Saturday, April 9, 2016

Throwback to Things Fall Apart

Last weekend I went to a Model UN conference, where I represented Nigera in the African Union.  We were discussing possible  Solutions to the Islamic terrorism problem in Africa. One proposed solution was a program to fight terrorism funded by a new farming regime. The delegate from Tanzania suggested growing sweet potatoes because they are a native crop to Africa. In the next caucus the delegate from Rwanda stood up and corrected the previous delegate as there are multiple species of sweet potatoes and that the YAM is species indigenous to Africa. I immediately sent him a note asking if he read things fall apart at which he replied "OKONKWO's RAGE CANNOT BE CONTAINED!" We then had a nice conversation during the next unmod.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It's funny you mentioned this. My grandmother is a huge jeopardy fan and we were watching it recently. One of the questions was about 100 Years of Solitude! I forgot exactly what the question was but I knew the answer right away. It's funny that you don't think you will need to know stuff you learn in high school later in life but it comes up all the time. For example, I can't even look at a cockroach without thinking about Gregor in the Metamorphosis. It's weird how much English has related to our lives this year.

Jack Zheng said...

I'd get so excited when I hear a question at quiz bowl about something we've read or learned in English class. Much to Ms. Klebba's disappointment though, I was not paying as much attention as I should have last year and have missed a few Shelley and Keats poems.

Also, thanks to Humanities I actually know what paintings are about now (or at least some of them).

Jac said...

This post makes me so happy; I laughed at the other delegate's response. On this same topic, when we were reading TFA, I posted a picture of the page on my snapchat. I got 4 different messages later on, asking me if it was TFA or making some comment on the novel. Many students seem to love that novel as much as we did. I agree with Ashley, it is very interesting to see how much the humanities curriculum has influenced how I think of things and how I see literature and art throughout my daily life!