Eswatini unit

This is a fun country, because when I started our geography lessons it was towards the end of the alphabet, but it changed its name from Swaziland to Eswatini, and so now we have a Eswatini unit and you get to learn all about this African country in our Africa Unit.

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Eswatini Unit resources

So I have no books for this country, let me do a quick Google of the country to find some cool links for you:

• Britannica Eswatini– my childhood was spent looking things up in this encyclopedia
• Eswatini facts for kids– which has some pretty pictures on it
• Eswatini country report– just generic facts
• Eswatini facts from Multicultural kids blog– they have only TEN fun facts

And then our, I mean my favorite:

I’m going to come back and add the Flag Friday video because I’m currently watching the video, so I’ll search it up after I’m done watching this one.

So, Flag Friday to come below.

Okaynow I’m off to the recipe. This was a fun one because it was a side dish, I combined a couple of recipes from different countries.

Eswatini recipe: slaai (avocado, spinach, and quinoa salad)

I did quite a bit of searching to find this recipe and finally found a recipe on

salad recipe on Polkadot Passport. I was very curious to try this because it was a new way to try something.

Slaai recipe ingredients

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large avocados diced
• 1/4 cup peanuts crushed
• 1/2 cup corn
• 2 tablespoons coconut
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup broth (we used chicken, but the original was vegetable)
• 1 cup spinach

Making the slaai

Okay, so here I’m going to write down what I actually did. Now in the OFFICIAL recipe card I’m writing down what the official instructions say to do.

1. After peeling the ginger, grate it. I like this small grater for little projects like this. I also recommend this simple lemon juicer.
2. Combine the lemon juice, ginger and salt
3. Add the avocado and mix with the lemon juice mixture. Let that marinate as the quinoa is cooking.
4. Cook the quinoa in the broth. Bring the broth to a boil, reducing it to a simmer, and letting it cook for 20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed.
5. Grill the corn until it is lightly on a griddle (I used a cast iron skillet) and toast the coconut. I left out the coconut because I couldn’t find the dessicated coconut, and only found sweetened and that would be way over the top in flavor.
6. Mix together the avocados, corn, coconut, quinoa, and spinach. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts and serve. I left the peanuts to the side as an option because I know some people don’t want that.

I thought it was an interesting flavor combination, but I’m pretty much the only person in my family who enjoyed it, which I was somewhat expecting. So, I’ll add this into my list of recipes to make when it’s just me.

Slaai (Eswatini avocado spinach quinoa salad)

Print

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large avocados diced
• 1/4 cup peanuts crushed
• 1/2 cup corn
• 2 tablespoons coconut
• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup broth (we used chicken, but the original was vegetable)
• 1 cup spinach

Instructions

1. Combine the lemon juice, ginger and salt
2. Add the avocado and mix with the lemon juice mixture. Let that marinate as the quinoa is cooking.
3. Cook the quinoa in the broth. Bring the broth to a boil, reducing it to a simmer, and letting it cook for 20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed.
4. Grill the corn until it is lightly on a griddle and toast the coconut.
5. Mix together the avocados, corn, coconut, quinoa, and spinach. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts and serve.

Eswatini Unit: notebooking pages

We filled out our Africa notebooking pages.

One thing that is interesting about Eswatini is its form of government. It is the only country with an absolute diarchy. I know I wrote down absolute monarchy, but it is actually a diarchy with the queen mother and her son ruling together. Which is fascinating.

Here are the fun facts I wrote down:

• They have a sugar can museum.
• They have the world’s oldest mine.
• Sadly, they have the world’s lowest life expectancy because they have a high rate of AIDs in their country, but they have worked to try and stop this.
• They have a king who has the record for the longest reign, 82 years, starting at 4 months old.

Now usually I would put a tall version of my image down here of the country to have a second pinnable image, but the only image I found for the country that was distinct was of people. I have a personal goal of trying not to create pinnable images that are of people whenever possible. Especially people who I do not know if they consented to the picture that is on the internet. The picture is on Wikipedia and I am legally using it. So how I’m using it is my compromise because I want to spotlight the country somehow.

I mean look at this image. Look at the colors and the pattern on the cloth. It’s beautiful. It deserves a spotlight. Look at the emotions on their faces. They tell a dozen stories, we will never know.

This is my compromise. I am still unsure of it, and may change my mind. I wish I had a better decision.

Sorry, that trailed off.

Let me redirect, let’s look at some cool projects that are fun.

Here are cool things we did

• Lichtenstein Unit
• How do trees grow preschool science lesson
• Blood type activity
• Fresco art style lesson
• Sense and Sensibility book club

BZer0 at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons