The past few months, I've been working almost exclusively with youth. The
truth is they are often more motivated than my adult work partners. They are
also quite helpful in my personal life. They answer my questions, solve my
problems, and take me places I wouldn’t otherwise know existed.
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| Cashew fruits with nuts attached |
A fifteen year old girl from my science club taught me how to make tamarind juice. A thirteen year old I
cook with each week translated for me during my visit to the Fulani. Another
thirteen year old introduced me to one of the few people in my town with a soursop
fruit tree (one of my new favorite fruits).
Most recently, I was curious about cashews—the fruit and nut. Since attending the cashew conference back in November,
I tried meeting with the cashew group in my community to initiate a few
activities. However, each time we planned to meet, I was the only one who
showed. Eventually I was approached by the groups’ officers, but it was instead
to see if I could find them funding for a $140
million project.
My experience with kids is quite different. I taught one girl how to make
cashew fruit juice, and she brought her own fruit and invited several of her
friends to learn as well. Later, I was approached by three more kids who heard
about it and wanted to learn. After demonstrating the process at my house, the
kids wanted me to come home with them to make sure they could do it correctly themselves.
There, more than twenty other kids came to watch and even a few adults stopped
by.
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| Removing the nuts' acid |
The kids were more than willing to help. They explained and showed me the two ways of getting
rid of the acid: placing them in a holed can over an open fire, or cooking them
in hot oil. Then, once the nuts cooled down, we individually cracked them
between large rocks. From the pile of shelled nuts I had, we retained about two
cups of deliciously fresh cashews.
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| Cashew nut cracked open |
At the beginning of my service, I limited my work with kids, thinking
that starting with their parents would cause some sort of trickle down effect.
But working with youth really isn’t much work at all. They keep things fun, and
are often more motivated to learn from me than the adults. Plus, they’re just
as willing to teach.
3 comments:
Bonjour Lydia,
Love this post. I find many of the same rewards working with young people.
I had a bad experience with cashews while living in Panama. I didn't realize that the family I was visiting was roasting cashews and I walked right into the pungent smoke - I had rashes all over my arms, neck and face for many days afterward!
I'm going to put a link to your post on our Edmodo site (like Facebook for students.)
Be well!
Doug
What is tamarind juice?
Hi Mr. Crouse,
Thanks for reading and sharing the blog with your students! I’d still love to Skype with the class sometime if possible. I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks, but will be available again after March 20.
To address the tamarind question, it’s a tree that makes a seed-pod like fruit. It tastes to me like the sweet tart candy, only more tart. Here’s a picture of it : https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/lOn9BF9foUxJOeXgJQtZv9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
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