News aggregator
Smells
People always ask me to sum up my cape verdean experience in a couple sentences... normally, i can' t do that because there is just too much to say. but today, when i was wine tasting in Mendoza i got it. i can sum up my entire experience; the smell of fermenting wine. i know it sounds weird, but today i walked into a winery and that smell hit me. the yeast, the grapes, everything about cape verde came back to me in that smell . i miss it...
anywho, today laurie and i went to 4 different wineries in Mendoza. we got to them by bicycle with a couple of english friends we met in a hostel. Well i should clarify, we didn't just bike, we tandom biked....it was a site to see and don't let anyone tell you that riding tandom is an easy thing. we almost crashed a million times, the most deadly was due to a pile of trash sitting in our bike lane, but in the end, we made it safe and sound (and quite tipsy!) we have one more day in mednoza tomorrow, which i think will be spent visitin the local hot springs since our legs and bums (english friends favorite word) are quite sore. we don't really have a plan for the next week but we'll figure it out, we always due.
i'll put some pictures up soon, maybe on facebook so keep a look out!
anywho, today laurie and i went to 4 different wineries in Mendoza. we got to them by bicycle with a couple of english friends we met in a hostel. Well i should clarify, we didn't just bike, we tandom biked....it was a site to see and don't let anyone tell you that riding tandom is an easy thing. we almost crashed a million times, the most deadly was due to a pile of trash sitting in our bike lane, but in the end, we made it safe and sound (and quite tipsy!) we have one more day in mednoza tomorrow, which i think will be spent visitin the local hot springs since our legs and bums (english friends favorite word) are quite sore. we don't really have a plan for the next week but we'll figure it out, we always due.
i'll put some pictures up soon, maybe on facebook so keep a look out!
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
milk on the table
Hey people,
Last time I wrote I was about to enter a wind technician training school in Vancouver, WA (US not Canada, contrary to what I originally thought). The six-month $11,000 school laid a solid foundation of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and programmable control systems and a brief overview of how wind turbines work. In case you’re interested, as I was, how wind turbines turn wind into electricity I’ll explain:
The wind blows and spins the rotor of these 300’ tall turbines. In popular designs, the rotor has three blades. The blades range between 90-180’ in length. Each. They are big. The spinning rotor is attached to a low speed shaft. This shaft enters a gearbox inside the nacelle. (The nacelle is the big box that rests on top of the tubular shaft.) The gearbox transforms each rotation of the low speed shaft into 70-80 revolutions of a high-speed shaft. This high-speed shaft plugs into a generator. Inside the generator, the rotating shaft has a set of magnets on the end. These magnets on the rotor (called rotor for “rotating piece”), rotate a few thousandths of an inch from a stationary set of magnets (called a stator for “stationary piece”). This movement causes flux. Flux is the movement of free electrons that jump from the rotating magnet to the stationary magnet. This is electricity – the movement of free electrons. Copper wires are wrapped around the stationary magnets. These wires garner and transmit the electricity 300 feet down to the ground. At ground level, the electricity is converted into a usable current in a transformer. The usable current is sent into the electrical grid.
Wind to shaft to magnets to electricity. Power generation is all about harnessing and transferring energy. In the case of wind, turbines transform the natural movement of air into our power grids. Pretty cool stuff. So that’s basically what I learned at school.
There were 21 guys in my class. Ages ranged from 18-52. Some guys were laid off from their last job, some wanted to try something new, and some, like myself, still hadn’t chosen a career. They were machinists, excavators, electricians, HVAC journeymen, nuclear technicians, butchers, construction managers, truck drivers, teachers, car washers to name a few. Altogether a really solid and talented group of individuals.
It’s weird how fast you get to know people; I knew these guys for six months, but the way we acted in class you would think it was much longer… at least I felt that way. In getting to know my colleagues over the six months, it seems like they all wanted the same thing out of a career: they wanted to put milk on the table. And if it was in a promising new industry like wind, that was all the better. I think this is the same for just about everyone – people want to make enough bread for their family and themselves. And if they can enjoy their job too, that’s icing on the cake. It’s too bad this is so hard for so many people. Myself included.
A company called Granite Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric, offered me a job a week before graduation. The job is as an installation and receiving turbine technician. The potential new hire before me failed his background check and I was next on the list. Unfortunately, I was one of only two people out of 21 in my class who found a wind technician job before graduation. The rest of the guys in my class have now returned to their previous jobs, filed for unemployment or are waiting for that phone call. Our Career Services people told us that up to 800 people apply for positions posted online on sites like monster.com or windjobs.org. While I did have dozens of resumes floating the Internet, I still consider myself very lucky.
While I surely grieved with my colleagues in the lack of secured entry-level positions, I prepared myself for the tremendous opportunity to work for a part of General Electric. I packed up my stuff, drove my parents car back to Atlanta from Portland and flew to New York for training. I am now two weeks into a four-week training program at the GE Learning Center. My position, as an installation and receiving turbine technician, will take me all over the US. I will help install new wind farms. It’s been mostly safety courses so far… I’ll learn more about the job later on in training and once I get out to site.
gidddddyup. Homeboy’s goin corporate!
Outside of class in Vancouver, I couldn’t lay off of this whole Peace Corps thing – the potential of this organization continued to intrigue me. How would one, step by step, help develop Peace Corps into a more serious organization? I spent a great deal of time thinking about this when I was a Volunteer as well as in those months right when I got home. In fact, I kept and still keep a little notebook to jot down ideas. I usually have it in my pocket in case I think of something I want to remember. One day in my electrical class, I noticed I was nearing the end of my notebook. I flipped to the beginning to reflect on the kinds of things I was thinking some months back. The notebook started that previous May, about the time I was running around Praia looking for a job. I had a few sketches of a Peace Corps website idea I thought might be good. This website would allow Peace Corps Volunteers to post project information onto a central database, share their work with other volunteers and family and friends at home as well as allow them to solicit donations for in-service projects.
I then flipped to the most recent page. The night before I had sketched out essentially the same idea. The same idea – six months apart. I thought, this was eerie. I also thought it showed consistency in how my mind was working. Consistency is good. I took this as a sign to invest in this idea. In the following days, I finalized a proposal and posted it on elance.com, a website designed for finding talent and posting job proposals for computer related stuff. After 24 hours, I had 21 bids. Buyers market baby. Cybernetikz.com made me a great offer. They are a team of web developers from Bangladesh. I awarded them the project. We would communicate via email.
My readjustment allowance from Peace Corps covered the initial expense. I got a job as an assistant teacher in a local elementary school special education classroom to help pay for the website development. This job kept my head above water.
For two months, I worked, went to school at night and oversaw Cybernetikz’s development of www.pcprojex.org. The tagline is “projects that change communities.” The site functions like Youtube – Volunteers can upload project information, including documents, spreadsheets, pictures, videos, etc. The site counts project views, allows for ratings and comments and arranges the projects by sector and location. As mentioned above, this website allows Peace Corps Volunteers to post project information onto a central database and share their work with other volunteers and family and friends at home. It also allows them to solicit donations for in-service projects through the Peace Corps Partnerships Program.
I emailed the website to my colleagues in Cape Verde, the National Peace Corps Association and the Peace Corps Partnerships Program (PCPP). PCPP is the Peace Corps program associated with micro-lending projects – a major theoretical component of pcprojex.org. Everyone seemed to like the idea. This made me happy. However, I wanted more than an applause. I wanted people to use it. If Peace Corps Volunteers would use this site or if Peace Corps would mandate Volunteers to use this site, it would be a comprehensive database for grassroots community projects happening around the world. It could be used for training purposes, inspiration for potential projects, etc. It could be phenomenal.
Easier said than done. PCPP people arranged a conference call two months after I emailed them. When they called, the other end of the line sat the PCPP program director, marketing director as well as a few regional and administrative PCPP people – some heavy hitters. They said many nice things about the website. This made me feel good. Then they asked me what I wanted to do next – I threw out about half a dozen ideas. They rejected every one of them because of “policy.” I then asked if they would be interested in financing a second phase. They laughed. After the phone call, I felt weird – on one hand five administrative people spent 45 minutes talking to me about how they liked pcprojex. They didn’t have to do that. But they did. On the other hand, they were completely uninterested in exploring any further ideas. There wasn’t even any need for a follow up call.
When I snapped the phone shut, I stared out the window of my apartment. I didn’t feel angry. Actually, I sympathized with them. They work for the government. They are strapped with hundreds of pages of policy designed to keep calm waters… to resist change. It’s a matter of values – our current government values adhering to what is in place rather than taking risks. With no risk, there is no change. With no change, systems eventually become outdated… Even though the PCPP people outright rejected me, they may have been trying to tell me that to bring change I must continue doing what I was doing. Whether or not this assumption is correct, this conclusion suited me fine.
One of the additional ideas I mentioned during the conference call was to try and organize the type of work Peace Corps Volunteers do in the field. I thought I could tackle this issue as a continuation of pcprojex.
What do Peace Corps Volunteers do? Imagine you were to divide the US Federal government among two sectors: military and non-military. If military is security and defense, would the non-military half of the government be peaceful? Perhaps the work scope of Peace Corps Volunteers would involve to some degree the non-military elements of our government. I considered this. I originally got this military/non-military idea from wallstats.com, a website I have referenced several times on this blog. After some time thinking about the wallstats poster, I came up with this list of work sectors: water, food, waste, health, youth and family, shelter, education, transportation, environment, energy, business, technology. These are what I call the twelve elements of community. Loosely prioritized based on need, they identify some of the basic and advanced elements necessary to build and sustain a community. This list is designed to be universal – independent of culture, religion, socio-economy, etc. It may not be everything; think of this list as a starting place. Here is a short video that describes how I arrived at this list in further detail: http://www.prcprojex.org/projects.
If this list captures some of the major components of community, I think the next step is to identify how people relate to each one of these elements. For example, what is man’s natural relationship to water? Where do we get water? How do we use water? How can we most sustainably procure and conserve water? I’m trying to think about this objectively… like, naturally speaking. I think there are patterns in nature. And I think it is important we identify and follow these patterns, causing as little harm to nature as possible. For some places, like the US, this may mean we have to take a few steps backwards. In other less developed countries like Cape Verde, we may be able to avoid the same mistakes richer folk have made in recent history.
I’ve completed three of the videos so far if you’d like to check them out. I’ve gone to great lengths trying to make them visually appealing, entertaining and informative. If you disagree with something, please tell me. I enjoy debate:
Water - http://www.prcprojex.org/water
Food - http://www.prcprojex.org/food
Waste - http://www.prcprojex.org/waste
I understand this project is turning out to be kind of a massive undertaking. Oh well. If someone has another plan, I would love to hear you out. I’m continuously frustrated with how difficult some things are these days. This project is my outlet for this aggression. It’s fun though. This gives me something to think about in my free time. I think it’s always good to explore new approaches to the same old game.
Okay, so that’s my story up to now. Thanks for reading.
brian
Last time I wrote I was about to enter a wind technician training school in Vancouver, WA (US not Canada, contrary to what I originally thought). The six-month $11,000 school laid a solid foundation of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and programmable control systems and a brief overview of how wind turbines work. In case you’re interested, as I was, how wind turbines turn wind into electricity I’ll explain:
The wind blows and spins the rotor of these 300’ tall turbines. In popular designs, the rotor has three blades. The blades range between 90-180’ in length. Each. They are big. The spinning rotor is attached to a low speed shaft. This shaft enters a gearbox inside the nacelle. (The nacelle is the big box that rests on top of the tubular shaft.) The gearbox transforms each rotation of the low speed shaft into 70-80 revolutions of a high-speed shaft. This high-speed shaft plugs into a generator. Inside the generator, the rotating shaft has a set of magnets on the end. These magnets on the rotor (called rotor for “rotating piece”), rotate a few thousandths of an inch from a stationary set of magnets (called a stator for “stationary piece”). This movement causes flux. Flux is the movement of free electrons that jump from the rotating magnet to the stationary magnet. This is electricity – the movement of free electrons. Copper wires are wrapped around the stationary magnets. These wires garner and transmit the electricity 300 feet down to the ground. At ground level, the electricity is converted into a usable current in a transformer. The usable current is sent into the electrical grid.
Wind to shaft to magnets to electricity. Power generation is all about harnessing and transferring energy. In the case of wind, turbines transform the natural movement of air into our power grids. Pretty cool stuff. So that’s basically what I learned at school.
There were 21 guys in my class. Ages ranged from 18-52. Some guys were laid off from their last job, some wanted to try something new, and some, like myself, still hadn’t chosen a career. They were machinists, excavators, electricians, HVAC journeymen, nuclear technicians, butchers, construction managers, truck drivers, teachers, car washers to name a few. Altogether a really solid and talented group of individuals.
It’s weird how fast you get to know people; I knew these guys for six months, but the way we acted in class you would think it was much longer… at least I felt that way. In getting to know my colleagues over the six months, it seems like they all wanted the same thing out of a career: they wanted to put milk on the table. And if it was in a promising new industry like wind, that was all the better. I think this is the same for just about everyone – people want to make enough bread for their family and themselves. And if they can enjoy their job too, that’s icing on the cake. It’s too bad this is so hard for so many people. Myself included.
A company called Granite Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric, offered me a job a week before graduation. The job is as an installation and receiving turbine technician. The potential new hire before me failed his background check and I was next on the list. Unfortunately, I was one of only two people out of 21 in my class who found a wind technician job before graduation. The rest of the guys in my class have now returned to their previous jobs, filed for unemployment or are waiting for that phone call. Our Career Services people told us that up to 800 people apply for positions posted online on sites like monster.com or windjobs.org. While I did have dozens of resumes floating the Internet, I still consider myself very lucky.
While I surely grieved with my colleagues in the lack of secured entry-level positions, I prepared myself for the tremendous opportunity to work for a part of General Electric. I packed up my stuff, drove my parents car back to Atlanta from Portland and flew to New York for training. I am now two weeks into a four-week training program at the GE Learning Center. My position, as an installation and receiving turbine technician, will take me all over the US. I will help install new wind farms. It’s been mostly safety courses so far… I’ll learn more about the job later on in training and once I get out to site.
gidddddyup. Homeboy’s goin corporate!
Outside of class in Vancouver, I couldn’t lay off of this whole Peace Corps thing – the potential of this organization continued to intrigue me. How would one, step by step, help develop Peace Corps into a more serious organization? I spent a great deal of time thinking about this when I was a Volunteer as well as in those months right when I got home. In fact, I kept and still keep a little notebook to jot down ideas. I usually have it in my pocket in case I think of something I want to remember. One day in my electrical class, I noticed I was nearing the end of my notebook. I flipped to the beginning to reflect on the kinds of things I was thinking some months back. The notebook started that previous May, about the time I was running around Praia looking for a job. I had a few sketches of a Peace Corps website idea I thought might be good. This website would allow Peace Corps Volunteers to post project information onto a central database, share their work with other volunteers and family and friends at home as well as allow them to solicit donations for in-service projects.
I then flipped to the most recent page. The night before I had sketched out essentially the same idea. The same idea – six months apart. I thought, this was eerie. I also thought it showed consistency in how my mind was working. Consistency is good. I took this as a sign to invest in this idea. In the following days, I finalized a proposal and posted it on elance.com, a website designed for finding talent and posting job proposals for computer related stuff. After 24 hours, I had 21 bids. Buyers market baby. Cybernetikz.com made me a great offer. They are a team of web developers from Bangladesh. I awarded them the project. We would communicate via email.
My readjustment allowance from Peace Corps covered the initial expense. I got a job as an assistant teacher in a local elementary school special education classroom to help pay for the website development. This job kept my head above water.
For two months, I worked, went to school at night and oversaw Cybernetikz’s development of www.pcprojex.org. The tagline is “projects that change communities.” The site functions like Youtube – Volunteers can upload project information, including documents, spreadsheets, pictures, videos, etc. The site counts project views, allows for ratings and comments and arranges the projects by sector and location. As mentioned above, this website allows Peace Corps Volunteers to post project information onto a central database and share their work with other volunteers and family and friends at home. It also allows them to solicit donations for in-service projects through the Peace Corps Partnerships Program.
I emailed the website to my colleagues in Cape Verde, the National Peace Corps Association and the Peace Corps Partnerships Program (PCPP). PCPP is the Peace Corps program associated with micro-lending projects – a major theoretical component of pcprojex.org. Everyone seemed to like the idea. This made me happy. However, I wanted more than an applause. I wanted people to use it. If Peace Corps Volunteers would use this site or if Peace Corps would mandate Volunteers to use this site, it would be a comprehensive database for grassroots community projects happening around the world. It could be used for training purposes, inspiration for potential projects, etc. It could be phenomenal.
Easier said than done. PCPP people arranged a conference call two months after I emailed them. When they called, the other end of the line sat the PCPP program director, marketing director as well as a few regional and administrative PCPP people – some heavy hitters. They said many nice things about the website. This made me feel good. Then they asked me what I wanted to do next – I threw out about half a dozen ideas. They rejected every one of them because of “policy.” I then asked if they would be interested in financing a second phase. They laughed. After the phone call, I felt weird – on one hand five administrative people spent 45 minutes talking to me about how they liked pcprojex. They didn’t have to do that. But they did. On the other hand, they were completely uninterested in exploring any further ideas. There wasn’t even any need for a follow up call.
When I snapped the phone shut, I stared out the window of my apartment. I didn’t feel angry. Actually, I sympathized with them. They work for the government. They are strapped with hundreds of pages of policy designed to keep calm waters… to resist change. It’s a matter of values – our current government values adhering to what is in place rather than taking risks. With no risk, there is no change. With no change, systems eventually become outdated… Even though the PCPP people outright rejected me, they may have been trying to tell me that to bring change I must continue doing what I was doing. Whether or not this assumption is correct, this conclusion suited me fine.
One of the additional ideas I mentioned during the conference call was to try and organize the type of work Peace Corps Volunteers do in the field. I thought I could tackle this issue as a continuation of pcprojex.
What do Peace Corps Volunteers do? Imagine you were to divide the US Federal government among two sectors: military and non-military. If military is security and defense, would the non-military half of the government be peaceful? Perhaps the work scope of Peace Corps Volunteers would involve to some degree the non-military elements of our government. I considered this. I originally got this military/non-military idea from wallstats.com, a website I have referenced several times on this blog. After some time thinking about the wallstats poster, I came up with this list of work sectors: water, food, waste, health, youth and family, shelter, education, transportation, environment, energy, business, technology. These are what I call the twelve elements of community. Loosely prioritized based on need, they identify some of the basic and advanced elements necessary to build and sustain a community. This list is designed to be universal – independent of culture, religion, socio-economy, etc. It may not be everything; think of this list as a starting place. Here is a short video that describes how I arrived at this list in further detail: http://www.prcprojex.org/projects.
If this list captures some of the major components of community, I think the next step is to identify how people relate to each one of these elements. For example, what is man’s natural relationship to water? Where do we get water? How do we use water? How can we most sustainably procure and conserve water? I’m trying to think about this objectively… like, naturally speaking. I think there are patterns in nature. And I think it is important we identify and follow these patterns, causing as little harm to nature as possible. For some places, like the US, this may mean we have to take a few steps backwards. In other less developed countries like Cape Verde, we may be able to avoid the same mistakes richer folk have made in recent history.
I’ve completed three of the videos so far if you’d like to check them out. I’ve gone to great lengths trying to make them visually appealing, entertaining and informative. If you disagree with something, please tell me. I enjoy debate:
Water - http://www.prcprojex.org/water
Food - http://www.prcprojex.org/food
Waste - http://www.prcprojex.org/waste
I understand this project is turning out to be kind of a massive undertaking. Oh well. If someone has another plan, I would love to hear you out. I’m continuously frustrated with how difficult some things are these days. This project is my outlet for this aggression. It’s fun though. This gives me something to think about in my free time. I think it’s always good to explore new approaches to the same old game.
Okay, so that’s my story up to now. Thanks for reading.
brian
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
I wasn’t posting because I was working…
We did a big push for Environmental Education in the end of March to celebrate World Water Day, World Tree Day and World Meteorological Day. A team of us split up and visited every school on the island and every 7th grade classroom, talking about environmental issues and having students respond with ideas and solutions.
Leah teaching about saving water!
This week we finished our first Training session for Environmental Education, a training on Recycling for teachers that showed them the MANY MANY ways they could reuse materials to make flowers, curtains, napkin holders, etc. It was awesome because everytime I am about to throw something away, I pause and wonder what I could do with it first.
Recycling training session - thanks PCPP donors!
plastic bottle flower
Ladies a working...
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
Argentina
HI friends, it's been awhile but i thought i'd catch you up. I spent the last 6 months in the Vail valley working at the hyatt and enjoying the beautiful snow. It is just an in between thing till i figure out what to do with my life after peace corps but it was definitely fun! but that is not what i really want you too eperience with this post.
My friend laurie and i are taking two weeks and traveling around argentina. We got to buenos aires yesterday. I spent 30 hours in the denver airport trying to get on a plane to atlanta to meet here for our trip but flying standbye on a day when i guess all of denver was trying to get out was not fun! i watched 10 planes leave without me before finally changing my travel plans and getting on a flight to minneapolis and connecting to atlanta. i made it to ATL with 3 hours to spare before out flight to Buenos Aires so i guess it was a good idea i gave myself 2 traveling days!
it has been really rainy here and neither laurie nor myself came prepared! We have just been walking around the city getting our bearings but we refuse to buy an umbrella cause we are sure the rain will let up sometime. we also refuse to take taxis cause we are just that cheap so we have been getting a little wet! here is a picture of us showing up to the museum of fine art looking aweful! i really can't believe we walked in looking the way we did but oh well!! the best thing we have founds so far has definately been the steak. for any of you that enjoy a nice piece of meet, argentina is definately the place for you! We got the biggest, juiciest steak last night and it only cost us 6 dollars! i have never tasted anything like it before!!!
At nine tonight, we get on our overnight bus for the 16 our ride to Mendoza, a.k.a. wine country!! i can't wait. we are going to spend at least 3 nights there exploring the best the region has so offer.
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
International Women’s Day
Last Monday we celebrated World Women’s Day, a day to reflect on the role of women, the history of women’s rights and continue to fight for equal pay, equal job opportunities, and, well, equality.
Here in CV, the common move was to present flowers to older women, poor, or in my case, 3 female inmates at the local prison. Giving out flowers, chocolate and poetry to make a women feel nice is, um, nice, but does it help?
I had a few friendly debates about this with a coworker, who criticized a show allowing only female voices to perform, and complained that here in Sal, where more civil servant administration positions are filled by women than men, we should have a day for Gender Equality (which probably also exists). He claimed that they way this day is celebrated, we are actually holding women back more than taking steps forward. What do you think?
View This Poll
online survey
I find the gift giving part sweet, but kind of crap. We gave flowers to female inmates that we have been working with, but when I brought up the fact that only the women are responsible for all the general cleaning, laundry, dishes and food distribution at the prison (which has about 15 men who sit and play cards) no one seemed to take a second thought. Why is that just so socially acceptable? (One reason an inmate gave was that the guards have less problem controlling female inmates, and less worry that they will try to escape when out of their cells doing these chores, which is understandable but I’m still not sure if that means it is acceptable.)
Well, de tudo maneira, Happy Women’s Day!
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
zouk, the shimmy, and other raunchy CV dancing
The past weekend we had a birthday party for one of my co-workers (it was a “surprise” party that she asked/commanded to be organized for her). We played minisoccer, and the girls lost 6-2 but our mens team whoomped the military team. Yippeee.
My favorite/most scarring moment, was watching these ladies from work get groovy, dancing on top of a chair, seductive arm gestures, and debaucherous humping. At first I wondered why little kids dance so dirty here, but then I thought, “Do I even have to ask?”.
Photo evidence:
Wondering where these kids learn to dance...
this is where they learn it...
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
Plans for Environmental Ed
So if you think I only dance in a mask and cook all day in Cape Verde, you are only partly right. Heres a plan I elaborated after a meeting for our environmental programs at the high school for the rest of the year:
Programa de Educação Ambiental 2010 –
Uma parceria entre ESOM, Salimpa e a CMSal
Presente até final do corrente ano lectivo
“Projecto Escola mais Verde” em que turmas têm responsabilidade de cuidar de plantas no espaço verde de ESOM e as turmas com plantas mais robustas e grandes receberem prémios no fim de ano escolar.
15 a 19 de Março
“Série de Palestras Ambientais” em comemoração de dia 21, Dia Internacional de Arvore e Floresta; dia 22, Dia Mundial de Água; e dia 23, Dia Internacional de Meteorologia.
Local e publico: ESOM, alunos de 7º
Horário: Neusa – 10 turmas de 7º ano de amanha
Euclides – 6 turmas de 7º ano de tarde
Leah – substituir quando necessário? Ou outras turmas?
Sábado: Sketch de teatro e panfletos informativos?
Abril – Mês de Reciclagem
16 e 23 de Abril
“Visita de Estudos a Aterro Sanitário” para alunos conhecer o sistema de recolha de resíduos sólidos, águas de esgoto e sua reutilização.
Local e publico: Mourinho de Açúcar e alunos de biologia (max. 40 por visita)
Horário: Sábado às 8h30
“Formação de Reciclagem” sobre reciclagem de vidros, plásticos e papel.
Local e publico: a definir, professores de EBI e ES (max. 20)
Data e Horário: a definir
Colocação de Eco-pontos para reforça ideias aprendidos nas visitas de estudo, na formação de reciclagem e para recolha materiais para trabalhos dos alunos na Casa do Ambiente e no Concurso de Biodiversidade.
22 de Maio a 5 de Junho
“EcoConcurso de Biodiversidade” para comemorar o Dia Internacional de Biodiversidade, 22 de Maio e o Dia Internacional de Ambiente, 5 de Junho. O EcoConcurso terá 3 categorias; trabalhos escritos, desenhos e escultura/dramatizações com tema da biodiversidade. Prémios vão ser entregados nos 3 melhores trabalhos em cada categoria.
15 de Abril – Regulamento preparado para socializar e assinar com os responsáveis
1 de Maio – Inscrição aberta na secretaria da ESOM (ate dia 21 de Maio)
22 de Maio a 31 de Maio – Período de entrega de trabalhos na secretaria da ESOM
5 de Junho – Exposição de trabalhos e Presentação de prémios na ESOM
9 de Junho
“Programa radiofónica” na quarta-noite de Moisés para dar uma síntese deste programa geral e para feedback e reflexões sobre a sensibilização de assuntos ambientais na comunidade.
6 a 10 de Julho
“Formação Mudanças Climáticas versus Resíduos”
Local e publico: ESOM e professores de ciências, biologia, homem ambiente (max. 35)
Formadores: Neusa, Dr. Euclides e outros a definir
Horário: 8h a 14h
“Projecto Casa do Ambiente” é uma iniciativa activa durante o ano lectivo para criar um espaço para ensino activo de reciclagem, reutilização de materiais e criação de produtos de terra. Está a procurar financiamento através de UNESCO e construtores locais entre outros.
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
Ludocarnaval
I´ve helping out at the ludoteca, trying to dinamize the space, and so here are some photos of our kids’ parade for Carnaval. We had everyone made recycled materials outfits, cardboard “shirts”, newspaper skirts, paper plate masks and plant crowns. It went really well except for the what? the rain? rain in Cape Verde? ugh… only at Carnaval!
Kids lining up to take to the streets!
Inside the party - kids here learn some exotic dance moves at a young age...
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
happy chinese new year, and CARNAVAL!
The last few days have been sleepless, okay I won’t exaggerate, but at least sleeplittle. I have been working on the Carnival commission, so our duties were too run around trying to organize 3 groups of over 100 people as they got in line, dressed in a terrifying quantity of satin, sequins and feathers, and got their bands singing, while finally hosting their kings, queens and damas onto a tall homemade float (that sways precariously under the weight of samba dancing feet).
Here in Sal we had 3 official groups, Samba no Pe, Gaviõnes and Maravilhas do Sul, and then a few groups of animation, especially good were the Mandingas, a bunch of people who painted themselves all black and carried around sticks and metal rods, scaring people and wiping their oil on everyone. They also outfitted motorcycles and quads with neon wigs and broken toys, racing through the crowds to add that extra edge of fear-fun. I thought they totally rocked (though some onlookers complain that they ruin the festivities, I am a fan of the chaos, making it much more lively and exciting). Mandinga groups are known to be more rebellious (Sunday they dressed as terrorists with automatic guns) but the word mandinga means the magical quality that master practitioners of capoeira possess…
So – Carnaval was a success, though tiring, and my co-worker Sheila definitely was pushed to the limit try to organize the groups. Her new moto is that Cape Verdeans have a lack of initiative, their slave-history has taught them to sit around like bumps waiting for directions. I don’t know if this is always true, but they definitely were in need of some more active leaders not hot-headed grog drinkers yesterday. Live and learn, next year we will put the start time at 2 pm so things will get rolling by 4…
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
year of the TIGER, 2010!
Happy Chinese New Years!
I almost forgot until my mom called and told me Happy New Years, I thought she had gone senile and meant to say Happy Valentines Day, but no, she was right and still savy.
Happy Chinese American kids!
Categories: Volunteer Blogs
