Orientation and Tour

If any of you think we have big hills in the states, you ain't seen nothin' till you have climbed "the hill" that leads up to the school. Yesterday I only walked past it, but it turns out I couldn't even see all of the road, so it was a lot longer than I thought.

To the left is a picture of my host mom (pronounced Marlenney) wearing the scarf I gave her.

I walked up the blessed hill (oye) to be have my first tour of the school. These kids are the luckiest kids ever! Their school is surrounded by nature on all sides and beautiful views out of every window.

The different parts of the school are in separated buildings. Kinder and Prepa students are in the lower building, with their own little garden and play structure. The first and second graders share a building and then the third and fourth and the fifth and sixth. I can't remember which buildings are which, but they are all beautiful!

In the upper part of campus are the high school classrooms. History and Social Studies (both taught in Spanish at the high school level) share a building. Then there is the science building with a music room. The pictures are hopefully going to load so you will be able to see my "home" for the next 5 months. There are paintings of cells and processes and some earth science stuff. Anna, the teacher I am going to be working with, works with 7th to 11th grade students, which means so will I. We walked up the hill behind the science class into one of the many trails that they have around the school. This was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't believe how amazing it looked. Some of the areas were being reforested during their ecology and environmental education classes. The land the school now owns used to belong to a Quaker community who logged the area for use as a pasture, where they raised their dairy cows. Some of the trees are huge and it is hard to believe that it is only secondary growth.

We also saw some newer reforestation projects that still look like they have been planted but it is all a process. In some of the areas, they even have horses, they don't belong to the school, that eat the grass in the open areas, but leave the newly planted saplings alone, helping them to grow.

In the greenhouse and the planting grounds (each grade had their section) they grew seedlings in recycled bottles and cartons and some of the posts in the greenhouse have "rescued" plants strapped to them. Because the school is on a reservation, they can't harvest anything from the forest that wasn't already dead. So one of the teachers finds these plants that live ON other plants and brings them back to the greenhouse and they then grow on the posts and walls there. It is all quite spectacular.

I can't wait to begin working tomorrow, although I have to catch the bus at 7:15 AM...and you all know how much of a morning person I am.

The other interns are wonderful and I can't wait to get to know them better.

I'm sorry the pictures are not loading. I will try something new tomorrow maybe but you will see pictures, I promise!

Hugs!

K