As I was walking past exhibits my mind kept playing back teaching memories. And then I saw Kalah on a whiteboard. In the early 70s I had taught 4th graders to play it during study of The Bushmen of the Kalahari. At that time, I had just a few plastic Kalah trays and a class of 30. I had the class make their own Kalah games out of egg cartons--the bottom of the carton became the main tray for the game and by cutting the two end of the top, the gathering trays.I think we used lima beans for the playing pieces.
I walked up to the presenter and asked, "Do you know about the game?" She said no. "What's the object? What do I have to do?" If I remember remember right, the game originally was played by carving it out in the sand, and using whatever was available for the playing pieces--possibly pebbles. Yep, I jumped right into my teacher role, explaining the game using the whiteboard. I even told her how to make the egg carton game.
As I walked away, she was about to have a game with another person at the booth. He asked if she knew how to play the game. From sand, to egg cartons to whiteboards--still teaching. Go figure!
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