We have soil!

A group of us teachers have just returned from a glorious week-long trip to Thailand. The land of cheap buckets of...whatever you'd like, delicious food, and fantastic beachy fun. There were nine of us in tow as we traveled from Bangkok; highlights included floating market, Koh San Road at 3 am, being given a Michael Jackson groin thrust followed by the standard Thai greeting of two hands clasped together by a young child along the banks during a boat tour, 4 am wake-ups and bedtimes and throw in just one wrongly booked plane ticket which was remedied by Thai messages on the beach and lovely fresh-fruit cocktails.

Upon my return last week I was thrilled to see that the raised-beds had been built in the center of our area along with the concrete beds along the walls! It looked almost identical to the image we had provided. Kids were running into the class announcing 'the garden is here!' I'm not sure if they realize that this thing isn't going to plant itself yet or not.

I was nervous about our little sprouting seedlings the whole week I was away, which I had left in the fairly capable hands of one Gregory Sheppard who did not join us on the Thai-trip. When asked if he wanted me to show him 'what to do' to water the plants, he replied, 'Uhhhh...yeah, pour water on them?' 'Well...sort of, but you can't just go dumping water on these little seedlings...some need misty drops! MISTY DROPS!' Anyway, they mostly survived, some I dare say thrived in Greg's care, so I will be sure to repay him with a bottle of juice, or pop or something that mixes well with either of the two.

Since our return, I have met with Ms. Hao, the lady who is responsible for ordering all of the supplies and materials for both the International and Chinese Schools on campus. She seemed very open to all of my requests: organic soil, re-used tables/chairs for the art class to decorate, old plates and dishes for making mosaic art, a bench for seating, a small storage space with a roof, etc.

I had requested that we have some sand or small rocks placed at the bottom of the raised beds to help with drainage and after my conversation with Ms. Hao, I returned to my class to finish up some work. 20 minutes later, my friend Janna poked her head into my room on her way home and said 'Did you know that they're pouring sand into your flower beds?' Sure enough, workers were coming with bags of sand and raking it out along the bottoms of the beds! Sometimes when you want something done in China, all you have to do is snap your fingers! It reminds me of the billboard displayed along the road coming from the Hong Kong ferry into Shenzhen, something about how 'Time is Money, Efficiency is Life...' Ohhhhh China...

On Wednesday, Spencer from Grade 12 said he would go out and buy soil if we could start planting the next day. To his delight and my surprise, we could have as the first bags of rich (looking), dark soil were poured in during our Environmental Science class the next morning. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, but I insisted that Daniel haul out his cellphone (which I had confiscated after he used it to calculate something a couple of weeks before) to capture the moment.


This week and next are going to be filled with projects, midterms, tests, and report card marking so we will see about getting started on our planting ventures. It seems like it would be a good time to start as the weather is finally dropping down to a 'not-so-ridiculously-sweltering' 25ish degree temperature average. Really starting to feel the autumn in the air. Or maybe that's just the CO2 emissions...