Projects
July 10-16, 2006 Bahia and the hills which surround it look drier and browner by the week. However there are streaks of green that appear throughout the landscape… seedlings we are maintaining in El Toro, Bosque Encantado and our other sites are growing strong! Some are nearly overhead now! We continue to water and tend to these sites twice a week. We have begun collecting […]
The trip to Ricardito’s (Bosque Encantado) farm ended up being a success. Students were very excited and they had a good time. The majority of the trees we examined were new for them. Ricardito talked about the principal characteristics (endemic, adaptable to the Ecuadorian coast…) of each class of trees, such as papaya, lime, cacao, chirimoya… I asked them to observe and describe the differences […]
July 3-9, 2006 Pretty quiet week here on the home front… dry and cool. Great time to be working and volunteering here on the Ecuadorian coast! Late in the week, with the help of local volunteers Jaime and Cheo, we raced through our watering sites (Cherry Tree, El Toro, La Cruz and Bosque Encantado). But what about early in the week you may ask? We […]
Valentina Carminati, Field Bioregional Education ManagerPlanet Drum FoundationReport, June 26, 2006 Last Wednesday we had a new student, Anita, who is only seven years old. Actually, she is too young to participate actively in the class nevertheless I am always trying to involve her in the conversations. All the kids attempted to solve the Bioregional crossword I prepared for them. They were still very confused about […]
June 19-25, 2006 This week the Planet Drum team worked at 4 sites and our greenhouse. On Monday we went to water at El Torro, where all the trees looked relatively healthy and happy, and the friendly farmer that gives us our water had more than enough to tell us about his pigs. It was our new volunteer Johannes’ first day, so we explored a bit […]
Valentina Carminati, Field Bioregional Education ManagerPlanet Drum FoundationReport, June 12-19, 2006 Today the Bioregional Education course started and Cheo kindly was helping me. Unfortunately only seven students turned up. I knew the main problem was going to be the lack of kids but I don’t want to put myself down yet. First of all the students introduced themselves (name, age, and institution). Six of them are from Colegio […]
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 […]