Anna's Adventures in Egypt

Anna spent last week at the International Symposium of Tilapia Aquaculture in Cairo, Egypt. The conference brought together people involved with tilapia culture from all over the world in the hopes of developing a cheaper, more plentiful source of protein.
Anna presented her master's project: Na+K+ ATPASE Changes in Larval Tilapia Reared in Fresh Water and Sea Water. The mystery is why tilapia grow better and faster in salt water when they are naturally freshwater fish.
The conference kept Anna busy but she found time to visit museums, see the pyramids at Giza, and ride a camel while she was there. (That's her in front.)

We are the stewards of Children's Memorial Park

Kino has signed on with Tucson Clean and Beautiful to be responsible for Children's Memorial Park. Located right along the Rillito River, southwest of the Oracle and River Road intersection, this is a special little park with a playground, picnic area, sports fields and memorial plaza.
As the park's stewards, we are responsible for visiting it at least a couple times a month, cleaning up any trash, and reporting any damage to the equipment there.
Because the park is so close to Kino, it is a perfect destination for homeroom parties, picnics, or field trips specifically for community service. Kino families may also enjoy visiting the park on weekends.
A representative from Tucson Clean and Beautiful met with Anna, Jennifer, and Heather and explained our responsibilities. For every visit, there's a work sheet to fill out. Then we compile a monthly summary to send in.
If we are good for three months, then there will be a ceremony officially installing us as the park's stewards and we'll get a plaque at the park.

New Trolls from the Rainbow Shop

For years, visiting the Living Rainbow store has been an important part of Kino field trips to Mount Lemmon. Recently Libby and Eli visited the nice folks there while collecting troll house materials. Debbie Fagan remembered Libby and gave her a fantastic gift for Kino -- two big, kid-sized trolls. The trolls, Walter and Wheeze (he's kinda allergic to the tree moss), are fitting right in in the primary center and everyone loves them! This morning everyone worked on writing thank you letters to Debbie. Thank you!


(Walter and Wheeze are the two fuzzy fellows in the middle.)

Rio and the Quaking River Band in Arizona Blues Showdown

Rio and the Quaking River Band, which includes Lisa Otey, Chris, and others, will be competing in the Arizona Blues Showdown in Phoenix next weekend. They'll be performing a 20 minute set at 2:00 at the Rhythm Room on September 28. Ten other bands will be competing that day.
If they are among the finalists, they will perform again on October 5, and then the winning band gets to go to Memphis for the national competition. Lisa says she's gotten to go a couple of times and it's really fun.
The Rhythm Room is at 1019 E. Indian School Road and admission is around $7.

The As Yet Unnamed Sustainability Project

Four Kino students–Erik, Ethan, Klair, and Tyler – have launched a year-long challenge to themselves: to see if they can grow and produce their own food.
They all got interested in the challenge last year, when Neill Prohaska was teaching Environmental Science. Neill is now going to U of A, working towards masters degrees in both journalism and Latin American studies, but he is still supervising the project.
The four began working on their gardens before school ended last spring. Over the summer, they came up to Kino early in the morning before it got hot (like 5 am) to keep working on them. Limited to food crops that do well in the Tucson climate, they are growing beans, corn, peppers and squash, as well as the more exotic sorghum, amaranth, and panic grass. They are relying as much as possible on rain water from the water harvesting tanks that Harrison built for his senior project last year.
Since their garden is not yet ready for harvest, for the time being they are eating locally produced foods. Neill has a supply of dry corn from his garden; they are making it into hominy. They have teppary beans from Native Seed/ Search, eggs from Hickman’s Ranch, and peppers and okra that they bought at a farmer’s market.
“We started on the first day of school,” said Tyler and Klair. “Erik and Ethan started on the second day.”
”What have they been eating? “Not much,” says Tyler.
They are taking vitamin pills and supplements just to make sure. They’ve also given themselves some major wiggle room: anything that can fit through a straw.
“Ethan called me this weekend and complained that his friends were eating sloppy joes. I was going to joke that he could put some in a blender and drink it, but then I realized that he probably would,” said Neill.
Harley, Emmi and Lela’s father, is providing some loaner hens for eggs as well as givint them some baby chicks. The tilapia tanks, which Ethan is working on, will also be a regular source of protein.
Once they are producing more food, Neill says, they will take another look at the straw exception.
Klair says, “I been feeling more energy since we started. I think it’s the Jamba Juice.”

What? Are there lockers at Kino ?!!

If you are an old Kino student, this is probably the most shocking change since we gradually transitioned from sitting on cubes to sitting in chairs. For years, a perennial issue at school meetings has been "Why can't we have lockers that lock instead of open cubbies?"
Well, they aren't really lockers. They're cubbies with doors and they don't lock. This means we can continue to say, "This is a community and in a community we need to be able to trust each other."
Plus they are beautiful. Master carpenter Chris Schulz built them for us over the summer. They have adjustable shelves and are sized to fit today's big backpacks as well as the regular clutter, so the whole school looks cleaner. They will continue to look beautiful for years!

Wet Hike

Johnny and a group of students took the first Night Hike of the year last week -- a sunset hike and swim at Sabino Canyon.