Rubbish Survey to Houses Around SDN Petemon 13 Surabaya by Curtis Deschambault
Today, I visited houses around the SDN Petemon 13 Surabaya and interviewed the families about what they do with their organic waste. Roni helped translate the questions into Indonesian for me. 
We interviewed three families and asked them the following questions, the amount of people living in their house, did they buy or cook most of their food, what they did with their leftovers and would they be interested in composting. The three houses we visited all cooked their own food and they all threw their leftovers into the garbage. They told us that they would be interested in composting if we provided them with compost bins. Before providing them with compost bins we must first teach them how to properly us the bins, this way we can ensure they will be properly used.
We also visited a family that had already received composters to check to see if the compost boxes were being properly used. The family was using the compost boxes, but there were a few things that they had questions about. They did not realise that the compost had to stay damp, which means not to wet and not to dry. Another thing that they did not know was that they had to add organic matter daily and continue to mix up the soil. One of the compost bins had ants living in it, Ronni told me this was because the soil was not be mixed often enough and the ant were eating the food in bin. Even though they have questions they were still using the compost bins. It was just that they were not using them to their potential. The family also has used some of the compost as fertilizer for their plants. They said when the school finishes they are going to get the children to help them compost more.
I visited SDN Petemon 13 Surabaya and learnt that they have won an environmental award for their school at the city, provincial and national level. They will soon be getting their award from the Mayor of Surabaya, the governor of East Java and they will be going to Jakarta to receive the national award from the president of Indonesia. This is extremely impressive because the school is very a small public school with limited funds. I than met with the teachers of the 6th grade to discuss the video conference call we are trying to set up between their elementary school and an elementary school in Canada. We are planning to have the video call late next week and have the students of the two schools talk about what they are doing to protect the environment.
My last task for the day wad to present the plans for the carbon footprint conference that I will be helping the students of SMP 37 organise. During the presentation we were able set the tentative dates which are the 24 and 25 of June. The organizing committee will consist of around 21 students who will be presenting the 7 topics. The seven topics are: electricity, cooking, gardening, shopping, leisure, transportation and washing. The students will be making activities based around the seven topics and educating the participants on how to reduce their carbon footprint. There will also be an exhibition during the week of the conference. The exhibition will be focused on educating the public about what is a “carbon footprint” and how to reduce their carbon footprint.