Did you know, the town of LAURA is situated in the region of Balochistān, Pakistan, which borders on South Eastern Iran. It is some 900 miles, or 1,449 km, South-West of Islamabad, or 73km / 45 miles west of the regional town of Gwadar.

 

You may wonder how I came to know this piece of useless information……?

 

A part of creating my children’s stories series, “The Baba Indaba’s Children’s Stories”, is to find a place on the map of the world which is related to the story. I do this using Google Maps. The idea is to not just give the children a story, or fairy tale, to read but also give them a bit of an intellectual challenge by having them look up a place on a map. The strategy-hope-plan is that in looking up a town in a place they haven’t yet heard of, that this will encourage them to read a bit about other cultures and peoples in the hope that it will lead to more understanding and, hence, tolerance of other cultures.

 

So in creating the e-Story “ABDALLAH THE UNHAPPY” (which will be published later today, I was looking for “A Great City of the East” for the geographic lookup challenge. Not wanting to use one of the more well known Eastern cities, I selected Laura, if only because of its somewhat unusual name.

 

To lookup the 310+ Baba Indaba Children’s Stories, click on this URL https://goo.gl/5ZcmPP

A sample of 25 Baba Indaba Childre's Stories Covers

A sample of 25 Baba Indaba Childre’s Stories Covers