lunes, 21 de junio de 2010

Earth Day Post

So I know, Earth Day is April 22nd......well, I wrote this blog on Earth Day but it just so happens to be two months later....well, I must say I have been quite busy.

As I sit here in my Peruvian bedroom that has become so familiar to me, sipping hot chocolate, I can do nothing more than smile. Land of Lakes hot chocolate sent by my wonderful Mom and pictures from today’s Earth Day activities are the perfect concoction of endless support from home mixed with the happiness that volunteering in Peru has brought me over these past few months. The coming of Earth Day for an environmental PCV is like Christmas for a 5 year old. I have been planning and coordinating activities for this oh so special day with the school director and teachers for some time now, and now we are past that first pitch we set up to climb.
These past few weeks, the teachers and children from the primary school have been helping me build a tree nursery for the school here in Huashao. We have built 7 different beds for trees, and we are planting 6 different species in these lovely constructions. With the kindergarten to 4th grade, we will be planting trees from

seed, including Tara, Eucalyptus, and Capuli. In the 5th and 6th grades, we will be using estacas (I can’t remember this word in English anymore, but I think stalk may be appropriate?), and esquejes (this one has left my vocabulary as well) of quenual and aliso. Generally in Peru, most tree nurseries are built to grow solely

eucalyptus and pine, which are non-native species that are grown solely for the future of cutting them down. On the contrary, our viveros will be dominantly native species, which are better for the local ecosystems and the local wildlife. One day down the road, all of these trees will be used for a reforestation program in the community, but first we need to get them growing!
To receive materials for our project, I wrote and delivered a formal document (called a solicitud), to the office of AgroRural, an organization of the Peruvian government that can most closely be compared to the USDA at home.

In addition to building a beautiful and lovely tree nursery at the school, we recently started a system of compost and lombricultura (worm bins) to demonstrate the benefits of organic fertilizers as an alternative to phosphorus and nitrogen. In addition to promoting organic alternatives, compost and lombricultura are a great way to teach the benefits of recycling (in this case your organic trash). In order to have a successful worm composting system, you need a specific specie of worm…the illustrious California red worm. After a 2 days full of phone calls to the AgroRural offices all over Ancash, I finally found an agricultural engineer who could give me worms. On a scavenger hunt of the strangest degree, I ended up with my regional coordinator waiting outside the house of an AgroRural technician in a random neighborhood of Huaraz. After 20 minutes of waiting outside, a motorcycling man with a large bushel of corn on the back showed up to greet us. It turned out that this senor was the guy we needed, and he invited us into his home to see his

lovely garden and of course to fill up our box with his worm compost. As Nelly and I wandered around looking at tree tomatoes, squashes, sunflowers (the best flower ever), and prickly pear cactuses, I happened to look up at his staircase to notice a one eyed hawk glaring at me. After much confusion and stare downs, Sr. Filipano explained to us that yes, this one eyed hawk with a string tied to its ankle was truly his pet. To wrap this up, we received 2 kilos of dirt with beautiful, healthy worms all ready to come to the campo and start composting.
If building a tree nursery and composting system wasn’t enough for Earth Day, I have also been teaching everyday this week (and will continue to do so tomorrow), and showing Disney’s “Earth” to each class in each grade. As any grade of students watched the movie, I watched them, and these are the pictures that are making me smirk while I sit here by myself in my room. Because I am a science nerd, it makes me happy to see unordinary science nerds appreciate something wonderful about biology and ecology. This week, I was happily treated to the smiling faces of these kids glued to watching polar bears slide down ice floes, ducklings hop out of tree holes, and male birds of paradise attempting to get some ladies while I sat on the sidelines and giggled to myself. I don’t usually like to show movies, but I felt that this was a great opportunity for the students to see some of the reasons why we should respect and care for our environment. It made me very happy to see how much they enjoyed it, even the kids that never want to be in class.
To finish up a great Earth Day, I worked on a town trash cleanup with the group of artisans from Incapacollkan that I work with regularly. This group of women and I are working together on environmental and income generating projects.

On this day of the Earth, we decided to do nothing more than pick up trash, which is a direct and effective way to improve your environmental situation. After about a half an hour playing in the river, alongside the road, and in the ditches, we all came back muddy, wet and with a huge bag full of trash. On my short walk back from Incapacollkan, there were two rainbows in the valley, the perfect addition to an Andean sunset. To make sure the night is just as good as my day, I am happily in my room, drinking one of my last hot chocolate packets from the U.S., and listening to Josh Turner. Happy Earth Day everyone! I hope you all are pricing tickets to Peru………….