Barry Goes to Burkina: Science Camp

I spent the last week or so in Orodara for a science camp. We (7 volunteers) each brought 4 students and 2 teachers from our villages and threw them all together in a great big beaker of education. It was a little different than camp GLOW; there were fewer camp style games and activities and more formal classes. It was a chance for the Burkinabe teachers to work side by side with volunteers to practice teaching methods and experiments.

When kids here ask questions, instead of just raising their hands they snap their fingers and say "moi, moi, moi". I guess it can be hard to get the teacher's attention when there are 80 other kids.

Only 12 students?!?! I can breath a little.

We made some soy tofu. It's starting to catch on a little. You will see women selling tofu kabaabs in bigger cities. I love it when I can find it because it's fairly cheap and preferable to the meat that is usually available. I'm not a big fan of a lot of fat and bones.

We also got the kids to make their own liquid soap to show how easy it can be. When it was done, they all got an empty coke bottle's worth to take home.

Here I am with my 4 students on the left and my two teachers on the right. We were so young...

We split the kids up into groups so that kids weren't always with the others from the same village. We were the team yellow extra terrestrials (they even came up with the name).

Most of the names were space related. That is, in my experience, the scientific topic that interests the kids most. They are so astounded by how big things can be and how far away stars are. I guess American kids are similar. By the way it translates from the Gouin language, the stars are the moon's children. Aww

The whole camp together. I like my positioning.

Of course, not everything was classes and note taking. We played tug of war, made smores (with care package graham crackers and marshmallows), played soccer and even watched movies on a projector. They loved the Lion King and we watched some Planet Earth videos.