¡Hagamos todos los días, Día de la Tierra!

Those of a conservation mind have come up with a concept to encourage environmental thinking on a global scale called Earth Day. Being of the conservation persuasion ourselves, the crew at Punta Gruesa decided to jump on the band wagon and get involved. In 2008, we participated in Earth Day in Mahahual, with activities and events that represented the message of conservation and environmental awareness. This year, preparations were made to repeat the success of 2008, and to continue our work in the community of Mahahual.

A couple of bad weather days allowed us to get stuck in to preparing all the activities. There was music, laughter, dancing, painting, drawing, cutting, sticking, planning, rehearsals……everyone got involved and helped to make the resources, showing off their artistic talents (or lack thereof!). We created some cards from drawings done in a competition by the children in the primary school. The best images were put on the card, and the motto was displayed inside; ‘Let’s make Earth Day, every day’ or ‘¡Hagamos todos los días, Día de la Tierra!’. These were then part of the stand set up for information about GVI and what we do. This was on the seafront in town alongside the activities put on for the kids, including a recycling themed sack race, face painting, colouring fish for a reef scene, wet sponge throwing and sand sculpture. Fun was had by all, even those lucky enough to be on the receiving end of the wet sponges! The sun was strong so there were some red faces until the storm clouds rolled in, but fortunately they didn’t result in a downpour.

The activity that took the most prep was the puppet show. The stars were La Gran Ballesta (Black Durgon Triggerfish), Pulpo Marley (Rasta octopus), Pólipo Polín (Coral polyp), Zoxi Algae (Algae), Tammy la Tortuga (Turtle), Cofrecito (Boxfish), La More (Moray eel), Nudi (Nudibranch). Two performances were given to the first and second graders of the primary school, with staff and volunteers acting as puppeteers, putting on their best Spanish accents. Easy done for the Mexicans among us, but not so easy for the non-Spanish speakers! But amusing non-the-less, ‘A’ for effort!

Finally, the other activity on offer was the PADI Bubblemaker for young children to have their first introduction to Scuba diving. This was done in the pool with our instructors and a few helpers, and they were given scuba gear and let loose in the water, well, under careful supervision! However, it turned out that some of them were better than some of our EM’s at checking their air gauges!!!!! It went very well and was enjoyed by all, leaders and participants alike, even though the air tanks were as large as most of the kids!


There was a little trepidation as to the success of the day, but by all accounts the kids had a lot of fun and appreciated the effort, and there are only good reports from the EM’s involved. The weather behaved, just, the EM’s behaved…..just, and the event was a success. Bring on 2010!

¡Hagamos todos los días, Día de la Tierra!