The Young Catholic Society members at Weaver Bird chose to use the day to plant trees to honor Madaraka Day as well as Environmental Awareness Day. They bought about 50 trees to plant around the playing fields (soccer, volleyball, field hockey, etc.)
John is one of the YCS sponsors so we went to help plant the trees and I went along as the photographer.
We started out with only one jembe to dig the holes. It was causing problems as the metal hoe part kept working itself loose from the wooden handle. The students would stop work and find twigs to insert as a wedge to help hold the metal piece in place. As the morning progressed two more jembes were found that help things to go considerably faster.
Students worked in teams to dig the holes, plant and them water the trees. It is a special thing here to have your snap (photo)taken. Most of the kids wanted to have their snap taken. We told them that we were there to take photos of the tree planting. If they were working perhaps they would be in a snap. What a motivator! The work went much more smoothly and quickly.
We also used the day as an opportunity to talk about other ways to take care of the environment, namely picking (up) trash. It seems to be a real problem here that people throw trash wherever they are. Students are trained in the academic areas (classrooms) to use rubbish bins, but once they are in the field or in the dorms, the anywhere is fine. It happens in public areas too. Every morning shop owners are busy sweeping the area in front of their kiosks or stands to get rid of the rubbish.
Hopefully the Weaver Bird students will take pride in their new trees as they water and take care of them. Some of the varieties were quick growing cyprus so especially the Form Is and IIs will see a huge difference in them by the time they leave school.
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