The WEP team has officially wrapped up its trip to Barra and while it’s good to be home, we are already missing the great folks, hot sun and of course the epic waves in Barra de la Cruz.
The last couple of days in Barra were very busy for our team:
- We took a group of local groms on a boat trip and beach visit to score some waves and collected about 12 bags of trash in the process.
- We were able to fund and begin construction on two more recycling stations.
- Christian Moutinho met with the local surf club to develop a plan for continued education on surfboard maintentance and ding repair and the future growth of the club. He also talked to them at length about how they can use the club to continue the work we began in the areas of environmental and community stewardship and look forward to receiving updates on club-run beach clean-ups and other initiatives in the months to come
- We delivered signs to be put at the town’s refillable water stations (see above) to help raise awareness among tourists and locals that refillable water is both an important consideration and that it is available
On May 3rd, we were lucky enough to get to take part in one of the town’s biggest annual festivals: Folks from the town and surrounding areas get together to share food, drink and to dance the night away. It was quite the fiesta and while it was great to see so many people having so much fun, the mountain of styrofoam food containers, beer bottles and plastic cups strewn everywhere made us realize that while we have come a long way in helping to educate and get people caring about keeping their community clean, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
With the help of our team of local ‘champions’ on the ground in Barra coupled with the support of our organizers and supporters here in Canada, however, I am sure the WEP is more than up to the challenge!
Stay tuned for more pics and updates, coming soon!
The Water's Edge Project 