While at the Sanaga Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre, we've been taking time about once a week to go to the village of Meyene. During these visits, we share lessons of capoeira and environmental education with the kids who attend school there. 

Our last lesson was on the four elements that every habitat -- from a spider web to a human home -- has to have. These elements are food, water, shelter, and space (big nod to my days with the Hawaii Nature Center). We devised a game for the capoeira warm-up that looked like this: the kids walked around in ginga while Macaco played the pandeiro (tambourine). When the music stopped, they had to meet up with their team members (arranged beforehand), locate food and water tokens that were scattered about the grounds (powdered milk tin lids about the size of a silver-dollar pancake, painted blue for water and yellow for food), find a space for with their group, and build a shelter. If a teacher called "Spider!," then the students had to form a ring by holding hands around one child (a spider in a web). If "Chimpanzee!" was called, then students made a Queen's Chair: making a perch of sorts by joining hands in the center and letting one child sit upon that "chair" (a chimpanzee in a nest). With the call of "Human!", the kids raised their arms and touched hands over the head of a child (a human in a house).

What do you think? Check out video footage and photos of one of our classes.