September 24-28, 2007
Summary: The last week with only a couple volunteers; soon more will be arriving and the house will fill up again for the first time in over two months. The routine of watering continued and other projects are mixed in to keep things interesting. It’s almost October and the trees planted in February and March are doing very well. There’s been a less than 10% fatality rate and the majority of the trees are showing sustained growth through the dry season.
| On Monday el Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas was watered and the greenhouse was as well. We also made new soil to top off more Algarobo bottles. In the afternoon and evening there was a despedida (farewell) party for visiting Planet Drum staffers, Peter and Judy, at our friend Afranio’s house in Leonidas Plaza. The local core of eco-amigos showed up for the festivities. On Tuesday morning we watered El Toro. In the afternoon over one-thousand copies of the first green-city newsletter in Bahia, Econoticias (Econews) was printed, complete with articles about the Bioregionalism classes, water quality in the estuary, a local, community-based garbage separation project, and more. The newsletter will hopefully come out on a monthly basis to keep the people informed of the ecological happenings in Bahia.That evening Peter and I gave a radio interview at one of the local stations, during which we promoted the release of Econoticias as well as talked about other Planet Drum projects and the future of the ecological movement in Bahia. |
Wednesday we spent the morning touring Bahia distributing Econoticias like crazy. Small stacks were left at internet cafes, hotels and restaurants. It was also posted on the Municipality bulletin board and personally handed them out to people on the streets. Afterwards we got a ride with Ricardito to the currently abandoned city garbage separation site to pick up old sacks of compost that were never sold or passed out. At least the compost will be put to good use in the greenhouse instead of sitting at the facility until the city resumes the separation program.
In the evening we all attended the ‘Festival of the Birds,’ which was a series of lectures by biologists, naturalists and tourism experts on the future possibilities of avi-tourism in and around Bahia. There is an obvious buzz about the idea of eco-tourism and avi-tourism, but the tools for implementing a sustainably run tourism industry appear to be very rudimentary or entirely lacking. A lot of progress needs to be made in this area if Ecuador is going to successfully and ecologically take advantage of the overwhelming natural resources it possesses.
On Thursday we watered Don Pepe and Maria Dolores and then were back in the greenhouse refilling more Algarobo bottles. There are a lot of them that need attention.
Friday the El Toro revegetation site was watered and in the greenhouse baby Ceibos that had germinated in one of the seedbeds were transplanted.
All in all another action packed week. There is growing excitement to meet the new volunteers who will be arriving next week.
Hasta luego,
Clay
Reader Interactions