Saturday, February 22, 2014

English Department News

Greetings to all!
     Apparently prayers have been answered – it has stopped raining all day, every day, and just in time for Carnival! It is sunny to cloudy most days now, although it is still raining some of every night. It is the rainy season, after all. But the sunnier days are allowing things to dry out between rainstorms now, so the roads are MUCH better. Thanks be to God!
     Major changes have been in the air the past few weeks here at the UAC, both in staffing and in processes, so it has been a stressful start to the semester. Thankfully, things seem to be settling down a bit now, and the students and staff are finally able to settle into the work of the semester. It looks like I will end up with about 25 students in two classes, similar to last semester. We are still in need of some supplies, which I will shop for in La Paz next weekend, then I think we will be all settled.
     Our English department has been going through some changes as well, but we are on course now. We have decided to use an Earth stewardship theme for this semester, so our joint activities for all English students will be in that theme, and each class will do an Earth-themed project too. This allows us the opportunity to integrate cultural exchange conversations, community awareness activities and fun for the students. Watch for more about this as the semester progresses – I have already begun my first related unit as I am reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein in English and Spanish to my classes, then they will have to do some analytical thinking about the themes in the book and the resulting commentary on the relationship between people and the natural environment. Other activities in my classes will include a couple of vocabulary and awareness-building nature walks in and around campus, an Earth-day skit for the whole upper campus, and more. Our first English club activity will be a movie night featuring Avatar, a movie with heavy environmental stewardship themes. If anyone out there has some ideas for activities, please share them, they would be very welcome.
     I should mention at this point that the stewardship theme will very much be an exchange of ideas, because there are some things that Bolivians do VERY well as far as respecting the environment, and we Americans certainly have some things to learn from them. There are also things that I have learned and will share with my students, too. The most fun will be watching them come up with their own solutions!
     I will leave you this time with a recipe that readers from last semester will recognize – this is the Bolivian version of banana bread. If you like it a little less sweet, or need a reduced-sugar recipe, this would be a good choice for you.
BOLIVAN BANANA CAKE (Queque de platano)
¼ cup or 100 grams butter
½ cup or 200 grams sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup or 250 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 160 C or 320 F. Beat together butter and sugar until foamy, then add eggs and salt and mix well. Add baking powder and flour, mix well. Stir in mashed bananas and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour, check with a toothpick, bake up to 15 minutes more until the toothpick checks clean.

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