Burundi Unit

You want to know how I learned about Burundi? I have a friend who BC (Before Covid) would fly over there once a year or so and help run a school for women to learn how to sew. Then they would have the skills and the equipment to open up a shop and support themselves. Every year after coming back she would have a gathering where she would sell what they made while learning, and that in itself is a story I’ll tell later, and we could buy something made in Burundi. That’s my background for this geography lesson.

(there are affiliate links in here somewhere, somehow)

Burundi Unit resources

Okay, funny story, so I’ve started trying to find a picture from the country to add to these posts, and as a general rule, my goal is to not have it be someone’s picture unless it’s a public figure or they aren’t the point of the picture. I really prefer a noticeable landmark.

That’s not what I found for Burundi, instead, I found some amazing pictures of the people living there, but those pictures would not really have the feel I’m going for. So, I give you the picture I found:

It’s kind of a cool picture I think.

Now, the big source I’m going to link to is the charity my friend works with: Hope 4 Burundi. Back to that funny story I mentioned earlier, she said whenever she has them making the items to sell (designer dog collars, leashes, key fobs, and small purses), the whole time the ladies there are laughing at the idea of specifically making a collar for a dog. It’s such a foreign concept to them.

I didn’t particularly find any links, I need to look again later so I can add some more to this post, but I did have fun with our Geography Now video:

Burundi Unit recipe: Banana and Date dessert

One of my favorite desserts my Mom made when I was a kid was date bars, so when I saw Burundi had a Banana and Date bar dessert, I had to make it (scroll down to find banana and date mix).

Banana and Date Bar dessert

• 2 cups butter (yes you read that right 2 cups)
• 3/4 heaping cup sugar (I’m translating this from metric)
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/8 cups flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (but this was in teaspoons, what?)
• 4 bananas (I only used about 2)
• 2 cups chopped dates (I think I accidentally used less than this, but really could have doubled the dates I used)

Let’s cook this delicious dessert

1. Cream together butter and sugar, then add in the eggs.
2. Slowly add the flour, salt, and baking powder, and mix well.
3. Put about half of the mixture in an 8X8 greased pan.
4. Layer the sliced bananas and chopped dates over the dough (this is where it’s according to what looks good to you, having eaten it, I’d up the dates and leave the banana the same).
5. Top with the rest of the dough.
6. Bake for half an hour at 350 until it is golden brown.
7. It slices better if you wait until it is cool to eat, but it’s rather delicious while it’s hot (it’s also good when cool).

Burundi Notebooking Pages

The kids always get a big kick out of hearing the types of government. For instance, Burundi has a unitary dominant-party presidential constitutional republic. That is an insanely big mouthful, in case you’re wondering.

Burundi was the first country we learned about that has a significant amount of rare elements, which was interesting for me to learn.

And that’s about all we learned about Burundi.

Pick up your own copy of the Africa notebooking pages (which apparently I need to add to my store later today).

More learning from 10th grade

We didn’t just have a fun Burundi Unit in 10th grade, there were other awesome stuff too.

• Latvia Unit
• Mytek Coding Class
• 10th grade curriculum choices
• Les Miserables book club
• Gustav Klimt artist study

“President Jacob Zuma visits Burundi, 25 Feb 2016” by GovernmentZA is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0