Back to India

Eventually we are back to India! And Mr. Philleas Fogg won the bet! We have travelled around the world in just ten days. On the final day everybody sat together and the children narrated stories, recited poems, and sang songs.

The children came attired in Indian traditional costumes and enjoyed dancing to the tunes of Dandia and Garbha. The little kiddies actually learnt a few basic steps of Dandia and were thrilled too! After relishing the ‘barfees’ Mr.Fogg( Mrs.Shetty) distributed their Journal cum Passports to them and waved goodbye! And thus comes the end of this virtual journey ‘Around the World’. Suggested reading: ‘Around the World’ in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Day 10 - Egypt

Our journey of Africa would be incomplete without visiting Egypt – the land of master architects, Sphinx and Pyramids. We all wore a head gear similar to the one wore by Cleopatra and got ourselves photographed. Making the mysterious Pyramids out of paper was the activity all the kids enjoyed. Learning hieroglyphics (ancient Egyptian pictorial alphabets) was fun and the children loved making ‘cartouches’ (name tags made for Pharaohs) using hieroglyphs.

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 !

Everyone was fascinated by the colorful African pouches wowen with thread and beads. We couldnot resist the temptation to make these pouches ourselves. The children started weaving threads and beads into their paper pouches, obviously with the guidance of the Passepartouts! And the focus in doing it was tremondous!

Day 8 - China

Ni hao! We reach the ‘Land of the Dragons’ and the wondrous ‘Great Wall of 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

Konichiwa! Hello and welcome to Japan, the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ and the Samurai Warriors! As the children entered Japan they were fascinated by the Samurai hats and soon all of them were making those hats out of paper.

They also made cherry blossoms to carry with them to the traditional Tea Ceremony, where they had a feel of this custom of kneeling at the table and having noodles with chopsticks! And not to forget the ‘green tea’. Praveen had come over to Japan, to teach the children to hold their chopsticks. It was quite tricky for many of us and we wondered how do the Japanese eat with them daily! But it was challenging. We had some of the very little ones who did not give up till they got a hang of it!

Soon after the Ceremony, the children witnessed a few paper Sumo wrestlers gathered at the table ready to wrestle! The Paper Sumo Wrestling game was exciting as the children choose their paper Sumos and in pairs compete with another. The paper wrestlers in pairs are made to stand on a board and each child taps on it with his/her fingers until the either of the wrestlers falls or gets out of the wrestling ring. The children were literally glued to the ring and were anxiously counting their points! These paper Sumos were made in lines with the Japanese art technique of ‘Origami’.

Our Art teacher Sajeev,who could not travel with us around the world due to a mishap on his two-wheeler, sent us a marvellous gift of Origami Jewellery box and perfect Tetrahedrons! We wish him a speedy recovery.

Japan is not over yet. Passepartout Paramjit presented a breathtaking Samurai Tai Chi martial art performance at the backdrop of the beautiful sun set, which left the children dumb-founded! They even tried out a few moves themselves with their little sticks.

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

Just down south of U.S.A. we crossed the borders and arrived at Mexico. Here again we had a Spanish guest Leonie with her pretty daughter Maria, who gave us a brief introduction of the history, culture, language and the geographical location of Mexico.

And then came the exciting game of ‘Lotteria’ where each child was given a cardboard with pictures and their Spanish names written on them.Each child was to pick up the grains on each picture as Leonie shuffled a set of picture cards and took out one picture each till there was a winner who had no pulses left on his/her cardboard. It was something familiar to Tambola played in India. In the process the children got familiar with the basic Spanish vocabulary. In the end Leonie presented a few story books as a token of affection to the winners.

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

From Russia we travelled all the way to the United States of America. We were elated to have Ms.Wurr, the Public Affairs Officer, US Consulate, who gave a brief but an exciting tour of The U.S.A. Her songs were an instant trigger for all of us. The ‘squeegee hunt’ was such fun that the song continued with us throughout the journey. You could see the children glued to her presence here.

And when the tummy calls we explore the food of that country. And this is what we found-‘S’MORES’! Again it was the children who made this yummy, lip-smacking, sticky and chocolaty delicacy. We have the recipe of S’mores here for you to smack your lips!



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.

And hey, it’s not over yet! Here comes the DREAMCATCHERS! So ward of all the evil dreams and catch the good ones! The children made a dream catcher themselves with the guidance of their Passepartouts ( and a bit by their parents as well) and had lots of good dreams to carry back home. And thus the travellers moved on to the next destination.