Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Trip to Brazil!
OnEartHeart recently Traveled to Salvador, Bahia. We took the Teen Family Tour sponsored by Art Helping Life inc. Art Helping Life is “a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting cultural awareness and helping the disadvantaged, especially children in poverty.” Founded by Sherri Donovan donovassoc@aol.com.
We gave Happy Packs to the children at the Vo Flor orphanage there, and the entire experience was wonderful. Happy Packs are Backpacks filled with things that make children happy. In this case, they were art supplies. The children were very polite, and they had big smiles on their faces when they opened the bags. They were so surprised because they thought that they were just getting backpacks. But when they opened them, and saw that they were literally filled to the top with art supplies, they just lit up. However, there were more children at the orphanage then we expected, and the little ones lined up first. By the time we got to the 12-14 year old girls, we did not have anything left, but we were still able to find something to give them. Velly Bahia (vellybahia@gmail.com, vellybahia.com), our tour guide, is going back to Bahia in August, and we would like to send with him Happy Packs for teen girls. This time it will be a joint collaboration between kids in Brazil, and kids in America. We carried 300+ pounds of Happy Packs on the plane with us, and the entire operation was successful. Thank you children of Saint Ann’s School. Thank you children of the Harlem School of the Arts, Thank you children of the Bronx. Thank you to my little cousin Trinity in Michigan. Trinity is our youngest member at the age of 6. I would also like to give a special thanks to Yonbue of the Bronx who gave us about 100 stuffed toys. We really did it. Just kids helping kids. You can see what we did on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dccnJ2oFsps.
Salvador was absolutely amazing. I have never seen anything like it. The streets rise and fall in layers, and all the streets are paved with cobblestones. The houses there are all connected, and the narrow streets make you feel like you are in an entirely different place. Cars can barely drive around the city, but yet seem to slip through somehow. We went to a square there, and the amount of activity is incredible! People dance, and sell things, and there are amazing buildings there as well. We also took a drive through the countryside, and it feels like a different world. We did not even need to speak the language of the people there to have a great time. I met wonderful people there, and although I could not speak their language, I could communicate with them, and I knew that they were great people. We danced with them, swam with them, played with them, and it did not require language. The children there are just like us. We meet with a group of kids, and we played with them, traveled with them, and all kinds of things. We tried to teach them English, and they tried to teach us Portuguese, this is how Flag Friends are created. Some of our first Flag Friends will be from Bahia. Check out what Flag Friends are about at www.oneartheart.com. I really did not want to go home. I hope to go back there again soon!
A few weeks later, Velly was still in Bahia. Two kids passed him on the street and said, “Velly! Where’s Kiki?” They were still wearing their backpacks.
We gave Happy Packs to the children at the Vo Flor orphanage there, and the entire experience was wonderful. Happy Packs are Backpacks filled with things that make children happy. In this case, they were art supplies. The children were very polite, and they had big smiles on their faces when they opened the bags. They were so surprised because they thought that they were just getting backpacks. But when they opened them, and saw that they were literally filled to the top with art supplies, they just lit up. However, there were more children at the orphanage then we expected, and the little ones lined up first. By the time we got to the 12-14 year old girls, we did not have anything left, but we were still able to find something to give them. Velly Bahia (vellybahia@gmail.com, vellybahia.com), our tour guide, is going back to Bahia in August, and we would like to send with him Happy Packs for teen girls. This time it will be a joint collaboration between kids in Brazil, and kids in America. We carried 300+ pounds of Happy Packs on the plane with us, and the entire operation was successful. Thank you children of Saint Ann’s School. Thank you children of the Harlem School of the Arts, Thank you children of the Bronx. Thank you to my little cousin Trinity in Michigan. Trinity is our youngest member at the age of 6. I would also like to give a special thanks to Yonbue of the Bronx who gave us about 100 stuffed toys. We really did it. Just kids helping kids. You can see what we did on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dccnJ2oFsps.
Salvador was absolutely amazing. I have never seen anything like it. The streets rise and fall in layers, and all the streets are paved with cobblestones. The houses there are all connected, and the narrow streets make you feel like you are in an entirely different place. Cars can barely drive around the city, but yet seem to slip through somehow. We went to a square there, and the amount of activity is incredible! People dance, and sell things, and there are amazing buildings there as well. We also took a drive through the countryside, and it feels like a different world. We did not even need to speak the language of the people there to have a great time. I met wonderful people there, and although I could not speak their language, I could communicate with them, and I knew that they were great people. We danced with them, swam with them, played with them, and it did not require language. The children there are just like us. We meet with a group of kids, and we played with them, traveled with them, and all kinds of things. We tried to teach them English, and they tried to teach us Portuguese, this is how Flag Friends are created. Some of our first Flag Friends will be from Bahia. Check out what Flag Friends are about at www.oneartheart.com. I really did not want to go home. I hope to go back there again soon!
A few weeks later, Velly was still in Bahia. Two kids passed him on the street and said, “Velly! Where’s Kiki?” They were still wearing their backpacks.
YouTube link!
We have a YouTube video of my latest project, giving backpacks full of art supplies to the children of Vo Flor! Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dccnJ2oFsps&feature=related
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
I have recently made a presentation to the Riverside Church of New York City on Eco-Justice day. It was a wonderful experience, and I was glad to be a part of it.
I mainly talked about plastic and how it is severely hurting our environment. Plastic takes 10,000 years to bio-degrade (that means to rot). Plastic Polymers NEVER bio-degrade. We should be using plastic for things that we want to keep forever, but instead we are using it for things that we throw away in a few minutes. Plastic shopping bags just waste plastic and oil. They float in our oceans, drift across our streets, and kill our animals. How can we fix this? The answer is simple. Buy re-usable bags. This goes beyond just reducing plastic consumption, it also gets rid of greenhouse gases by slowing production at the factories, and saves oil that can be put towards powering cars and homes.
The worst are plastic garbage bags. We create them to throw them away. We MUST find alternatives. The bags just sit under the ground and stay there. They trap heat inside of them, causing the garbage to rot, releasing Methane, a greenhouse gas. Maybe we can try a bio-degradable alternative, or develop a system to eliminate plastic bags altogether. Think about it!
I mainly talked about plastic and how it is severely hurting our environment. Plastic takes 10,000 years to bio-degrade (that means to rot). Plastic Polymers NEVER bio-degrade. We should be using plastic for things that we want to keep forever, but instead we are using it for things that we throw away in a few minutes. Plastic shopping bags just waste plastic and oil. They float in our oceans, drift across our streets, and kill our animals. How can we fix this? The answer is simple. Buy re-usable bags. This goes beyond just reducing plastic consumption, it also gets rid of greenhouse gases by slowing production at the factories, and saves oil that can be put towards powering cars and homes.
The worst are plastic garbage bags. We create them to throw them away. We MUST find alternatives. The bags just sit under the ground and stay there. They trap heat inside of them, causing the garbage to rot, releasing Methane, a greenhouse gas. Maybe we can try a bio-degradable alternative, or develop a system to eliminate plastic bags altogether. Think about it!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Plastic
Plastic bags have been one of the biggest nuisances in terms of pollution riding up there with Styrofoam cups, bowls, and takeout boxes, and plastic cutlery. You've probably seen them blowing around all over the place.
But they're not just bad pollution wise, it takes more oil to make 1,000,000 plastic bags than it does to power 1,000,000 cars. How could we stop this? We could stop this by using re-usable bags that are made of Eco-friendly materials.Let's solve this problem!
~~K
But they're not just bad pollution wise, it takes more oil to make 1,000,000 plastic bags than it does to power 1,000,000 cars. How could we stop this? We could stop this by using re-usable bags that are made of Eco-friendly materials.Let's solve this problem!
~~K
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