Gas, Liquid and Ice in Didinga

With a little help from one of our amazing pilots, a new sensation came to the students of City on the Hill Primary School.

Living in a rural, secluded village near the equator, in a nation which considers 60 degrees to be a major cold spell, means that there are few – hmm, let me rephrase that – almost no opportunities to experience that 3^rd State of Matter, ice.

For those of us growing up in the West, those who are just now folding up their winter sweaters and defrosting from a long hard winter, it may be a bit of a challenge to imagine a world without frosted windshields, sledding hills and icy cold sodas. 

Just as many Americans have never; let’s just say… slept in a smoky mudhut, next to a dead rotting cow, none of our Didinga students had ever experienced ice.

This past term, Mark’s class studied the 3 States of Matter – gases, liquids and solids. The first two states, water and water vapor, were easy enough to physically demonstrate. However, the students were, for good reason, a bit confused by the third state of matter, the solid form of water, ice.

Mark is a pretty amazing teacher. Thanks to his incredible forethought and a scheduled flight which was passing through Nagishot, he was able to do execute a science lesson worth writing home about...  Mark introduced a sensation to our students, the impossibly difficult to describe sensation of extreme cold, the phenomenon of ice.

At first, most students were terrified of the ice.  Sure, they regularly handle red hot coals and boiling pots of water with their bare hands, but the thought of touching a cold block of ice, was a bit too much for them.  

However, as the lesson progressed, the kids became increasingly more comfortable and eventually, the whole group was embracing the cold. Kids were not only licking the the block of ice, but timing how long they could leave their tongues attached to it. 

It didn't take them too long to discover the fun to be had in shoving a very cold piece of ice down the t-shirt of a best friend or little brother.  

When Mark told the group that my family lives in a land which is covered with ice for several months every year, the kids gasped and then began to whisper - "No wonder she moved to Didinga!".