Learning in a Developing Nation

Living in a developing nation brings a whole new context to the learning that our children do. When the curriculum Esther and Ben receive comes from the developed UK, some of the lessons and their outcomes can be far removed from the reality of life in Juba.

We have had an example of this already. For his history lesson, Ben was asked if he could identify any other ways of cooking than on an electric or gas oven in his kitchen. We are fortunate to have a gas cooker here in Juba, but when you live in Africa, you are also used to seeing people cook outdoors on open fires or small coal fires, not just ovens in kitchens.

Ben's lesson plan stated that he should understand that "people used to cook over fires for a long time, before we had cookers". Here in South Sudan,we can take out the words "used to"! Instead, we can safely assume that the majority of people cook their food over fire. I wonder to myself how many millions of people around the world continue to cook this way. It surely must be the majority?

Because of the context of where we live, I decided to change Ben's History project to a non-historical investigation into different ways of cooking food in Juba. We decided to get some evidence of current, everyday cooking in South Sudan, so we walked down the road to our nearest cafe. I asked permission to take some "cooking" pictures for Ben's school project. The staff were very obliging. It was fun to have a little outing from the classroom and do some field work! So here are some images of everyday life in Juba, thanks to Ben's "history" lesson!

The big pot which looks big enough to cook Ben (I could not fit that on my gas oven ring!) but is actually full of delicious beans! I took a tupperware box and asked the cafe owner, Rachel, to fill up my tupperware with hot beans which I could take home for lunch. A tasty, African take-away meal!

The kettle for making tea at the cafe:

The chapati stove, with the chef hard at work at this street corner cafe:

Mmmmmmm- chapati bread being cooked! We took 10 hot chapati home for lunch too:

It is great to have Rachel's cafe so close for some quick take-away options. There is also a meat stew; I have not sampled it yet, but look forward to doing so. The food is yummy.
It is also great to be able to give Ben exposure to so much variety when it comes to learning about the world. In Juba, we have real-life examples on hand to weave into his learning, as he sees aspects of life from both the developed and developing world that we have the privilege to travel between.