Adam was a white man?

This week I read a class of 10 year olds my book, Mundu Ne'ebe Maromak Halo. They were very interested, but it wasn't until we got to this page that the real discussions took place:

"Wasn't Adam a white man?" asked one of the children. "It doesn't say in the Bible that he was a white man," I replied, "or black." They needed a moment to digest this and I went on to explain that the Bible doesn't tell us what Adam looked like at all. What the Bible does tell us is that from Adam and Eve came all the peoples of the world.

And then one of the children had an "Aha! moment" - those moments that every teacher knows is the reason they love being a teacher:

"That means we are all related!".

And the little pale skinned boy with freckles looked at his dark-skinned friend and grinned.

We are all related. Oh yes, we are!!

Teaching children about Timor-Leste

I am currently in the middle of a unit of work at Marrara Christian College where I am doing my practicum, teaching the children about Timor-Leste. They are learning about the people, place and culture as well as some basic words and phrases in Tetun. Their enthusiasm is wonderful to behold, and they go home and tell their parents all about it!
This unit of work is aimed at middle primary but can be modified for any primary classes. If anyone would like a copy of the material I have put together, let me know at: grasa DOT mesak AT gmail DOT com (replacing 'AT' with '@' and 'DOT' with '.')