It has been a long-time dream of mine to host an educational outing specifically for the local Latino residents, and recently my dream came true. Narcisso, Pina, and Hugo found time away from their busy work schedules to tour of the northern end of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and South Tufa.
The fun part for me was doing the whole tour in Spanish. Although I do work with Spanish-speaking students all the time, I have not done an entire tour in Spanish in a while.
When I do tours and people ask me questions, that is when I know that they are really engaging in learning. On this tour, my friends kept me pretty busy with lots of questions. It was rewarding to see them learning more about the beautiful place where they reside.
One thing that really surprised them was the number of species and the number of birds that depend on the lake—I think it was really eye-opening for them. We had a good discussion about the fact that when we have a healthy Mono Lake ecosystem our local economy benefits from visitors, which translates to jobs and a healthy livelihood for our community.
I am already planning another outing with more of our local Latino friends and I’ve already heard that the word is getting out that people want to come along!
