Prodigies of Mother Earth – and something else

The youth of Ayabaca was already looking for remedies in Nature to the problems that have us daily sick.

 

Based upon a chronicle by Mario Tabra Guerrero

 

AYABACA, Peru – September 2009 was not only used like a moment for renovation, the innovation too. Señor Cautivo School’s students took it advantage for proposing solutions to global problems with little local actions. The 11^th of that month, they organized a fair addressed to expose their scientific and technological achievements with a sustainable development perspective.

 

Cecilia Maribel Ríos Garavito and Carlos Avendaño Guarnizo were the teachers who coordinated that activity focused on the students could learn science throughout the direct experimentation so proposing real alternatives with attitude of objectivity and life respect, and a clear intention – the conservation of environment.

 

“To know and to use rationally natural resources in benefit of health, feeding, and environment conservation, and promoting the solidarian & integrational participation of teachers, students, and community are the goals of this expo-fair,” manifested Teacher Ríos during the opening. The projects presented by the students tested all their creativity.

 

The power of plants and motors

The austral Winter of 2009 was one of the coldest ever experienced, especially in Ayabaca Area. The city is 8911 feet altitude. Many people got ill and the high-school students wonder if maybe the Nature could have an answer to prevent or to heal the complications that were reported. Other public health issues also inspired them – malnutrition, anemia, parasitism, pollution, deforestation. Plus, how to promote recycling.

 

One of the projects highlighted the nutritional features of coca, a plant grown since ancient times by the Andean aborigin people and what currently has the harvest controlled to prevent international drug trafficking. Another negatively tagged plant, tobacco, was introduced as a choice to make an ecologic insecticide.

 

Do you like jams? Many people avoid them because of their high sugar contain, but a processed sugar. Some students introduced an ecologic choice that consisted in sweetening them with sugarcane syrup (locally known as sugarcane honey). The also natural flavors varied within toronché (an endemic fruit of Piura Department), mango, pumpkin (zamboomba), grape, orange, an tomato.

 

The sugarcane schnapps was also used to make liquors based on cascarija or qina (the national tree of Peru), elder, borage, eucalyptus, pine, blackberry flower, violet’s flower, linden, mint, leaves and flowers of orange, lemon verbena, Melissa, rosemary, celery, chancapiadra, watercress, carrot, and wild barberry. Also were prepared syrups and infusions with digestive, breathing, renal, relaxing, or even immunological properties.

 

Did anybody gift you flowers and you want them to conserve longer? The students tested to use chlorine or aspirin to extend their life. And if we talk about personal beauty, you should try hydrant creams, shampoos, and lotions with aroma of mint, violet, rose, and the use of collagen extracted as a jelly from a beef leg that will serve as a thickener.

 

The useless motors of tape recorders and hair-dryers can have a second life as a lamp with conditioned air included, that can be regulated to spread cool or heat depending on the climate where you are. The paper, the paperboard, or the useless household can turn into a unit to grow chickens.

 

So, the science and the technology have been used to reconciliate and reconnect the human being to Nature like the ancient inhabitants of the zone did it as evidenced the archeological sites across Ayabaca Province.

 

Mario Tabra is a teacher of Ayabaca’s Señor Cautivo High-School, and was a correspondent of our website.

Originally post-produced by Carolina Lizbeth Quilcat Coloma.