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ISSN 1108-8931 |
Year 6 - Issue 65 |
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Sponsored by: Zante Feast Discovery Holidays, Purple Valley Yoga Centre, Hana Maui Botanical Gardens |
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Peter Pichler, Amman, Jordan
In the evening students prepared and then preformed skits on different themes we chose for them then ended off roasting marshmallows by the campfire. Students slept in the cabins and then on Thursday morning participated in a team adventure race including a mountain bike segment, jungle run segment as well as two kayaking sections. Throughout their stay students helped with preparing, serving and cleanup of the meals as well as cleaning of their cabins and we were pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help. Although it has been difficult organising and getting a school to come to our place even with us offering the whole stay including meals completely free, we have now seen through the enjoyment and appreciativeness of the students that this is a project worth continuing and have already set the date for the next group visit in two months time. If any readers have any suggestions of educational activities to do with students during their stay we would greatly appreciate it. Second big event for us this last month is we have finally purchased a solar-friendly 12 volt fridge which will help us tremendously in our restaurant area. Sophie Viswanathan, Q. Roo, Mexico
Jem Winston, Dominica
Jos Byju, Kerala, India
Bill Tuffin, Luang Namtha, Laos
We warmly welcome Romantico Cottage and Glass House Mountains Ecolodge in ECOCLUB.
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MEMBER
NEWS
I
am now located in Amman, Jordan working for World Vision as an adviser
for European grants and capacity building for the Middle Eastern and
Eastern European region and involved with many exciting projects dealing
with organic growing, ecotourism, local artisan promotion and many more.
Back in Mozambique, Pensão Gurué, currently managed by my inlaws, is
hosting a team from the Discovery Channel that is currently filming a
documentary on the wonderful Mt. Namuli. 
I
am proud to announce that at their conference in Istanbul, Turkey, The
International Hotel & Restaurant Association announced that 3 Rivers
Eco Lodge, In Dominica, has come 3rd in their environmental Best
Practices award, 2004 for independent hotels. There was a winner and a
runner up, and 3 Rivers received the first honourable mention, making us
3rd in the world for the independent hotel sector with the best
environmental practices.
A
group of ten French travelers recently visited us in our fishing
village, Kumbalangi. They were staying at a hotel in Cochin and arrived
at Kumbalangi by 3 pm. We took them to a prawn farm where they met a
local family living in a traditional house thatched with coconut leaves.
The host of the house served tender coconuts and explained about the two
season crops of rice and prawns. The monsoon time, when water level is
high is ideal for growing rice and when the water becomes saline by
November is ideal for growing prawns. Afterwards, a local farmer threw a
net in to the paddy and instantly caught a few prawns, explaining that
about 40 prawns make one kilogram. The prawns were then peeled and
cooked with onion, curry leaves, chilly powder and coconut oil, in a
demonstration of traditional Keralan cooking. Our guests enjoyed their
freshly caught and cooked meal, and the breeze at the open paddy field /
prawn farm. Later the lady host served delicious sweet coconut pancake.
The group were then taken by traditional boat on a backwater trip, to
Gramam Homestay observing and taking part in various methods of fishing,
such as by pulling chinese fishing nets but even by hand. By 7.30 pm our
guests were hungry, and were served the traditional Keralan Dinner with
rice, fish curry, prawns and vegetables while relaxing in our coconut
grove. Local papaya was served as the sweet and the group said goodbye
to Kumbalangi by 9 pm.
Early
on the morning after the Luang Namtha (Laos) Boat Racing Festival in late
October, 60 school children gathered at the Namtha Boat Landing to clean
after the three day Boat Race Festival. The Boat Race Festival is a
yearly festival which occurs at the end of Buddhist Lent. This year
marks the first year that the organizing committee had a clean up plan
for collecting and disposing of the litter generated by the 3 day
festival. The school children were from the 3rd, 4th and 5th year
classes of the Ban Khone Primary School. Five pick-up truck loads of
litter to the local landfill. The organizing committee donated 100,000
kip ($10) to the school for the purchase of equipment and teaching
materials. In addition some of bands who played at the festival donated
money to the school as a thank you for cleaning up around their area. 
