When we can, we try to use local supplies so we can support the Afghan economy. This is also important so teachers can continue their lessons without us.
We bring some supplies with us, however, and point out other useful supplies.
Supplies We Bring
Although we try to use only local supplies, some items are so important that we bring them even though the teachers won't be able to find replacements easily. Thermometers, for example, are crucial for many of our lessons (like making soap, or toffee). They are relatively cheap, can be transported easily, and should last a long time, so we bring several class sets with us on each trip.
Other supplies in this category include lye (sodium hydroxide) for making soap, crayons, scales, scientific instruments in general (soil thermometers, for example, one year - botany).
We appreciate donations to help us take supplies like these. Visit our donations page to sponsor items like these, or to contact us about donating supplies we can take with us.
Teaching New Uses For Familiar Things
Many of the items we use are available in Afghanistan - the teachers just aren't used to using them in science classes. When we make our healing skin ointment, for example, we always use local healing plants, such as calendula, plantain, roses, hollyhock, mullein.
Using local items in surprising ways is good because it teaches Afghan educators to think creatively about using what they have around them.
Here are some of the other local supplies we use in surprising ways:
- Purple cabbage: Simple purple cabbage is an excellent indicator of pH (acidity or baseness). Boil the leaves, strain out the cabbage leaves, and concentrate by boiling, and you will have a purple-colored liquid. The liquid will turn red in the presence of an acid, and blue/green in the presence of a base.
- eggs as building blocks; scraps from wood shop
- glass bowls bought at a market for solar ovens
- pillow for insulated ice cream making bag
- bottle for water filters, and egg-white for alum
- Fable a teacher told mom: he said what she's doing (teaching to use existing stuff) is like a fable. Famous teacher sat in courtyard, teaching students about trees. he said, "how can I describe the roots?" he was going into elaborate word pictures, without illustrating with the tree they sat underneath.
That teacher who told mom the fable went home to show is family the flink lesson with carrots. So poor didn't want to use salt; used dirt instead. He was teahcing his daughter because she wanted to go to university and be a scholar. He had had to become a taxi driver to suport his family, but heard about the teacher training and came eac day because he loved learning.
