El Día de la Tierra!!!

That means... you guessed it: 

EARTH DAY!

Yesterday was that special day where we talk about recycling and how we love the planet and so much more!

Happy Earth Day everyone - I hope you reflected on how well you treat your earth and environment. We are all responsible for caring for this beautiful place in which we reside, we are all stewards given the task to keep clean and well maintained the place that the Lord formed for us. Let us celebrate Earth Day everyday!

In Spanish, Earth = Tierra. And while I haven't been saying it much in English lately, I have been talking a lot about Earth Day lately. Why? Well, for my student teaching experience here in Costa Rica, I have been really investing the majority of my time these last few weeks in planning and implementing this community-based event. See previous blogs for some of the thoughts associated with this process...

Needless to say, I am relieved to have the chance to reflect on this long-awaited event, especially since it went SO WELL!! Praise the Lord - really, I was praying, and He was faithful!

"Welcome to Earth Day"

But before I get too into the details of what happened and I show you pictures, let me reflect a little bit on community event planning. First reflection: it's not easy. Coordinating with over 20 stakeholders via every communication method possible in my non-native language isn't always the easiest. However, the language didn't prove to be much of a barrier. I do believe, however, that culture was a major limiting factor. If you want to learn more about the career values of Ticos, see an earlier blog post (in the "reflection" section). The laid-back atmosphere of the workforce and schooling here makes it difficult, at times, to get information from people in a timely manner and coordinate activities. Let's add in the week of national holiday last week (Holy Week - all of my stakeholders were on vacation) and we will find that Alli was kind of stressed out until yesterday... when she just decided to go with the flow and let whatever happens happen. And it happened! But still, trying to meet with or communicate ideas and plans with the stakeholders certainly took the majority of my time when it comes to planning.

So what did we do? Well, I guess I can show you with photos :)

Giving a welcome to the kids and guests - I estimated around 50 kids and 50 other guests, volunteers, and speakers!

The University loaned us a really nice tent for the day - super helpful in the hot sun

Ladies from the school "PTA" who made food to raise funds for the school!

There were 3 major areas or activities for the day - informative talks, (recycled) crafts, and interactive booths or stands. The mission for the day was:
To promote environmental education, specifically, the importance of maintaining natural resources in order to meet the needs of the local community, nation, and world. In order to respect and promote positive decisions within local natural resource management, this event is intended to make students, families, and community members aware of local environmental concerns and propose ways in which the community can become part of solutions.

Focusing on the students and how to empower them with knowledge, I also really wanted to empower the community members and their parents to begin to make better environmental decisions now. Although there weren't too many community members that came to the event, we did have at least 15 parents show up to participate in talks and activities with their kids. I estimated about 100 people to be present for the event and I believe that is almost exactly as many people that came!

The director of the Wildlife and Forestry program at UTN speaks about the importance of forests and forest resources in Costa Rica - here he has a seed from a Costa Rican tree, commonly known as a "monkey's cooking pot"

Another speaker, UTN professor and environmental management expert, shows students and guests the vermiculture compost (worms) that they can easily prepare and maintain in their homes

After hearing about the basics of recycling, students had a recycling race!

Another UTN biologist gave a small talk about global warming and how we can prevent it locally, then the students played a "penguins and ice" game where they had to race to get back to the decreasing "ice cap" after collecting food.

On Monday, I had all the students draw what Earth day meant to them and they made a "promise" for the event. We showcased their "environmental art" at Earth day. Andres promises not to litter!

One of my awesome volunteers talking about water pollution (see bread slices and food dye - it moves through bread more easily when the bread is wet) and other concerns with water at the water booth

Kids at the "forest booth" learn about different Costa Rican trees, seed carriers, and were given a seed packet to plant in their house and record the growth of the trees. The booth was run by UTN Forestry and Wildlife students!

The dean of UTN showed up, even if for a few minutes, to see the event! #publicity

A personal excitement of mine - having an "agriculture booth" for Earth day to discus the sustainable options of an integrated farm: compost, biodigestor, integrated and diverse crops and animals, etc. Another UTN Wildlife/Forestry volunteer helped to run this booth!

I was honestly surprised with how well the event went - maybe I am better at event planning than I thought! I believe the students learned a lot, especially since there was so much EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING going on!! Hopefully this, too, was transferred to the school teachers and they may have more resources for instruction in the future. I also am thankful that we were able to bring together the university, school, and public - the Dean of the university said he was thankful for the event because they lately haven't had much time to focus on the community in their actions.

Students played some other games as well, like this one that represents teamwork in order to lift the cup of water.

I was super thankful for these ladies - other student teachers working with Global Gateway student teaching abroad - who came to help out with various activities! 

Overall, it was an awesome day. I am so thankful for everyone who came and helped pull it together. I had fun and believe the students and families did too! PLUS, LEARNING OCCURRED!

I will be leaving to come home in 2 days and know that, while I am ready to be back and graduate, I will certainly miss this community and the true focus of the Earth Day event - the students. Let us never forget that, whether in educational settings, community events, or a combination of the two, we must always invest in the next generation. Let us love and live for these kids who will carry this earth into many more Earth Days!