My Last Day of School

It is my last day of school. From now on I will be doing homeschooling because I have a lot of work to do for my school in Vermont. I have two giant books to do, one of math and one of everything else. It was hard to say goodbye to all my friends. I was also happy because I was going to go to Mindo, the Galapagos and lots of other places in Ecuador. 

Planting Guava Trees at the Farm

I went to my uncle Pete's farm, and I started planting Guava trees.  I had to count out the seeds.  I eventually counted 115.  Once they grow, Pete keeps a couple and the rest he gives away or sells.

[Guava trees are great for agro-forestry, which means it is a blend of farming and keeping forests healthy because they are great nitrogen-fixer.  This means they help keep the soil healthy.  They also attract lots of birds and mammals.]

Here I am softening the soil and pulling out the weeds.

Here I am setting up the dirt.  I have to set up the bags because  

they need to collect rain.  They need rain so that they can grow.

Here is Pete.  Pete has the biggest, nicest farm
I've seen in my entire life.

Here is a guava seed.   First we put them on top, and then we
 cover them up with a little bit of soil.  They don't like to be packed down,
and that's why I softened them up earlier.

Here I am watering the guava seeds with cow-poopy water
with a little bit of sugar and milk.  This is Pete's homemade fertilizer.

Here is the guava fruit itself.  They have very sweet stuff around the seeds.
You eat them like you are going to chew on a lollipop.
After you suck the sugar off, you put the seeds into new soil.

Prestar una mano amiga

This is my picture of helping hands.  Now I'm going to write what it says at the top in Spanish and English.  In Spanish it says, "prestar una mano amiga."  In English this means "lend a helping hand."  They give me these little thingies at school.  My teacher said to make a picture about solidarity.  Solidarity means helping people.

The Rainforest of Monkeys

this is a picture of one blach faced howler monkey.

Introduction

Hola!  Mi nombre es Sylvia.  This is a blog about Ecuador. I am seven. My birthday is May 1st. I'm living in Ecuador for a year with my family. We live in Otavalo and I go to school at Chantal.

This is me sitting against the wall of my house.

I put this map in here because I want you to see South America and Ecuador. 

Otavalo is right above the equator in the northern part of Ecuador.

We are living in the Andes Mountains which is the green part of the second map. Otavalo is just north of the green line (equator) and is 8,441 feet (2,573 meters) above sea level.

This is a picture of my house, and Imbabura is the biggest mountain behind it.  And it is a volcano.

See you next time! 

Love, Sylvia