Making figurines out of natural clay in Kon Yome Monastic School, Shan State, Burma

On a fine day of August 6, 2016, all of the students and teachers of Kon Yome invested some time for School Linking activities to send their first message to Tallinn, Estonia. The students walked into the jungle to get some clay for crafting. Once the got the material, everyone found a suitable place in front of the school building in the shadow of the big tree and creativity could start flying.

Sai Zin Pha, 8, showed the greatest mastery and productivity: he started by making a buffalo, then a hippo (or was it and elephant?) and then went on to create other creatures and cars. Some other boys were taking tips from this little fellow.

Nang Zarm Pang, 9, made a beautiful flower and was really pleased with her creation.

Three older girls: Nang Kham Aeng (10), Nang Swe Ing (11) and Nang Khin The (11) had an idea to print leaf patterns into clay and when they got praised for their originality, they gathered some more plants and started to share their original idea among the rest of the kids, especially the younger ones.

Sai Zai, 5, kept very quiet and serious all the time and probably decided to wash clay in a bucket with washing water rather than create any kind of figurines.

Sai Zom One, 10, showed great knowledge of architecture and engineering: he modeled a house with clay walls and a roof made of beautiful purple leaves. He naturally confessed that he had copied the idea from the real houses around him and that when he grows up, he would like to build more houses in his village. This little architecture immediately got a follower: Nang Kham Zang, 8

Nang Si Warn, 8, thought that making just a regular flower was not enough, so she created a picture that one can hang on a wall as soon as the clay gets harder.

After crafting was over, the kids showed us some dancing and singing and then went to have a school break.

I guess now they are eagerely waiting for a reply from Tallinn Pae High School students!

Wild animals of Ghana by 5th grade of Gorug School

5th class of Kong-Gorug Primary School made an art project about wild animals in Ghana. We made sculptures of native animals of Africa (elephants, crocodiles, zebras, lions). We collected clay  from the field near our school and each student made their own animal. When all the animals were finished we placed them on the classroom floor and drew a water hole on the ground for them to drink from. Then we sang a song about the same animals. Our friends from 4th grade made drawings of our sculptures.

Animals at the water hole

5th grade students with their work

5th grade students with their work

We are going to collect the clay

Art activities with natural materials in Kong-Gorug Primary School

Kong-Gorug Primary School students from 4th, 5th and 6th class worked very hard for two weeks in September of 2016 and participated in many different art activities. We mostly made art using different natural materials. For example we printed different patterns with leaves and did drawings from shadows of different plants from around our school.

We also made land art works in the classroom from natural materials such as grass, sticks, leaves, flowers and stones. 6th class created land art works of traditional Adinkra symbols. Adinkra is a traditional textile printing art of the Ashanti people in Ghana. Special symbols with religious and philosophical meanings are printed on cloth with natural pigments extracted from different trees. Nowadays these symbols are widely used for decorative purposes all over Ghana. We see these symbols on people’s clothes, painted on buildings or imprinted on different products (as logos or decoration).

6th class worked in three groups who each chose one symbol to make from natural materials. 1st group created the symbol  “Gye Nyame” or “Only God”, which represents the omnipotence and immortality of God. 2nd group made the symbol “Nserewa”, or “Cowries” which is the sacred okra flower, which stands for wealth, affluence, abundance and sanctity. The 3rd group used white stones to make “Ese ne Tekrema”- “The Teeth and the Tongue” which reminds people the need for friendliness and interdependence to enable improvement, advancement and growth. After all, our teeth and tongue may come into conflict with each other from time to time (we accidentally bite our tongue) but they still need to work together for us to be able to eat and grow strong. The same is true for our relationships with other people.

Shadow drawing by 4th class student (Gorug School)

5th grade Teacher William from Kong-Gorug School

6th grade students with the symbol

6th grade students with the symbol “Only God”

4th grade students making shadow drawings

Shadow drawing by 4th class student (Gorug School)

Students of Kong-Gorug Primary School

4th grade student making a shadow drawing

Estonian School lunch at Kongo Primary School

The primary school class 5 students from Miina Härma Gümnaasium draw pictures of their school lunch and sent them with two Estonian ladies to Kongo, Ghana for a display at Kongo Primary School.

The Mondo teacher John Bire organised the exhibition on 15th of December 2015. But first the pupils had to discover from the pictures the items of food that are common for both Estonian and Ghanaian students like chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and carrots. But there was also a lot to discover for Kongo students: beloved fruits like cherries were even unknown for the teacher. Another aspect the pupils found bizarre was the fact that most Estonian students drink milk with their lunch.

Kongo Primary school is one of the lucky schools that benefits from the national school feeding programme. Not all schools and students have this luxury. When you take a look at the poster, notice also the section dedicated for hygiene in the lower left section and how all of the family is involved in the process: father is farming, mother is cooking and children are happily in school!

Take a look at the menu and go check what foods were banku and okro! Also compare the menu with yours at school and to the recommended food pyramid.

Estonian pupils are eager to receive replies to discover more in detail the Ghanaian food!

 

 

Cultural Identity – A Project Day in Paldiski schools

The town of Paldiski is located on the shore of the Paldiski Bay, some 50 km from Tallinn. Convenient geographical location, an excellent place for landing, short ice period – all of this attracted people to settle near the local harbour. There have been educational institutions in our town from the year 1770 to the present day. Today, there are two schools at our schoolhouse – Paldiski Basic School and Paldiski Gymnasium. Paldiski is a bilingual town.

Lecture by the guest of Estonian Refugee Council

Guest-students from Albania and Turkey

The school’s objectives are updated annually – this year, we wanted to introduce different nations and their culture to our students. Because of this, on 6 November 2015, we arranged the project day ’Cultural Identity’ for classes 5 through 12. The purpose of this day was creation and shaping of positive attitudes towards different cultures and people, development of tolerance, and prevention of biased attitudes. The importance of cultural diversity as means for mutual enrichment of cultures was also emphasized. The pupils had a chance of reflecting about their own cultural identity.

On the project date, the pupils were arranged an out-of-the-ordinary, less structured study day at school. We invited guest lecturers from MTÜ Mondo, Estonian Refugee Council, and the Estonian Association of Gestalt Therapy. The pupils met foreign students from Albania and Turkey, who currently study in Tallinn. We played board games providing information on different countries of the world. There was a comic workshop with interesting group assignments and discussions on difference and similarity.

Board Games providing information on different countries of the world.

Board Games providing information on different countries of the world.

Board Games providing information on different countries of the world.

For the elementary school pupils, a lecture on the national cuisine of Ghana by Liina Saaremäe, a former volunteer in Africa, was especially memorable.

Ghanaian dishes

Liina Saaremäe: a volunteer in Ghana

The pupils also had the chance of preparing a Ghanaian beverage. The project day ended with some movie watching.

Students making a Ghanaian dish “zoomkoom”

Students making a Ghanaian dish “zoomkoom”

Students trying/tasting natural shea butter made by Ghanaian students in Sekoti School

The exhibition ComiX4 = Comics for Equality was displayed on the third floor of the school building to celebrate the project day.

The exhibition ComiX4 =

The exhibition ComiX4 =

Art exhibition in Daborin Primary School

School lunch
Students from Daborin Primary School wrote about their (school)days and how Mondo-supported school lunch has helped them.

Our school lunch is made in this house

Young “cooks” and our school kitchen

Yandoug Isaac (Form 6):
When I get up at home in the morning I wash and come early to school. I got number from school. Before the assembly we have to sweep the school houses. After the assembly – lessons.
1.15 PM is first break, after first break classes and in the second break we get some food from the cooks. Sometimes we get „banku“, sometimes rice and beans, sometimes TZ. We enjoy it very much. It helps us because of school lunch we come to school and stay here until they close the school.
My favourite food is rice and beans. I like rice and beans because if I eat beans every day it is very good to my body and to my blood and rice too is nice food.

Tilagmi Justina Yenbctil (Form 6):
I come to school early. We are given brooms and we have to sweep the floors. We eat at 12.23. I like most banku and groundnut soup!
Our school lunch menu of the week was:

Weekday	School lunch
MONDAY	Rice and stew
TUESDAY	Banku and groundnut soup (my favourite!!!)
WEDNESDAY	Beans and rice
THURSDAY	TZ and groundnut soup
FRIDAY	Rice and geari

 

Kunubil Solomon (Form 6):
When I get up in the morning before sun rise I wash my face. I take my breakfast. When it’s 6:00 I start going to school. When it’s 6:30 we will start sweeping the compound and picking the garbage.
After 12:45 we will take lunch. The food helps us so many things. If we get up early in the morning and don’t eat anything, but at 12:45 now we eat lunch.
After taking lunch, when it is 2:15 we will ring the bell for assemble and after that we go home. So food is very important and it is very tasty too. Thank you very much for what you have done for us.

Art exhibition

Everyone’s drawing, even our teacher

Teacher Liina from Estonia and us drawing the pictures about food.

We, 6^th grade students from Daborin Primary School, also painted some pictures about food. The materials (watercolours, brushes, papers, oil pastels etc) we used for drawings were brought from Estonia as a gift for us. Afterwards we made an exhibition in the classroom. And now you have the chance to see a short video about our drawings and listen to the African music at the same time.

Have a pleasant time with our electronical art exhibition!

 

Read all the post by Daborin Primary School

Read all the post by students from Ghana.