Good evening, today i share with you some of the work we did today in a school of Foz do Iguaçu, with the people who live in the house I'm staying at.
Basically, we prepared the place for the kids to have a garden workshop where they will be learning school stuff through gardening.
First was the clearing of the grass, which is something i would normally not practice, but hey, as the chilean saying goes: "you can't enter the bus from the back and demand to be the driver", which is to say that you shouldn't impose your ideas over those who were already working on a project before your arrival.
Just in case, that's not me haha. He is a teacher at the school and also lives in the house I'm staying at. The people here are very involved in community activities, which is a nice change from the previously visited places.
Everything went fast with so many hands collaborating towards the task.
We outlined the rows and loosened the soil.
Decomposed organic matter was added to the rows which was quite impressive to see they had a generous amount to donate to the project.
Now everything is read for the kids to come in and have fun plantin. I think learning about the physical labor of preparing the soil would be a good thing, but at the same time it's good that they'll be able to begin a litter lighter and take it easy.
All in all, a very satisfying day with plenty of work towards goals i am happy to support. I have to admit that it's pretty challenging to hang out with a group when you don't know the language, but it's not an impedment for collaboration and getting things done!
Earlier that day we also worked on a larger community garden which ticked all my boxes:
- Syntropic agroforestry
- Focus on feeding the soil and diversity of plants
- Community oriented, a place for people to learn and unwind
I'll share some pictures of that on the next post, as well as sharing some of the political context from where all of this stems from. Till then, thanks for your time attention.