Planning and Designing

Buenos notches a todos,

This past Wednesday and Thursday have been efficient. Yesterday morning Kendall and I met with Oswaldo and planned our day. Our goal for the day was to meet with the Medicinal Garden group. We started our morning with Jesus (the school director) asking us to lead the Raging River game again with his group. We got our cardboard squares and our Spanish poster out to explain the game to the class. As soon as the game started, the class was cooperating together. They were very competitive and excited! Jesus was as excited as the students and was the first one in line to play! After the game Jesus and the students were asking for more. They wanted us to get the hockey equipment ready.

Students happy to play Hockey!

            Kendall and I got the nets ready and the Dawson jerseys out. Girls and boys got excited at the sight of the jerseys.  They put them on, took a stick and were ready to listen to Kendall’s instructions. They practiced shooting the ball back and forth. They quickly got the hang of it and were ready to play a match! Students rotated on and off the game and had a blast, playing Hockey.

            After Kendall and I finished leading our activities, we got straight to the meeting with the Medicinal Garden Group. The students showed us their design and plan for their garden. They had all the plants written out of where they wanted them to be planted. They had done their research properly. The only concern we had for them was the location they had chosen for their garden. It was too exposed to the sun. Medicinal plants are delicate therefore they need a shady area. As soon as we established the correct area we marked the dimension and divisions of the medicinal garden. The girls, Kendall, Oswaldo and I got right into it. We got the tools out and started removing the grass from the marked area. The girls were working very hard. We finished our meeting with a game lead by Oswaldo that focused on team building and coordination.

Designing the Medicinal Garden.

Removing the grass.

            We then attended a last minute organized meeting with the Self-Watering Container Group. Kendall and I got the projector ready and gave them a mini lecture/workshop on how the self-watering containers work. The students were very interested by this new gardening method. We drew detailed pictures to further explain the usage of this technique. We also showed them inspiring pictures of various homemade self-watering containers. The students were very interested in this project and left the meeting feeling up to a challenge and ready to create their own self-watering containers.

            Today we took the entire morning to calculate and photograph the number of and types of plants/trees the Ayala campus has on their grounds. We are trying to build an accurate inventory of all the waste the school holds per year to find out their total carbon footprint. By finding the total amount of carbon footprint we can then plant the right amount of plants to make their school carbon neutral.

Documenting the Ayala's plants.

Playing games with the
Self-Waterng Container group.

            In the afternoon we met once more with the Self-Watering Container group to have them sketch their self-watering containers. The students made a list of all the materials they might want to use to create their containers. They will be bringing them in to school tomorrow at 8am to get started on the construction of the containers. To facilitate them for all their work and dedication we finished the meeting with three dynamic games.

All the students are very keen on bring their projects to reality. They are enthusiastic at every meeting. They always smile and make me love my job. Every morning I look forward to working with them. Waking up at 6am does not make it so difficult when you have people so kind and happy to see you. They are great workers and we recognize their volunteered devotion. I love the people I work with everyday. They make me feel like I am part of their community!

Adios for now,

Gab :]

P.S:

Here is what I mean by feeling part of their community:
For breakfast, students roasted vegetables and meat for all of us (including their teachers).
They ensured Kendall had his 5 meat (cessina) tacos and I got my two vegetarian (Nopal cactus) tacos.
The students are great firends and take good care of us.