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Canberra:
I arrived in Canberra two weeks ago; Canberra is the capitol of Australia.
Unlike Perth my accommodation here in Canberra is a volunteer house instead of a hostel.The house is quite simple (it makes houses in college look posh), and old (CVA is in the process of looking for a new house) but like every other situation I've been put in it quickly feels like "home" and you adapt quickly.
One thing I continue to struggle with has to do with the water conservation….Australia has a rather serious water deprivation problem….thus since I've been here I haven't had a shower that's lasted longer than 4minutes, rain water from rainwater tanks are used whenever possible, there is no dryer at the house—we hang dry and we don't rinse the dishes after cleaning them…I suppose a lil soap never hurt anyone!
The biggest drawback from the house is being a twenty-five minute walk away from the city center but just in case we didn't get a good workout during the day we get one walking around!
I again, am with a great group of people.There are currently 11 of us, two gals from Germany, two from Austria, one from Hong Kong, one from Korea, one from Seattle, two guys from England and one from Scotland; all lovely people contributing unique differences to the group.I'm pretty sure MTV could have the next big hit, starting a "Real World-esque" volunteer show!
Projects in Canberra; Week 1: Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, St. Francis de Assisi Primary School, One of Canberra's Oldest Homesteads
Unlike my previous projects in Perth, here we're broken into two groups and alternate working on projects.
One of the projects we worked on was at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve; our mission was to plant 2,000 eucalyptus trees.For this project we first created both plastic and wire tree guards, we cleared a large section of land filled with dead/burned trees(which is where Land Cruiser breakdown #3 occurred, needed to be towed out after getting stuck), marked out the planting grid, used mallets to create large holes and began planting.We were re-planting this section of the nature reserve with gum trees aka eucalyptus trees due to a large loss of koalas and trees from a fire about five years ago. This planting is part of the reserves long range goals as they won't be able to start cutting the eucalyptus for three to four years, and the leaves are not as much for native koalas but more so for those in captivity.
The other project we worked on was at St. Francis Assisi Primary School, and it was just what the doctor ordered as I'd been missing the kiddos pretty badly!!The fourth and sixth grade students at the school were learning about different types of environments, biodiversity and were doing reports on various weeds.Thus, we spent majority of the day hand in hand with several students and teachers re-planting , weeding, mulching, and gardening in their school garden and landscape.The last hour of the day we spent talking with the two classes about conservation, our work, ourselves etc.Being in the classroom and teatime (their tea time was the most outrageous I've seen yet—I'm talking brownies, cakes, tarts, sweetbreads etc!) really made the day wonderful!We'll be going back to this school again before I leave and I can't wait!
The school itself was quite impressive.The school was very spread out with several outdoor areas in around the buildings; they had huge playground areas, outdoor eating areas, fields for playing rugby and cricket, a peace garden to relax, a sustainable garden that included compost areas which were all maintained by the fifth and sixth graders and are either used by the school canteen or sold.The school was quite large for a K-6 school, about 550 students.The students were incredibly hospitable (they were very inquisitive, about both us and our work, and very eager to share about themselves and their school) and extremely well behaved.
Lastly, we had a one day project at one of Canberra's oldest homestead.We spent the day eradicating the non-native trees to allow for planting of native trees and grasses to restore the area to its original historic landscape.mary Cunningham?)
Projects in Canberra; Week 2:
This week's schedule was different than normal in that I volunteered on the weekend.I chose to volunteer over the weekend so I could take a few days off at the end of the week to go check out Sydney.
Over the weekend, I worked with local volunteers at a local school.The Gannon School was yet another lovely school.We partnered with one of the teachers/school parents/Green Committee coordinator, Fiona, to re-landscape and re-configure irrigation paths.Although, there were few students there, it was still nice to work alongside some school parents willing to take time out of their weekend to help the school stay beautiful and environmentally friendly.
The other project we worked this last week was back at Tidbinbilla Reserve.We continued digging, planting, damming, securing, and watering the 2, 000 new trees!!If the notion of wanting to complain about the tiring, achy-filled work I didn't dare as we were working with several proper good local volunteers one of which, John, was 82—and not only was happy swinging around a pick axe but a joy to chat with as well!!!
Next week we're heading away….
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