Day 223 - Saturday - 4/21/2012

 

At the American Corner today we celebrated Earth Day 2012!  I started with the Kid's Club. We read a book about all the colors on our Earth. Then we made the very special poster you can see above. But the most fun part, at least for me, was getting to plant flowers in recycled water bottles!  I drink water from big 5 liter bottles. Currently there is not a way to recycle here on campus, so I had been saving them in hopes that either the recycling situation would change or that I could find a use for them. Well today one of those came true. I was able to cut holes in the sides of the bottles for the plants and soil to go into.  The bottles already had handles so they could be easily hung. We filled the bottoms with dirt and then planted 3 different types of seeds. Hopefully there will be some flowers growing at 24 homes in the next month!

Filling with dirt

Still filling with dirt

Planting the seeds

All done!

To recognize Earth Day further and to help our Earth, we put on our colorful rubber gloves and started picking up the trash around the House of Culture (where the American Corner is located). Although some were hesitant at first to pick up gross trash, they all got into it and did an exceptional job making the area and their city better.  I noticed as we cleaned up how many people stared at us with a look that I interpreted as "what are they doing?" "why are they doing that?" I think my community at home has a ways to go to be more Eco-friendly.  Tetovo and Macedonia I would say have quite a ways to go as well, and I would say further than in Lincoln.  Recycling bins and locations either don't exist or are not advertised in a way where you know where they are, especially not with the same green signs everywhere.  There are recycling bins in Skopje, but from what I have seen they are not used that often or correctly (any trash inside).  I am glad that we could 'plant a seed' (pun intended) in these peoples minds about the importance of recycling and our Earth!

The trash collectors!

Handing out garbage bags

My collection group!

Check out our awesome gloves!

Following the trash pick up, it was time for English Club. Today was huge in the progress of our video- we were able to get all of the video footage done! I am so impressed with these kids. They have worked as such a team, even when disagreeing they were able to work through it and get this very exciting project done.  Now it is to editing and one more round of permission from the publicist and artist (already got permission to use the song, now they just have to see the video to be sure it is okay to post!  I truly think this will be an experience these kids will take with them throughout life.

One of the shots from the video- making hearts!

Lesson: Save our Earth!