Chicken Death

Welp, I now know how to kill and pluck a chicken. Next week I'll figure out how to gut one. Dead chickens are actually more entertaining than you'd think. And they don't smell awful.

Life Skills

The past two months have been filled with so much learning. I can now use a drill, milk a goat, explain the process of a biodigester, complete a short conversation in Spanish, clean wood of bark, identify the basic differences between pvc pipe fittings, and build a composting system. For me, that's a lot more hands-on knowledge than I've ever had the opportunity to accumulate. Kinda, pathetic, but celebrate with me guys!

However, mostly I've been learning about community, especially how to actively participate rather than simply watching. My fellow students have supported me as I attempt to lead, allowing me opportunity and fixing my mistakes when I fail. Even as we are struggling with frustrations about our upcoming outreach mission to Panama and Columbia, we continue to laugh together. Every one of us comes from a different background, but that just means that we each have a lot to learn about each other. It feels as if every week someone is teasing me about reading so much, but at least once a day I'm snarking at my gun and beard obsessed friends. Seriously, beards. Who knew you could talk so much about them?

I definitely did not expect to learn so much about community while being in the EARS school, but I think that these experiences will shape more of my life than any practical knowledge I get here. Though, it is great to actually feel as if I could implement some of these sustainable development tools - either as teaching tools at home or in the mission field. I needed the practical knowledge before I can make a difference with my own gifts, so EARS has been perfect for me. Occasionally frustrating, yes, but that's part of any school.

Celebrating birthdays. Birthdays = cake, so they are kinda the best days. Except our teachers get annoyed because we all end up late for class or taking a very extended break.

Sleeping in class - all of us in solidarity

Somehow we always end up having massage trains in restaurants. I'm not sure how it started, but it's kinda hilarious.

Traveling to the beach. All the time. 

This is Fast Track, one of my new favourite games. It involves teams, lots of yelling, and a great deal of killing the other players.

The newest big thing on base is the ropes course. It's a bunch of different elements designed to encourage team building in a variety of ways. This particular one, the flying squirrel, had all of us on a rope hoisting the person on the other end into the air. It was definitely fun both running the other people up and being flown into the air. 

Aquaponics

This week my class is learning about, and helping build, aquaponics systems. It's a sustainable system that hooks a fish tank up to growing beds, using the water and nutrients from the fish tank to nourish the plants. It wastes less water, uses a small spaces, removes the need for chemical fertilizer, and produces both fish and plants for people to eat. Really pretty cool, though I must admit at this point I only understand the basics. If you want to know more, contact me at the end of the week and I'll probably be able to tell you much more!

Here are some pictures from the beginning stages (courtesy of Ms. Gloriann). I'll post more when we're done! Hopefully that will be at the end of the week, but it depends on when we can get all the materials.

This is the grow bed in it's initial stages

We divided the big bed up into 6 smaller sections. The pump that bring the water from the fish tanks to the plants will most likely be in the middle so that the water is more evenly distributed.

We're working so very hard! See, we even managed to keep a plant alive. Not really - I'm not sure what type of plant it is or who planted it. It might be a weed. Or spinach. Kinda smells like spinach to me.