Eco-Ecuador
Collaboration for a Long-Term Sustainable City
June 12, 2006 Last week I have been to Colegio Interamericano and to Colegio Eloy Alfaro and I left 80 invitations in total to the students (in order for the parents to know and decide together). The students are 10 to 14 years old and since the course is not an ‘obligation’ we don’t know how many students will participate to the lessons. Anyway…The program […]
June 5-11, 2006 It rained three times last week! This isn’t supposed to happen. It was fantastic to hear the pitter-patter of rain on the roof! Otherwise, pretty quiet down here on the work front. We’ve settled in to a pretty regular schedule for watering twice weekly at El Toro and Bosque Encantado. We get out once a week to maintain and water our plantings […]
May 29-June 4, 2005 With Heather and Mark’s departure, we had room in the house for new volunteers. Those who arrived in the greenhouse were not friends, but enemies! Shocked as you may be with this less than usual portrayal of those who come to work for us, they were not men, not women, but APHIDS! Over the weekend at the greenhouse, this plague began […]
May 15-21st The long awaited compost finally arrived at the greenhouse this week from the city’s composting plant. To accommodate all 900 kilograms that was delivered we dug another trench alongside the greenhouse (appoximately 50 feet long). While Hugo, the compost supervisor, was at the greenhouse he commented on the quality and richness of our own compost that we have been making. He suggested we […]
May 8-14, 2006 The greenhouse lay silent for most of the week as little has been germinating, but more so due to an infestation of 9 wasp nests. With Mark holding a shovel, Brooke with the can of Raid and me with the hose, we set out to destroy our beloved greenhouse occupiers. We turned back at the first nest as the Raid proved ineffective, […]
May 1–7, 2006 If I take but one thing from Ecuador it won’t be weavings from the village of Otavalo or turtles from the Galapagos Islands… it will be a new found respect for the farmer’s almanac! The locals had said there will be one week of rain in early May and here it is! We’ve had a shower every night for the last week, giving […]
April 24-30, 2006 It rained on Wednesday for the first time in a month! Although it only lasted for two hours it was beautiful to feel the drops on our heads and see water in our tanks. The water outage continues in the city, at the same time street protests were held last week. City hall says the pipes should be flowing the second week […]
April 17-23, 2006 Great week down here, 30 degrees and sunny! We spent a few days making some new maps for our sites and gathered up wood for the Planet Drum signs that we will be putting up at each of our planting sites. Work has begun on the handrails and stairs up at Bosque en Media de las Ruinas. Wednesday we measured all the […]
April 10-16, 2006 All is well here in Bahia de Caraquez, and we have working hard to get the greenhouse in order while we have a little spare time. Just as you are all thinking about tulips, daffodils and lilies up North, we have next year’s forest sprouting in the greenhouse! It’s been a battle transplanting the hundreds of new seedlings before they get too […]
April 3-9, 2006 In my first official week as Field Projects Manager I can honestly say we had a little of everything on my first day… drought, lack of running water and a temporary invasion of both bats and cats. The most important thing accomplished was that after four days without water we found a delivery truck to fill up the water tank and reprovide the […]