A day of stencil art in sunset colors, an Ethiopian feast eaten with our hands, and a drum circle you could hear across the campus.
Passports stamped, wheels up over the continent.
54 countries, cultures & wildlife on the big screen.
Savanna silhouettes on sunset-painted canvas.
Injera + stews. No forks — scoop with the bread.
Call & response until the whole school found the beat.
Lights down on the savanna.
Every adventure adds a new stamp — our passports are just getting started.
Africa holds 54 countries and more than a thousand languages — it's not one place, it's a whole world.
Long before phones, talking drums carried messages between villages — rhythm as language. Our drum circle joined a very old conversation.
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee — and of injera, the spongy flatbread that doubled as our silverware at lunch.
Every year over a million wildebeest and zebra sweep across the Serengeti — one of the biggest animal journeys on Earth.
Explorers also practiced listening and keeping rhythm together, trying unfamiliar foods with open minds, the patience of layered artwork, and geography that stretches far beyond a map.
The passport booklet we mailed to you (extras for guests: fold paper + staple), stickers, an aerial flyover of Africa on the TV.
A kid-friendly Africa video or picture books — visit three countries together.
Questions from your tour, in teams. Starters near the end of this book.
Savanna sunset canvases — full how-to two pages ahead.
Pots, pans, buckets — how-to near the end.
Order Ethiopian if you can — or cook our gentle curry.
Lights down on the savanna.
Folded paper + stapler for passports, stickers, any Africa flyover video.
Canvas boards, acrylic paint, sponge dabbers or a stiff brush, painter's tape — plus 8×10 canvas boards (12-pack) or an all-in-one canvas & paint kit. Paint colors for the sunset look: red, orange, yellow, purple, and black for the silhouettes. Stencils like the ones we used: savanna animal silhouettes or African pattern stencils (Amazon, reusable).
Pots, pans, buckets flipped upside down, wooden spoons, bare hands — the kitchen is the instrument shop.
An African mud-cloth tapestry on the wall, savanna animal figurines marching down the table, a sunset-colored tablecloth and battery candles for the drum circle.
Takeout from an Ethiopian kitchen — or for the curry: chicken thighs, 2 onions, butter, garlic, ginger, sweet paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, eggs, flatbread or rice.
Brush the whole canvas in warm stripes — gold melting into orange — and let it dry fully. A hair dryer speeds this up.
Painter's tape on the corners so nothing slides. Flat stencil = crisp lines.
Almost-dry sponge, a tiny bit of dark paint, straight up and down. Brushing sideways sneaks paint under the edges.
Lift straight up right away for the sharpest silhouette — the most satisfying moment of the craft.
Once dry, add a thin dark ground line and a little acacia tree by hand. Rinse the stencil and go again.
You should too if you have one nearby. But everyone kept going back to the chicken stew — so here's our gentle, kid-friendly version.
1. Melt 3 tbsp butter, add 2 finely chopped onions — low and slow 15 min until golden (this is the secret).
2. Stir in 2 minced garlic cloves, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tbsp sweet paprika, ½ tsp turmeric, a pinch of cinnamon — 1 minute, until it smells amazing.
3. Add 1½ lb chicken thighs in chunks + 1 cup broth. Simmer 25 min, lid half on.
4. Nestle in 4 peeled hard-boiled eggs for the last 5 min.
5. Salt to taste — grown-ups add heat to their own bowls.
Serve with warm flatbread (naan works if injera is hard to find) and scoop everything by hand — no forks allowed. That's the part they'll remember.
Everyone picks an instrument: flipped bucket (big boom), pot (bright bang), pan lid (crash), table or lap (hand drum). Circle up close.
One steady beat, all together, like a giant heartbeat. Once it locks in, you're a drum circle.
Two low hits with your palms, one light tap with fingertips: boom-boom-tap, boom-boom-tap. Loop it until nobody can stop smiling.
The leader plays a short pattern; everyone echoes it. Pass the leader role around — the little ones' patterns are always the best.
Faster and louder into one giant rumble… then the leader throws both hands up — instant silence. Chills, every time.
The Great Migration, the Nile, the pyramids — watch it free on YouTube.
Our closing film — every Adventure Day ends with a movie, and this day could only end one way.
How many countries are in Africa? (54) · The world's largest hot desert? (the Sahara) · The birthplace of coffee? (Ethiopia) · What animal is Pumbaa? (a warthog!)
Every Wednesday, our passports take us somewhere new — and the next stamp is already waiting…
Send us a photo of your canvas or your kitchen drum circle — we'd love to stamp it into our Adventure Book.