We were bussed to a city-owned park south of Quito where there is a project to reforest the hillside with native species.
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| We got off the bus and each person picked up one or two saplings and headed for the clearing on the other side of the eucalyptus stand. The first task was to move about 1000 saplings to the planting site. |
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| Most of us went several times back and forth carrying the baby trees into the clearing. |
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| Students were divided into 6 working groups Within the groups they were buddied-up. One to hold the tree and the other to fill the hole. The holes had already been dug - so the task was to plant a tree in each hole. |
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| Group instruction on the procedures. |
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| This is how it is done! |
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| Kids fanned out across the hill, looking for the holes to plant their trees in. |
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| Well deserved lunch after 2 hours of planting. Some teams (of 2) planted 18-22 trees, others planted 2-3. Generally, most of the students worked their hearts out, but there were a few who, whether unused to such labour or to being so close to nature, struggled with being there. Just like at home, many kids in our international school community grow up with "nature deficit". There are not a lot of spiders and insects at this altitude, but the sight of even one caused some students to stop working altogether. Others, not wanting to get their hands dirty, were also less productive. But there were other kids who were excited to find interesting lizards, a lizard egg, and grubs, etc. in the holes. We returned to school proud of a job well-done to re-instate a native forest. The Gods must have been with us because we got a huge rainstorm later that evening that watered our newly-planted forest. |
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