Build a Classroom, Save the Amazon

Since my last update we have had a full house of students with both Yachana Future Builders [boarding] and the weekly Distancia groups. Our aquaponics project is running and in production with Tilapia and vegetables, but more on that later. There are some changes coming for next year’s students and we will need your support for our classroom project to make things happen. We also have a new video that features are students and projects around the training center. Please feel free to share the link with others! Video direct link:  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/riv6scidsh6v9mk/yachana%20movie.mp4?dl=0

Right now our teachers are exposing our Distancia group to new and wonderful things. David taught them about fungus and different types of decomposers in the jungle. Mariana introduced the students to the techniques of making meatloaf. This dish is not often eaten in Ecuador, maybe the start of a new eating craze in the Amazon. Lena did a review lesson of Water, DNA, and Global Warming. These are all topics that our students would never learn about in their traditional classes but and we realize this topics are important to understanding sustainment of the environment and life in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The aquaponics system is doing well. The fish are growing and seem to always be hungry. The tomatoes have fruits on them! They are still green but look great. The garlic that we planted from the clove directly on the rocks is growing, and the melons are taking off. The lettuce is not doing very well so we are experimenting with their growing set up.

Mariana led the students in planting the living wall in the recently completed science laboratory. We collected plants from the jungle to use for the wall. It is a learning experience, as we will be seeing which plants successfully growing in the non-soil medium, and which ones aren't. We also used the organic fertilizer that David made a few weeks ago out of cow pies. It has a strong smell, but we are hoping the plants love it.

For the Yachana Future Builders it is not all classroom study, they have a few chores to keep our training center running! See the pictures of cleaning the bathrooms and trying to cook lunch when the power has gone out. Cristhian is giving Saul a hair cut (a fairly common occurrence).

The school year in the Ecuadorian education system is coming to an end [all of our students attend traditional classes too]. Students in their junior and senior years begin to wrestle with exams and defenses of their “project”.  The seniors have to present their project to a board of judges to determine if they will graduate or not.  One of our students has chosen our new aquaponics project as his project and because of our very practical, hands-on approach to teaching he is quite well informed on all of the aspects of this impressive project.  We are sure he will impress the judges with his knowledge of aquaponics.

Changes for the next school year! We will soon start the process of selecting candidates for next school year. We have decided to open up the opportunity to students throughout the provinces of Orellana and parts of Napo. We feel that our success with the current local area has been so great it is time to let a broader group become exposed to Yachana!  But to do this we really need that larger classroom. Donations have been slow to come in recently to support this goal. We are pleased that we received enough to enable us to complete the aquaponics project but we are sad that the classroom is still just footers in the ground. Please think about donating again or sharing our needs with others who have the desire and means to see our project complete.