Ecoventure 2010 -- walk the green talk

14 July 2010 in 14 June 2010 is Day 10 of Ecoventure 2010.

As usual, I was up early in the morning. Mornings in Gia Bac are so lovely I found it a waste to be inside my sleeping bag instead of being outside with the sights and the sounds. However, while it was usually quiet while we were out enjoying the sunrise, we were joined by a sudden commotion.

Wait, what was that I saw? Our friends were up early too and taking a jog around the village! The nice fresh air, the occasional cool breeze, mountains at the side, it must had been a wonderful experience jogging in such an environment. ^^

Back at the house, another surprise awaited us.

It seemed that we have visitors! These three beautiful animals were found just beside our house and I was so delighted to see them because I was just out that morning on a lookout for them and was feeling rather disappointed at not having found them.

What a great start to the day!

The morning project was slightly different on this day. We were off to the coffee plantation belonging to one of our students' family. Her father had kindly invited us to his plantation to experience what it would be like to work there.

A Try at Fertilising the Coffee Plantation 

We were showed how to clear the weeds in a circle around the bottom of the coffee trees and eager to try it out, we scrambled off in little groups to various parts of the plantation to claim our territories. It didn't take long before most of us were exhausted and it was barely after removing the weeds from below a single tree!

After a few feeble attempts to attack the hard ground with our tools, my arms and shoulders felt sore and disobeyed my demands that they continue moving. It was then that I felt several pairs of eyes staring at us, observing our every move. A group of children had suddenly appeared from seemingly out of nowhere while we were focused on getting rid of the stubborn weeds. They were the family's children. One of the older girls extended her hand towards us and offered to show us the proper way to use the tool. In a matter of seconds with a few swift powerful strokes, the job was done! I was very much impressed as I watch her work. She was no bigger than me in terms of size and yet there was so much strength coming inside her, definitely much more than there is within me. That left me wondering...

Through the disorganised manner in which we spread out to do the weeding, it wasn't long before we were told we had ventured off into the neighbour's plantation! We laughed at ourselves when we found out and hurried back before we could get into any trouble.

Back in the classroom, we taught the students about daily activities. They were quite tickled by the fact that I said "I like to sleep". When I asked them whether they like to read books, they all shook their heads. I do hope they enjoyed our lessons though!