Eco Camp Part Deux

 

This past Friday, the Green Initiative had it’s second practicum exercise in the form of another eco camp, this time we went to Woodford Primary School which has hosted Peace Corps volunteers in the past and currently has a volunteer named Wanda working as a literacy professional. Wanda and her husband John work hard with the kids, who know them well. The school started a terraced vegetable garden with other PCV’s the year before that as well. We had more to work with this week than last week, especially with Earth Day as a theme (oh yeah btw- HAPPY EARTH DAY!)

We started off the day with a quick introduction to Earth Day. The kids were not really familiar with the day and it became hard to explain once Cory made it seem like the Earth’s Birthday (cake and gifts…really?)… but I’m a perfectionist when it comes to integrity of information and I take for granted my ability to put things into applicable terms. It took a lot to not interrupt and I can’t say I avoided the urge completely.

After that, I lead one of my favorite ice breaking activities called The Human Knot. the kids all circle up, close their eyes and grab any hand they feel in theirs- one hand/arm per hand/arm. They open their eyes and try to untangle themselves without breaking grip. We got as far as we could, sometimes it’s not physically possible to move like a piece of string- and then I talked about how the human knot is like cycles on the Earth, and people’s roles in it. Everyone had to move together to untie the knot, no one person could do it successfully so there was a cause and effect lesson AND a behavior change lesson. I’m definitely using that game again.

After the human knot, Jackie and Vinai lead a scavenger hunt in two parts. In the first 15 minutes the 4 groups searched for things related to each other: a dry leaf, a decomposer, soil etc. and in the second 15 minutes they searched for things involving humans: something that interrupts nature, something that’s a million years old, something humans changed. The group leaders did a really good job of getting the students to think about these things during the hunt, so the discussion after was pretty participatory- my favorite!

Jamaicans are used to having a break in pretty much everything they participate in- including movies at the theatre- so after a 15 minute snack and water break we split into two groups for Garden Beautification. One group painted rock pets to put around the garden path, the other weeded the garden. Again, the students were eager to participate which was such a relief.

Finally, we had the kids write Earth Day pledges and share them, followed by a tree planting and Earth Day birthday cake (oy). We planted Mahogany, Lignum Vitae and the Poui tree, which is planted outside the school where we train and I’m obsessed with its flowers and branches. The Lignum Vitae is also the Jamaica national flower, so there’s that.

Before we left, the boys and girls respectively wanted to perform for us. The boys got embarrassed when the music wasn’t loud enough and ended up goofing around for a bit before the girls took over and sang us some songs. At the end they asked us to to an American song or dance for them. Clueless and in a hurry, we grouped up and shot down every idea from Bohemian Rhapsody and Don’t Stop Believing to the Chicken Dance. We said we had nothing and filed to the front of the classroom to receive the students’ vote of thanks, but they wouldn’t give it until we performed for them soooo, we decided to teach them the Chicken Dance- or, rather, I taught them and my co-trainees helped with the song. Turns out it was a great idea because they loved it, and as the song got faster they wanted to do more and more rounds till the old PCT’s (meaning all of us) were breathless and laughing. Later that night at the bar, while good naturedly humoring the men after a game of dominoes, one of the boys asked me to show him my moves (really, all they ever wanna know is if the white girl can wind)… So obviously I busted out the Chicken Dance. That got em laughing.

We had a tex-mex cooking party planned for Saturday to simultaneously avoid 7th Day Adventist church and to eat some comfort food, so after Eco Camp, and after a strange foray to Hope Gardens Zoo for an enviro expo which wasn’t as relevant as we expected, we went to the grocery store and bought lots of food and lots of rum. We left to go pick up one of our LCF’s (learning community facilitator, I think) at the Peace Corps Office, as she was at a meeting to solidify our final site locations, and she told us to expect some Youth as Promise people to attend as well. We all became a bit grouchy after that, number one because every member of our training team has information we so desperately thirst for, and withholds it, and number two because we were unsure if we had enough food to feed everyone. Or rum.

Turns out we did, and we had some truly delicious food to combine with some wonderful company. Only four volunteers from YAP came to our little schoolhouse (which has a full kitchen and refrigerator), but a few of their LCF’s also joined, along with our LCF’s, Dan the GI supervisor (who is awesome) and Joan, the cultural trainer. Dominoes, Jax, Frisbee, party hats (for Joan’s son’s birthday), cake, tacos, home made tortillas and mango and tomato salsa combined with a bit of rum made the day quite a low key blast. Autumn and I even took a regenerating hike to John’s shade house and chatted, watching the goats across the little valley and making whistles out of grass.

Today, strong rain and thunder storms have kept me blissfully lazy, uploading pictures, eating food, writing this and even sleeping extra. My mind wanders home, especially on Sunday’s and I hear you are all enjoying some rain as well. May your plants grow tall and green and healthy this spring my friends and as always, much love from the land of wood and water <3