School by the river

We had a great morning visiting the local (only) school, St Sebastian. Lucy has been building links between the school and her local school in Edinburgh, to help both sets of kids appreciate what life is like for each other. I'm not sure which is more difficult: for Scottish children to imagine what life is like living beside a huge river in the middle of a humid tropical jungle, where the temperature never drops below mid-20s (if that), snow might as well be from the moon and where the school run involves an intermittently running boat; or for the Brazilian children to imagine having to put on a coat to go out, for days to get dark at 3pm (or earlier!) and for the biggest threat to their lives to be traffic and crossing the road.

Everyone standing still waiting to be scanned, whilst being bitten by ants.

Lucy brought school uniforms from Edinburgh, loom bands (of course!) as friendship gifts, and a met station so the children can record weather data to compare with Scotland. They showed us their work and their school garden - their teacher Cleyson, is showing them how to grow manioc, banana, sugar cane and pineapple without needing to burn and clear forest first. Fire is the primary land clearance method at the moment, with all the attendant risk and long-term damage that it brings.

Snow? What's snow?

We got everyone out, including the school dog, and scanned them. Once again, everyone loves seeing the view the lidar provides! I'd love to come back and see how they're getting on & I really admire what both Cleyson and Lucy are doing here.

Everyone looks more real in lidar world.