El día de la Tierra

Happy Earth Day!

If you know me, you know how much I love this holiday; although it pains me to not be in the midst of the whirlwind of activism that is the University of Delaware campus this week, I am proud of what we're trying to do here in Ecuador to educate and raise awareness about climate change and other local environmental issues.

Proudly displaying our Greenfest banner from last year


Probably the coolest s4e officers of all time


Katie, Lauren and I protesting the bottled water industry in Wilmington


Protecting biodiversity through community-based tourism in Machalilla National Park


Climate Rally in Quito

For more information about what this holiday means here in Ecuador, see the entry I wrote for our daily life blog. And if you're in the the greater DC area, you should definitely check this out!

sustainably yours,
Jackie

Happenings

how come nobody ever comes to my happenings?? -(name that quote)

Lucky for me people usually do come to our happenings; specifically children who flock to both children's English and the monthly paseos that I plan. Last week we restarted children's English inscriptions for a new and improved 12 week course with recently purchased ESL books and a large group of old and new kids. Sarah, Shawn, and I have pushed ourselves to take upwards of 30 kids into our program to meet demands while also providing a course that actually improves the kids' abilities to speak and understand English.

We also went on our April paseo on Saturday to el parque la Carolina's dinosaur museum with about 15 kids in-tow. Since the museum itself is only open on weekends, when I went to investigate a few weeks ago I wasn't allowed to see the facilities. As it turns out, the museum is really more of a badly staged Jurassic Park set; the presentation included a 25 minute tour through different scenes, each one featuring a moving dinosaur or Mega-beast that scared the pants off of pretty much every kid we were with. Although it wasn't quite as educational as I had hoped, the kids seemed to enjoy the theatrics as well as running around Quito's biggest urban park afterward. I think in the future I will search for venues outside of Quito, as transport sucks up most our time, and I really want to start embarking on nature hikes in the valley.

Krysta and the kids anticipating the action


Me almost getting eaten

Twins Donny and Samantha on the dinosaur ride


Iori (in my sweatshirt post-puddle mishap) and Paola in the park


Kids and chaperones (thanks Krysta, Haley and Sarah!) at the museum entrance


A bunch of kids passed out on the bus = a successful trip

Other happenings in my work life:

• The Aliñambi nutrition/gardening program has been going strong; both groups' gardens are starting to sprout and the kids continue to learn more about taking control over their eating habits
• Erik has been helping me conduct agriculture surveys in the community to learn about effects of this season's drought and what projects we can help educate about during our charlas
• I've been working on a grant to help find finance security for our library and helping to organize projects for the summer volunteers to work on (including a reading club and literacy class)

Happy Earth Week!
- Jackie