Previously, I wrote about our greenhouse project in Bariloche with SASS. As the winter was coming to an end in South America, we finally got the greenhouse up in place at a local school. About a week before I left, I got to visit the site where the greenhouses would eventually go.
We met with the staff and spoke about the greenhouse project. The meeting lasted a couple of hours and I tried to understand as much as possible, but it was pretty difficult as my Spanish isn't up to speed. Originally, we thought we would be able to donate these greenhouses and that they would be used to grow food, but as time went on and discussions were had it seemed more feasible to use them for a program that was already implemented within the school system, to use to grow tree seedlings to replant a section of the forest near the mountain that burned down several years ago.
It was pretty cool to be welcomed into the school, drink mate with the staff, and figure out the plan for the greenhouse.
I was stoked on these drawings by the students. I wish I could have communicated better. Gave me motivation to come back next year and be able to talk to them and see the progress of the greenhouses.
Ryan Dunfee, the Director of Sustainability at SASS, did a great job organizing this project. It was amazing to be a part of and I was so excited to get these photos from Ryan once the greenhouse was finally put up at the school.
Mark Abma came down for a couple of weeks and worked on the greenhouse from sunrise to sunset. He was a machine! Due to lack of bottles at the time, we couldn't get the project completely finished while he was still around. He also worked super hard on this biodiesel reactor (pictured above). This is what Dunfee had to say about this project, "We built a biodiesel reactor to process waste vegetable oil into biodiesel that can be used in any diesel vehicle, and we plan to donate this reactor to the local recycling association which a collection of low-income individuals who pore over the city dump looking for recyclables that they can sell to companies to re-use in a variety of products; there is no municipal recycling program in Bariloche. "Aside from skiing amazing terrain with rad people, it was so cool to see SASS stepping outside the norm and doing something that would last longer than our stay in Bariloche. I was really impressed that these projects were completed and stoked on everyone who helped out! Thanks to Mark Abma, Ryan Dunfee, James Heim, Garrett Russell, Lel Tone, the One Life crew, and everyone else who hammered nails, cut bottles, and created something amazing! The campers that came out and helped were awesome (Adam and Emma and everyone else...you guys rule!).