Day of the Dead celebration on the 31st Oct… 6 novembre, 2007

                 

Another event we prepared and participated to was the day of the dead celebration on the parque (central square) of Tulum. Our friend Giovanni, the director of Casa de la Cultural organized the event. The day of the dead is a very big celebration all around Mexico which last 3 days. It is a joyful event where people celebrate the memory of their dead relatives. They build altars which are some type of 3 storey stalls with ornaments, candles, food and drinks, just like the one on the above picture. So the event organized by Giovanni was a presentation of altars from different regions in Mexico. As GVI we were asked to come up with something that would represent death of nature for example as we are pretty active in nature conservation. It’s on my nearly daily early morning beach stroll and swim that an idea came up to my mind. I really love this morning trip to the beach, its all very quite, only pelicans are awake at this time of the day!…But this morning the beach was particularly full of garbage which  made me really sad. So much natural beauty, spoiled by us! So what came to my mind was to bring back a mix of garbage and natural elements and build up something out of it. I went again twice during the week to take everything back to the base. John one of our volunteers who was a scout helped me out and we managed to build this man which was baptized Basurito (basura meaning garbage in Spanish) Some volunteers also made skulls and candle holders out of tins, Talya made up some nice decorations, Rita created a box in which we put lots of little papers with words of wisdom and Ryan came up with the idea of taking 2 paintings showing the coast of Tulum before and after development, decorating the untouched one by tree leaves and the other one with garbage from the beach. Our little presentation got really successful, specifically towards kids. I was really happy to see that they were very sensitive and receptive to the story of basurito and what it meant in terms of environmental and recycling matters. I also got interviewed by the local TV channel who wants to do a reportage on our upcoming recycling workshop in schools and finally I talked through our presentation to several important people in town including the maire of tulum. We received a thank you certificate too so overall this was a success.

A little bit more about my role at GVI Tulum….. 6 novembre, 2007

The GVI Tulum expedition consists in training volunteers to be community teachers, provide them with teaching experience while earning a TEFL certification at the end of the expedition. The volunteers give their classes at the Casa de la Cultura in Tulum with whom we have a partnership. This means that GVI is very involved in the community cultural events. We’ve also been very proactive in areas such as environmental programs and community development. My role is to develop further our work in these areas which is really cool. One of GVI’s main achievements last year in Tulum was to build a recycling centre for plastic bottles. I’m planning some promotion towards local businesses so that it is used at the most. I’m also preparing a series of workshops in 2 schools on environmental matters, starting on recycling plastic at the end of the month. One other big project I ‘ve started digging into is developing eco-tourism activities so that the local community can benefit of tourism through home stays, traditional Mexican cooking classes or arts and crafts for example. So as you can see there are quite a few cool things to be done!

        Also wanted to introduce you with my 4 crazy co workers!

                                                                          

Talya, from Canada, Ryan alias Pele rojo from Australia, Rachel or Skank from England and crazy Johanna from Spain….A very international team indeed!…. We all share a little dorm so we got to know each other very quickly! That’s how I learned that Johanna was an oceanographer although her ear problems don’t allow her to dive anymore, Rachel is nearly a professional Salsa dancer as she gets to practice nearly every night in local bars. Talya favourite jelly is the spicy red pepper one that her mom makes back at home and finally if Ryan had a super power he would like to be able to make everyone happy! As for me my love for animals didn’t prevent me from killing a poor hamster at the age of 2 squeezing it a little too strong against my chest to cuddle it!  That is a team hey!