This has been an interesting if not a bit frustrating of a week. On Tuesday I spent the better part of the afternoon planning class with Maria Elena who has done her thesis work on contamination of the Estuary Rio Chone. We had put together a presentation which when we tried to print. It wouldn’t and then the computer shut down all together. When we […]
July 23-31, 2005 We’ve been getting slight sprinkles here but no rain to speak of. The plants are hanging on, but I can tell they’ll need more water as the dry season progresses. Some have lost their leaves but I am assuming it is because they are naturally deciduous, being native to the dry tropical forest. The ceibos and algarrobos are doing the best, and the colorados the worst. There is enough […]
Heather Crawford, Field Project Manager Planet Drum Foundation March 15th to 20th, 2005 We are doing fine according to our timeline. The Dairy Farm site was planted three times this week with the help of Carlos Franco (son), Andrea (Renée’s friend), two traveling volunteers from Quito, and two workers from Bella Vista who came because of the meeting I had with the Municipio’s agronomist working on […]
This week we worked with the Fanca eco kids club to make recycled paper. On Tuesday they showed us how to rip up papers, what kind to use, how to soak them, blend with aloe to make it sticky, and then use frames to create papers. We left them to dry until Thursday when we completed the project making boxes, notebooks, frames, cards etc. We […]
July 16-22, 2005 The two brothers who were here short term left midway through the week, and the two Canadian girls, Jenny and Elisabeth, moved in. They will be here a month, till mid-August. They are friends of a past volunteer. Now we have 5 people in the house including me. Carley leaves at the end of the month and Jackie in mid-August. We have […]
This week in Bahia I have been focusing on educating the educators. That is to say that my students are preparing to go and talk at schools about what they have learned. The two themes are Mangroves and Dry Tropical Forests. We spent both Tuesday and Thursday preparing materials, posters and discussing activities and ways to present information. I am working with Marcelo to organize times […]
July 11-15, 2005 We’ve been having some beautiful weather recently, interspersed with the gray skies and misty air. All four volunteers arrived, two on Monday and two on Thursday night. Together with Jackie and Carley there are now 6 volunteers. After another week, we will be down to 4. We spent time at the greenhouse transplanting trees from baggies to bottles, repairing one of the […]
July 4-10, 2005 This week we watered and finished installing pipes at the Dairy Farm and Cherry Tree sites. So far no problems with insects or animals at Cherry Tree, and the trees look healthy. There is a world of a difference in growth between the trees planted just 2 months earlier in the rainy season, and those planted later. Dairy Farm fencing is being […]
I am sorry that I wasn’´t able to write sooner but there was a strike here in the lovely province of Manabi to demand more money to improve the infrastructure here. Everything was shut down from the buses to the schools to the internet cafes. It put a bit of a cramp in this week´s lessons as well. On Tuesday we continued with a lesson on […]
Marcelo and I led a presentation on birds and how they can be a good indicator of contamination as they are migratory animals. We will be going to Isla de Corazon to see many birds, mangroves, as well as a successful effort at conservation. The students will be giving presentations on the different birds we will see there such as pelicans, cormorants, frigate birds, etc. […]