Earth Day

For Earth Day, my sitemate, Leslie, and I had grand plans of building a permagarden with the aid of some adorable kindergarten students. She had the know how, and I had access to a kindergarten. The only hiccup was there was no school on Earth Day because of Ethiopian Easter. Not to be detoured and deprive small children of a chance to play with forenjis, we postponed our Earth Day celebration a few days and were all set.

The idea of a permagarden is pretty simple. It is an ultra sustainable garden that can be build for a very low cost. Many environment volunteers here in Ethiopia teach low-income families how to make these gardens so they can have food regardless of income. We decided to build the garden on this particular school because it serves OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) in the area. While they are too small to go home a build one, when parents or friends come to pick up the kids, they will see the garden and hopefully become interested. It is like we are planting seeds in people’s minds (see what I did there?).

So allow me to walk you through the cutest training I will give in Ethiopia…

Leslie explained how to “double dig” to the adults at the school. It took some explanation, but eventually they got it. Unlike the kid in red on the right, he understood instantly.

Some of the students looked on in vague interest.

We realized we needed to go buy charcoal, so Leslie left me for 10 minutes. She said to make sure they finished digging. Instead, I took on 12 kindergarten students in a game of football. It may have had something to do with the fact the goal was about 4 feet across, but I dominated.

After football, I was hot and had to take off my fleece jacket. Thus began the tattoo routine. Yes, they are permanent. No, that is not Obama, etc. I love my little buddy in red’s reaction.

We needed to break the charcoal into powder, so we had the kids stomp on it. While this was not an effective method, it was pretty cute.

Once the plot is dug, you mix wood ash and charcoal powder into the soil. This absorbs and retains water so the garden is fruitful year around. Here, the students grabbed one handful of ash each.

And they joyfully threw their one handful of ash. I think it was the most fun they had ever had a school.

Leslie mixed the ash, charcoal, and soil together.

Leslie passed out seeds for the students to place in the ground. We planted four different vegetable that will hopefully turn out well.

Our finished plot!

Since the students didn’t learn much from the gardening portion (except 1. Throwing ash is fun and 2. Laura is a football god), we brought them inside for a classroom activity. The students learned Earth related vocabulary and then colored some pictures.

This little man could not figure out what we were doing. He was clearly younger than the rest and extra adorable. I’m pretty sure after a while he knew he was suppose to be coloring, but was just too cool to do so.

I stayed in between the lines and everything!  

The class with their finished worksheets!