More Adventures in Africa: Prep Week for Math(s) camp in Ethiopia

Tessalations, Fibonocci, Combinatorics, Polyminos, soma cubes, fractals!! These were some of the responses of the math instructors to David's question of what topics we should cover in math camp. I was wondering what I got myself into as I had no earthly idea what any of these terms meant. Luckily, I found out afterward that David did have something different in mind for me. I'm to write a report about the camp and each of the sessions, interview students to write promotional material, etc. and I did find a few topics such as the function of rules, playing games and the three door probability problem that I feel qualified to teach. Mel, of course, is in his element.

I am amused at mathematicians. Our time is very constrained, yet they will spend hours debating and pondering math puzzles.

It is almost the end of the preparation week and it has been insanely busy. We did have several evenings out at the beginning of the week which were fun. The Ethiopian professors are all very friendly and we've had a good time with them. They have been anxious to show us Bahir Dar. The first evening, we went out for drinks at a bar overlooking Lake Tana and the second night, they took us to another restaurant on the lake. There was a private party going on so we weren't able to eat there but some of the party goers invited us in to watch some traditional dancing to traditional instruments. One of the women got Mel to dance with her and it was a pretty funny sight to see him trying to jiggle his shoulders in time to the music while she periodically hit him in the chest with her rather large boobs.

Since then, we have worked every day from 8 in the morning until late at night, There is a lot to do to prepare all of the substantive sessions as well as organize all of the rest of the activities for the students. We have taken breaks to teach certain card games to the Ethiopian teachers as we will all spend every evening from 7-9 playing card games with the students. David believes that learning rules and strategy is a big part of learning math or maths as he calls it.

We eat all of our meals together and since it is Ethiopian food, all of the various stews are poured on a huge piece of injera (flat bread) for the whole table. Each person takes a piece of injera and grabs some stew or meat with it. As there are usually at least eight of us at a table, it is all very chummy and very messy as there is no silverware and no napkins. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Ethiopian food is wonderful. We have eaten a lot of what they call the fasting dish (no meat) as it is an Eastern Orthodox fasting period.

On Sunday, the students arrive. Then we will have even less free time. We need to be at the school at 7 (our hotel is 30 minutes away) and have camp activities each day until 9. After we return to the hotel, we have to read journal entries that each of the ninety students writes every day. It's going to be a very busy but rewarding week.