Bird Fest wrapped up

Last monday was the last festival de aves, and other then some paperwork to fill out I can officially say it is over. It took 3 months to exicute, 7 volunteers, about 300 kids and around 15 teachers to pull it off. I say it was a success!

I'll do a quick rundown of each school..(Escuela Basica de Nicaragua is in the previous post)

Monseñor Acha: The biggest school. Had four other volunteers come in to help us and we didn't stay at the school we went to a teachers house that could handle that amount of kids and was kinda campo-ish. This included a bus ride that the directora of the school organized!! We went out twice that day, with 90 kids in the morning and 60 in the afternoon. The bus came to the school, we drove out, did our thing and got back in about 3 hours! Since there were so many kids we broke them into four groups. We would have three games and a birdwalk with two volunteers per game and me for the walk, after 20 min the group would rotate. I did many bird walks that day! We also had a bird costume that we busted out for a skit at the end about why you shouldn't use birds as target practice with your slingshot.
here are some pics from that day:

bus ride out

Tringy! a sandpiper like bird that migrates to PY for the winter

Noo!! Don't shoot tringy!!

Stop shootin me

a ball of bird masks

At this school I had them do some bird drawings to put out

so colorful!

The next school was in  Ndavaru, about 7 miles outside of the city center, and with only 30 kids it was done in one afternoon and was really nice! Lauren had been working with this school and we stared off the day with a giving out the cups, a presentation of the bird masks and a play they had been working on. Parents were invited to view this part. After we played a game with all of them that Lauren had made up about migration that involved running and tagging and was a good time. Then we split them into two groups and the teachers and I took half on a birdwalk while Lauren and Andrew played games with the other half, we had a break in the middle then we switched. Then Tringy came out for a group picture! It took us the whole afternoon and was a beautiful day outside. Another great success! This school was the best bird walk that I went on because we were out in the camp and I saw so many things, the teachers really knew the plants and birds and were able to point them out much better than I could have! I saw a monkey nest in a tree, a tarantula hole in the ground, snake skin, crazy fruits and rare birds. I was excited. The kids were as well, every time a bird flew by or was spotted they would get really into it!
 

Presentation of bird masks

The play

Bird walk led by Profe Will

Group Pic!

The last school was San Vincente, we did a similar model to the school in Ndavaru since it was small (30 kids) with the mask presentation and skit and all. This time though Lauren and I had 3 aspiring volunteer trainees visiting us. Our sister group has arrived driving home that fact that we've been here for more than a year! So they got to witness and experience ..and help.. on our last bird fest!

Bird beak game

Slingshot game, kids have to hit the x's not the birds

concentrate!

Birdwalk

Group pic

So now that it's over I can look back and say it was a great success! Will schools continue to do this after I'm gone? I'd have to honestly answer probably not. A festival is a big thing to plan and teachers are already doing other things that they might not think they could handle it. But at least these kids have more conscientiousness about birds and that's something right there.
Things I would have done differently, just done three schools. Or even better just one. The charla's themselves should have been broken up and done at least 2 different times to really drive the points home. The kids didn't really remember anything we taught them in the charla. Good thing we left a copy with the teacher. Lets home they use it!

I thank everyone who helped me and I think all in all it was a success!
score!

Bird Fest cont.....

Bird fest is going well...mostly. Today we should be doing a double, two schools, two bird fests, one day, but there was a huuge storm last night with mega mpr winds that knocked down my tv antenna and garlic plant and all sorts of stuff throughout the city. The supervisor of the Environmental sector and the president of the organization Guyra were supposed to come out and watch/help/bring binoculars as well today and it aaalll got cancelled. We have another school to do tomorrow so we really needed those binoculars, so what we did was have our supervisor send them encomienda. Thank goodness for this system. Pretty much someone at some location can put stuff on a bus and send it to your location. So she sent the binoculars, a bird costume that some poor soul will wear and some prizes via the bus and we picked them up on the ruta by my house. So we're all ready for tomorrow!

Now this is our day of games, we did our charla day earlier with all the schools to lead up to this day. So far we've done it with one school.

How it went: With this school it was with the 5th graders only and our plan was to get them all together (there are 2 diff 5th grade classes in the morning and afternoon, four in total) do a big game with both classes together then split them back up. One class went with Lauren and I on a bird walk and the other stayed with Andrew to play some games. Then a break and we would reconvene and play a few big group games all together. Then I would give them their stickers and all would be well. Ok so it didn't go exxaactly like that. I was able to do a big group icebreaker game with them, kinda like tag but with an extinction theme. We did one round and then they were done with that.
We then broke up into the groups so Andrew could do his thing and Lauren and I could go bird watching. We had about 14 kids in the first group, 2 binoculars and no teacher, not by choice... he was just busy making fruit salad.... We pretty much just went to the plaza for 15 mins but there were enough birds there to look at. A little population of green parrots live in the plaza and, of course, lots of pigeons. The kids would get really excited when the spotted a bird and really wanted to see them with the binoculars and would always point them out to me and Lauren. It was cute. But then they all ran to the playground to play, and there was no controlling them. We did the same for the next group until they told us they had to go to gym class and then recess. oookkkk. So much for our event, we just waited till they were done to try and have our big games. At this point we were kinda burnt out because these were the most rooouuudiest kids ever! Sooo hard to settle down and we were just yelling over their voices all the time, it was really difficult! We decided to cut our large games down to one and we only played it once, after the kids ran off before I could give them a sticker. The one teacher who was helping us seemed like he was a step away from having a heart attack from yelling at the kids which also helped in our decision to end early. I just gave the stickers to the teachers to hand out later.

We were scared for the afternoon class and decided to try not to make it long but thankfully it went much smoother! Tomorrows school is a big one, we will be working with 102 kids in the morning and 73 in the afternoon..and there will be some friend coming in to help manage it, 6 volunteers in all we will be!!

So that's what's been goin on round here, stay tuned for more...

Many pigeons in the park

bird beak game

Lika and the storm damage

Festival de Aves

   My bird festival has officially begun as of Monday the 13th! What is a bird fest you ask? It is a day (or many days) to heighten awareness of the birdies (aves). And why? Because birds are a terrific indicator species of how healthy a habitat is. Having a diverse bird population demonstrates that there is a diverse ecosystem afoot. Why is biodiversity important? Because daily, we humans use 40,000 plants, animals, fungus and microbes to make our stuff with. Stuff like medicine, food, and combustibles. When we destroy habitats, we destroy the diversity that we need to survive.

Didja like that? I just snuck in part of my charla (lecture)into this blog. Here in Py, October is a big bird month because of migration. Many birds either pass through or come to Paraguay from up north for the summer here. Paraguay has 708 different species of birds in it and 30% (212) of those birds are migratory. So we here at Cuerpo de Paz team up with Guyra Paraguay to help bring about awareness to Paraguayans about the importance of birds, habitat and biodiversity.

Guyra Paraguay (pronounced goorah, means bird in Guarani) is the Paraguayan offshoot of the Birdlife organization that is dedicated to saving birds around the world, in America it's the Audubon society.
So what have I been doing then? A few volunteers ago some money was donated from one of the volunteers friends and family in the states to do a sweet birdfest near Carapegua. With that money the volunteer was able to get some snacks, rent a bus and take school kids out to a reserve nearby that is a known hotspot for migratory birds. There he played games and they went on a birdwalk complete with binoculars lent by Guyra and a guide from the park. There was plenty of money left over so the next volunteer in the area (the person whom I'm following up) was able to use the money to have another bird fest in the same place. And still there was money left over and they were able to do another bird fest in the same place the next year. Now I'm here.. and there is still money left over for me to use. Que suerte! (what luck). Albeit it's only a small sum compared to what was available for the other bird fests but that's ok.

What I plan/have planned to do:
1.Charlas in the school. I was told the other years prep work in the school was very little, to the kids it was a day of fun games but not much lesson behind them. So me and my guapo (hard working) PCV neighbors Lauren and Andrew, who have come on board to help, me all sat down and decided what was the best for the kids to learn. We came up with Biodiversity, Extinction, PY bird facts and Migration. It seems the teachers don't really know much about it either so it's a good opportunity for them as well. To interested teachers I have been giving a copy of our charla so they can use it again.

2. We're getting a lot of support from Guyra. They will provide binoculars and a bird costume for the game day. They have given me books, stickers and bird watching guides as well to use and donate to the school when we're done.

3. Bird masks. I have a book full of bird masks that the kids can color and cut out and wear for our game day.

4. A game day and bird walk day. We're going to stick around the city because I don't have the funds to bring them out to the reserve, but it's fine because they can see the birds that live right in their backyard. We're doing this with 4 different schools.

5. Plays and drawings of birds so we can have an exhibition day.

6. Maaaybe paint a mural on one of the schools walls about biodiversity.

Andrew teachin that biodiversidad!

7. I bought reusable plastic cups and I'm going to have stickers printed out to put on them that I will give each kid as a gift and to teach them about reusing.

So far it's gone well, we've completed the charla in one school (the biggest one) with the 4th, 5th and 6th grades (173 students). Thank goodness for Lauren and Andrew's help!

Before wrapping this up I would like to share 2 things that stood out from giving my charlas...

Lauren, Andrew and the 6th grade class pretending to be super aves

#1 I taught the morning 4th grade class on my own and then in the afternoon lauren was there to help me, thank goodness because the afternoon class is much more rambunctious than the morning. Afterwords I said to the teacher the difference between the two classes is amazing and she said yes, the biodiversity. Hehe! Yay new word learned!

The kids pretending to be cold during the winter! Gotta fly south!

#2 Lauren and I were right at the end about to finish the charla when a man walked into the class, I thought he was there to give something to the teacher...boy did I get a shock when instead of going over to her desk he stood right in front of us and started selling stickers to the kids!!!! Who does that?! Strait up interrupts us, stands in front of us and just starts selling s*%t?! We were so in shock, and the kids ran up to him to buy some so we had to wait till he was done. Absolutely amazing. So RUUUUUDE! And the teachers didn't even do anything! I'll be ready next time.

Anywho, I'll keep updating how it goes!!
chachau

Ñanday Parrot. Prob caught in the wild and they will prob stay in cages this small for the rest of their lives. This is why we need to educate the people!!

Cardenal's in the back cage. Different from ours, only the head is red. I was told they aren't many left. Both these birds were for sale at the mercado in asuncion

Lauren, Andrew and I work space while we were making the charla

Door Drama

April to August. 4 months. That’s how long it has taken to get me a door for my bedroom. My house has many doorways, 8 in total, and 6 doors. One of those doorless doorways is the main door to my bedroom, for awhile I had a sheet hanging for privacy reasons that served it's purpose. But then my kitten started getting bigger and was soon able to jump on my bed to sleep with me. At first it was cute and I didn't mind the cuddle, but she was taken from her mother to young and because of this she has a little problem. Whenever she feels content and purrs, she also starts to nurse..on me. So I would be awoken at very early every morning with a kitten sucking on my shirt or neck, then she would get up and want to play resulting in her jumping on my face. Not a nice way to wake up. I put up with it though because there really wasn't much I could do without a door. Then she got fleas and I could feel them crawling on me. It was time to ask for a door. I started with the owners of the house to see what they would say. I told them I needed it for the cold and I wanted my room to stay warm. I couldn't tell them the real reason was for a cat, they would just tell me to kick her out of the house or hit her or something. She is too Americanized to be kicked to the curb at this point. Then one day...I saw worms coming out her butt!!!!!! NO WAY!!! LAST STRAW!!! NO MORE CATS IN THE BEDROOM!!!

The reason for all of this

We took the door that divided my room from the spare room and leaned it up against my doorway like this...

The "door" to my room

So now we have to walk through the storage room to get to my bedroom, there is no direct way out to the kitchen or livingroom. Bear in mind that my bedroom has three doorways, one going into the storage room, one going into the livingroom (now blocked by door barricade)and the third going into the kitchen which I put my dresser in front of and barricaded the bottom from cats. Now I've been waiting for this door for about two months, I keep asking my neighbor and he says oh yes he has one for me but we need to get someone to look at the doorway to make a frame, he'll come tomorrow. This person never shows up, I leave it alone for another week then ask again. Oh yes I have a door frame and a door I'll bring it tomorrow. Never shows. I leave it alone for a bit. it's now been three months. I go over and hang out with the fam and casually ask about it. He's forgotten alll about. Come by tomorrow at 12! He's not there he's having a siesta. come by at 5. He's not there he's at a meeting. I'm starting to doubt he even has a door. It's 4 months now and we're really puttin the pressure on. It may be customary in Paraguay not to follow through but if you say you have something we're gonna hold you to it! Two weeks ago we saw him and I asked if we could get the door now and he said oooh...well..it's made of wood. maybe tomorrow. There is no door is there.... Then last week he brings us over to his shed and shows us the door, and the frame!!! They're reeeaaaallll!!! But we couldn't take them yet he had to clean the shed. Sigh. At least we know it's there. The next day we had a surprise when we came home and saw the doorframe put over our fence and into the patio..we're halfway there!!!! Then, 2 days ago, I saw him out raking his yard and we went over and he tried to tell us he'd bring it over tomorrow but I was like no it's ok we'll get it today that way you can rest tomorrow. And guess what, we finally got a door!!

Other side of current "door" to my room

TV

The antenna, a bamboo pole and florescent light

The florescent tube with cable connecting to TV

The garden project, revisited

My garden class was moving along swimmingly until we hit a pretty big road block. After we made the tablones (raised beds) in the ground at the site for our garden, we had to wait to put up a fence before we could plant any seeds or transfer any of the growing plants out of the seedboxes. It is very necessary to have a fence because of free roaming chickens. A chicken drive by could ruin all the hard work you've put into a garden within minutes!

I was told the teachers would put up a fence and have the kids plant seeds and transplant the other growing plants while I was away visiting the Iguazu falls in Argentina, when I came back they told me they were sorry they didn't do it and they couldn't do it without me! (Idk maybe they need me as a cheerleader or just someone who keeps showing up and pushing them). So they asked if I would come help them during the winter break which is 2 weeks in July, the same 2 weeks I would be in the States. Upon returning from Los Estados Unidos I learned that the government tacked on another week of break due to cold (they wouldn't last a Jersey winter then!). So by the time I got back to the school there was still no fence up and the plantitas (transplant plants) were muerta (dead).

"We must begin again!" they told me. "But this time we shall plant the plants right here in the school in containers, just the plants that will grow in the winter".
This is what I suggested we do in the first place but I suppose they had to get to that conclusion their own way. So we began once again. This time some students brought some wooden crates from fruit stands and some brought abono (fertilized or composted soil) which we put right into the boxes after lining them with plastic garbage bags with drain holes. The teachers told me where they wanted them to be which is in between these two buildings in a kind of alleyway next the sink. This area probably gets about two hours of sunlight a day, I told them this but...many times... but hey, at least it's close to the sink. I told them if they don't start to sprout better move the location.

Last friday I stopped by to talk to the principal of the school with Lauren, a volunteer who lives close by. While there one of my students came into the office and told me that kids had walked all over our garden, Lauren and I went to look. It didn't appear to be stepped on but there was garbage in one, and all of them were without sprouts. Sigh. Bad location and no one taking the initiative to water them even though I told them and the teacher make sure they get water every day!

I asked lauren how much do I hold their hands with these projects? I know they wanted a school garden and I tried twice to help them with that but I can't be the only person trying, they need to take some initiative as well! How many times do I have to repeat simple things like how much sun a day they should get and how they need water every day... to teachers??!!

Well I tried. And my garden is coming along nicely! The next project I'm working on is a big one. We call it the festival de aves (bird festival) and it's to raise awareness of the importance of birds. It's been done in my site since 2007 and I'm happy to carry on the tradition. More to come.

Frutas y Verduras

I would like to take the time to point out the differences in produce here and produce back in the States. I do my shopping at the market and supermarket a couple blocks away. Now, I'm not exactly sure where the fruits and veggies are coming from in the supermarket (could be close by, could be Argentina) but usually the fruits and veggies in the stands at the market come from local farms and gardens and there is such a difference in size from what I'm used to back home. I'm sure here there are no growth hormone genes and whatever else is put into our American produce, does this mean these are the fruits and veggies true sizes???
And at some point my garden will be ready! (If the cats don't jump on it first)...

My Wee Garden

Cantalope (Melón)

Pineapple (Piña)

Green Pepper (Locote)

Cucumber (Pepiño)

The Cold and Dia De Amistad

We are now in the dead of winter down here, sounds funny saying that since it's August and I know back home it's hot hot hot! But down here it can range anywhere from 80F down to 55F and at night it can be in the 40s. I live in a cement block of a house with sun only hitting one side of it and no heat,and I can tell you that 60F is cold in my icebox house!! At this moment I have on slippers, sweatpants, a hoodie and gloves with fingerholes. It's amazing to think that during the summer just the thought of these clothes made me want to jump in a cold shower! Now I wish I had more!
We've actually just come off the winter break down here, it's supposed to be 2 weeks in July but because it was so cold they extended it to be 3 weeks. Last year they extended it to be 3 weeks as well because of swine flu scares. I couldn't imagine the schools in New Jersey trying to extend the break due to cold, it's hard enough to get a snow day! This extended break worked out well for me though since I just got back from a wonderful 13 day trip back home. I needed that extra week to get back into the swing of things.

So July 31st is Dia De Amistad,friendship day, is a big deal down here. When we told them we don't have one in the states they couldn't believe it. It's pretty much a day to acknowledge your friends by sending them texts or giving them little stuffed bears or signs that say something about amistad. I was told that you should especially be nice to your friends who know all your secrets. Seems like a plesant little holiday, unless of course you don't receive a text, call or any presents. Could get a bit depressing then.

Ok I promis to be better and update my blog more, especially now that I have the interwebs in my house. No excuses!

ChauChau 4 now