The Problem with Poaching
We’ll be lucky if we see wild rhinos on our trip this year, because if problems persist, they could be extinct during our lifetimes.
During our trip to South Africa, we’re going to spend quite a bit of time surrounded by wildlife. Hopefully not actually out in the wilderness, surrounded by angry hyenas or anything that drastic, but this trip will be completely unlike anything TAP has experienced before. Our African adventure begins with time in the Lion Park, getting to see, and even touch, lions and other animals that can not be released in the wild. Then we head to the elephant sanctuary where we get to spend time with the largest land animals in the world, but they’re not in the wild either. I haven’t personally been to either place before, but I would imagine that as fun as it will be to get up close and personal with those creatures, the obvious fact that they aren’t in the wild and cannot be.
Sarafina!- TAP’s Movie of the Month for January 2015
In 1991, Whoopi Goldberg was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. I know that sounds weird to those of you who either know her only from The View or don’t have any idea who she is at all, but through most of the ’80s she was a successful stand-up comic and made a few popular movies. The early ’90s launched her to superstardom. She won an Academy Award for her role in the mega-hit Ghost and then made an insanely successful movie called Sister Act.
The movie studio wanted to capitalize on that popularity real quick and make Sister Act 2, but Whoopi wasn’t going to make a sequel without using some of her new found clout to get something she wanted too. What did she want? She wanted to make Sarafina!
Sarafina! was already a successful Broadway play written and directed by South African writer Mbongeni Ngema, and Goldberg wanted to bring the message of the play to a wider audience. The movie is based on the true events surrounding a group of students who rose up against the government in 1976 to protest the unjust Apartheid laws. Both the play and the movie were attempts to make more people around the world aware of the horrible treatment of black Africans in South Africa. As Ngema stated, “there is racism all over the world, but only in South Africa was being racist the law.”
Even though Sarafina! depicts some of the worst moments in South African history, somehow it’s an uplifting musical that gives you hope and makes you feel good about the people in the Soweto township. We think it’s an excellent movie to watch before we head to South Africa this June, and below are a few things to focus on while you watch Sarafina!.
The League of Extraordinary South Africans
Back in 1999, a comic book author named Alan Moore created the ultimate literature team-up book with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The idea was combining some of the greatest heroes of literature into a super team, sort of The Avengers of Victorian England, to work together to fight evil.
The team was assembled by Campion Bond, a made up character that was the grandfather of super-spy James Bond. With the help of Mina Murray (the heroine of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), the team included Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Dr. Jekyll (from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), The Invisible Man (from H.G. Wells story), and Allan Quartermain (from H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines). The series has gone on to include characters from all over literature from Don Quixote to Harry Potter to King Kong to Sherlock Holmes.
It is the ultimate literature mash-up.
That gave me an idea for this month’s online lesson. Instead of discussing one book, one story, or one poem from South Africa, lets take a look at some of the greatest heroes of South African literature. Let’s see who might make up a “League of Extraordinary South Africans.”
The Most Kissed Man in Poland
The Most Kissed Man in Poland
He had this book It was his life story Something inside him compelled him to share it with strangers Foreign strangers Speaking in tongues
Struggling to understand
When I was a kid, I saw a movie called Benji the Hunted. It was about a little dog that got lost and had to find his way home, and even though he was a little dog and not a panther or a bear or a T-Rex, this hunter saw Benji as a huge threat and had this insane desire to shoot Benji. On top of that, Benji has to save some orphaned baby cougars, fend of the an attacking brown bear, and avoid a relentless timber wolf that has it in for him. Of course, Benji, being one of those resourceful little dogs, made it through alright. As a little kid, I was on the edge of my seat, rooting for Benji the entire time. Looking back, it probably wasn’t a very good movie – but there was just something about that dog. There’s just something awesome about a good dog movie. Honestly, even bad dog movies are good.
Marley and Me, Old Yeller, My Dog Skip, Turner and Hooch, Beethoven, Homeward Bound (which was based on The Incredible Journey, one of my favorite books as a kid), and Hachi (which we actually watched on the bus in Japan) are all great dog movies. They’re probably not great movies; they’ll never win any big awards, but I’m telling you, there’s just something about a good dog story.
Another one you could add to the list is Jock: A True Tale of Friendship. I’m going to be honest here, Jock: A True Tale of Friendship is not a great movie, but I enjoyed it, for two reasons.
- I was fascinated by the South African scenery and history.
- There’s a dog.
The movie is actually based one of South Africa’s most popular novels, Jock of the Bushveld by Percy Fitzpatrick. The story takes place in the 1880s and is based on Fitzpatrick’s life as a transport driver in the Bushveld region of South Africa during the gold rush of the 1880s. The book began as a series of bed time stories for Fitzpatrick’s kids, but in 1907 he published the story of the adventures in the South African frontier he had with his real-life dog Jock.
South African Food – A Culinary Safari
Nothing in the world beats a Portillo’s Italian Beef Sandwich, but that won’t stop us from traveling the world to try and find something even better.
Once a month during the school year, we post an online activity for our group. This month we ask that the students traveling to South Africa with us read this article, pick at least one of the recipes we share, shop for the groceries, and make a South African dish at home. When they’re done, we want them to come back here and share (in the comments section) what the experience was like.
I love travel. There’s something about facing the unknown with each and every adventure we’ve had that is unbelievably exciting to me. There are always a few things we know we’re going to do, of course – the big monuments, landmarks, famous churches, important historical sites, cool museums… But the real fun comes for me when we don’t have a script or an itinerary to follow.
The best time for exploring, for trying something new, for facing that unknown is lunch time. At lunch time, the TAP teachers always do their best to find the food you’re not going to be able to get anywhere else. The regional delicacies, the local delights, the culinary gems…
I call it the “Portillo’s Factor.” The way I see it, every time I have friends or family from out of town come in, they don’t want to go to the local McDonald’s, Chili’s, or Chipotle – that’s the same food they can get at home. What you want to show them is regional Chicago food like Portillo’s for Italian beef (yes, it’s Chicago food, they don’t have it in Italy, New York, or anywhere else) or Chicago style hot dogs, or to get some Chicago style pizza – either deep dish where my favorite is Lou Malnati’s or Chicago style thin crust (yes, that’s a thing) where I think the best is Vito and Nick’s. I really want my guests to experience real Chicago food, stuff they can’t get at home. Read more…
Tsotsi – TAP’s Movie of the Month for November 2014
One of my all-time favorite poets, Emily Dickinson, once wrote, “There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away, nor any coursers like a page of prancing poetry.”
In modern English, what she was saying was that no boat (or plane, train, or automobile) is quite as good as a book when it comes to taking us to faraway lands. Nor is a fast horse nearly as effective as a page of poetry to transport our minds to other places.
It may be somewhat blasphemous for an English teacher who travels with students to say this, but sometimes I think a movie can be just as powerful. Of course, there’s nothing quite like going someplace new and experiencing different cultures, meeting unique people, and trying new things. However, sometimes it’s not possible to really get inside and fully understand that new place – sometimes a book, a poem, or even a movie allows us to live in someone else’s skin for a while and see what that place is like if it isn’t different, unique, or new. Sometimes literature and film allow us to see the world the way people on the other side live their lives.
Tsotsi is one of those movies. We can see Soweto. We can tour Johannesburg. We can listen to music. We can hear foreign languages. We can eat weird food. No matter what, though, we’ll never really know what it’s like to live there, to be there for your whole life, to have no hope of ever moving upward. Tsotsi, however, allows us to live for a few hours in the shack town, to know what it’s like from the inside, and to feel the isolation and pain of the young man in the story.
TAP’s November Movie of the Month is Tsotsi, the winner of the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film – the first South African film to win that prize. This post will serve as a means of discussing the movie, what makes it so powerful, and why it’s a must watch before we head to South Africa next June. Read more…
In 2016, Minooka TAP is Headed to Amsterdam, Normandy, and Paris!!!
Yes! After nine years of traveling the globe, TAP finally gets to see this! Do you want to be there with us?
Minooka TAP started way back in 2007 with a group of five teachers, a handful of parents, and twenty-four students traveling to Germany to explore the country and study WWII. That trip opened so many new doors for the kids and adults involved that we haven’t stopped traveling since. Each year TAP has taken groups of kids from the area on overseas trips to experience history, literature, music, art, culture, language, and food from far away places. We’ve been lucky enough to travel to 18 different countries, on three different continents, with over 200 students. We’ve seen amazing places like Germany, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Japan, England, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In the summer of 2015, TAP will have about 40 people with us on an adventure in South Africa!
Now we’re excited to announce our 2016 trip – Our 10th Anniversary Adventure!!! Read more…
Welcome Oswego East Students!
Oswego students, Minooka TAP is so excited to have you looking at our website. Please feel free to poke around. A lot of your questions can be answered on our FAQ Page, so take some time looking through that. You can meet the teachers from Minooka TAP on the “TAP Teachers” Page. And, if you’d like to look at some of our past trips, click on the “TAP Trips” Page – if you want to see pictures, there are tons of them on Facebook.com/minookatap or a bunch of videos on our YouTube Channel.
If you’re looking to apply for our program, click on the TAPlications link above and be sure to have your application done by the November 23rd deadline.
Good luck.
District 9 – TAP’s Movie of the Month for October 2014
One of the most fun things about running Minooka TAP is seeing how the teachers, students, and parents involved cause the program to grow and change over the course of time. New ideas can be exciting and fun, and I’m incredibly excited about this one. This will be the first month for TAP’s Movie of the Month. For our first film, we’ve selected District 9, a science fiction movie that takes place in South Africa, made by South African filmmakers, incorporating South African history, and featuring music influence by South Africa. That’s perfect, because South Africa is where our group is headed in just 8 months. District 9 was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award in 2010 and was ranked the 24th best Science Fiction movie of all time by IGN.
Of course it’s always fun to dissect a movie and discuss the plot, the performances, and the special effects, but for this group we’re going to focus on what make’s District 9 a truly South African movie.
Minooka TAP 