Monday, May 10, 2010
Back to India
Day 10 - Egypt
The game of making ‘Mummies’ by covering one of the member of a team with a roll of tissue paper required smart strategies and patience which the children exhibited to our great and pleasant astonishment. The children were served with dates and lemonade to relish.
Day 9 - Africa
It was a long joiurney from China to the African continent. The land of a vibrant, rich and colourful culture; the land of the Nile river, The Thar desert, the Simbas ,the Pumbas and the Timons! Vijay’s buddy Mr.Kinsley, a Cameroonian, had kindly agreed to be with us to share a few moments with and guess what! Teach us the Makossa Dance! Oh, what fun we had in learning this exotic dance!
The African fruit salad (Chlada Fakya) was relished by all and it’s a good idea to try this recipe with all the tropical fruits during the summers! Here’s the recipe- Chlada Fakya (Fruit Salad)
This simple fruit salad is spiced up with cinnamon. It can be served with fresh whipped cream.
Ingredients
· ¼ melon, cubed
· 2 apples , cubed
· 2 bananas ,sliced
· 5 oranges peeled , seeded and chopped
· ¾ cup orange juice
· ¼ cup lemon juice
· 2 tbsp sugar
· 1 tsp vanilla
· ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients. Chill before serving.
African tribals enjoy dance, music and chants. We also discovered a ‘Zulu’ chant which was a kind of a warm up chant that grew faster and faster in beats as it was repeated. It was exhiliarating and amusing as well! Here are the lyrics of this chant if you would be interested in a Zulu warm up!
Zulu Warm up chant – Lyrics
Wo goon
Wa goo oh
Wo Gooon
Izobayee ay ah
Izobayee jigga jajja
Wo zulu
Mo shakka
Ay grrrrrrrr pah !
Day 8 - China
Passepartout Sajeev, after a long journey, travelled all over to China to teach us the basic skills of Calligraphy, the art of beautiful handwriting that originated in China. He gave all the children calligraphy pens carved out of wood and demonstrated the basic moves and skills of using the pen with the ink. The children were pretty quick in picking up the skill and were motivated when they took the pens back home to practice further.
The amazing part in China was the children trying to eat peanuts with chopsticks! Praveen again appeared to help us in this ‘Herculean task!’That was not all. The children were enthusiastic and eager when they were given ‘Fortune Cookies’ with a piece of ‘fortune hidden in it! The elders around were also thrilled to get their fortunes in these cookies. Try out this yummy cookies yourself with the recipe given here.
Fortune Cookies – Recipe:
Fortune cookies can be tricky to make – it’s important to make sure that the cookie batter is spread out evenly on the Tawa. Wearing cotton gloves makes it easier to handle and shape the hot cookies. This fortune cookie recipe makes about 10 cookies.
Take a cup of maida, mix in 1 tsp baking powder and 4 tablespoons of sugar. Add 2 drops of vanilla essence and 3 tablespoons of oil and enough milk to make a batter (thick like dosa batter).
Spread a tablespoon at a time on the girdle and spread with the back of a spoon. Cook on both sides until golden brown.
Take off the girdle and fold over a folded fortune (written beforehand) while still hot.
The game of the Chinese dragon was quite interesting and mind-boggling as the children had to get together to form a dragon and the head of the dragon was supposed to catch the tail of the dragon! What fun was it going round and round!
Day 7 - Japan
Now was the story time. Vijay came in as the story-teller and narrated a japanese folktale 'Vishu, the Woodsman and the Old Priest'. It was engrossing plenary to the day as the children who were sitting far in a circle were just an inch distance from him by the time Vijay finished with his story!
Day 6 - Mexico
It was now time for the traditional food of Mexico- ‘tacos’. A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including vegetables , cheese etc.
How could anybody travel out of Mexico without tapping their feet to the moves of the Mexican Hat Dance. The children enjoyed the tapping and the clapping of the hat dance and were eager to present it before Mr.Fogg! Mr.Fogg presented sweets to them for their performances!
Day 5- USA
S’MORES:
S’MORES (which actually mean some-mores) are traditional night-time campfire treat popular in the United States, consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker. An easy way to make them would be to take two Cream cracker biscuits. Spread one with chocolate sauce, place a marshmallow on it. Cover with the other cracker and microwave for ten seconds. A square of chocolate would actually be a better idea than the sauce.