Sabian
We hope your kids had a great time traveling around the world with us this week. Ask them about what they learned, and which country was their favorite to visit!
For next week, please remember that we have a field trip coming up on Wednesday to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. We will need payment and permission (if applicable) by Tuesday if your child would like to attend. We are also looking for chaperones, so let us know if you are willing and available.
Last, but certainly not least, there is a new Facebook Page dedicated to the Summer Youth Recreation program that will feature updates, reminders, and links to blog posts. Please check it out, and don’t forget to “like” the page to stay up to date!
Have a great weekend!