Just a few days to go!!

Blog written by Robert Bobby COLEMAN

I'm Bobby Coleman. I'm 14 years old, and I live in Los Angeles, USA. This is my 2nd blog as we race to the finish line (or starting line) getting ready for a most amazing adventure in the 11th Switzerland Selection Camp!
A lot of things have come together since my last blog, and I kinda feel like I might be ready physically and mentally for the adventure ahead of us! (or maybe not…)

I have learned a lot about the Amazon that I hadn't known, but now I also know just how much there is to learn! For example, it is very easy to come up with plans like rotating crops to save the soil, but then you find out that many farmers are forced off their land after only two years by wealthy landowners, and you realize there's always more variables to the situation.

A lot has grown in the social media aspect. Like I stated in my last blog, I had set up a YouTube account. I wasn't sure how well it would work out, but as I started to post videos, I started getting a lot of positive feedback. (which is VERY rare for YouTube!) I got my channel up to 74 subscribers and 1,300 video views! After that happened, my FaceBook and Twitter started going up. FaceBook is now at 500 friends and Twitter 1035.

I honestly haven't had as much time for Physical training as I wished. I had hiked a lot but never backpacked, and never tested my fitness on a really steep trail. So I loaded a backpack with heavy rocks and picked a steep trail. I've attached a picture.

Pangaea taught me about the terrible Shark Finning problem – 73 million sharks mutilated and left to die for soup every year. But California banned it this month – so I researched how that happened and wrote it up, hoping other places could ban it too.

I also found what could be a great environmental project in our town. One trash company separates and recycles 80% of all mixed trash. I want to talk individuals and cities into using them, so recycling becomes easy and automatic.

TNT! TNT stands for The Nature Team, or to be more specific, Take No Trees! Our proposed project, “Life Water,” is centered around sustaining peoples lives in the Amazon by bringing them the most common thing they have – water…just in a form that will bring life contrary to their common polluted and sometimes deadly water. Right now I have proposed the LifeStraw, a simple device that filters 99.99% of all bacteria as you suck polluted water through it. It has been awesome planning and forming this project with such great and knowledgeable people! And I get to meet them all in three days!

My excitement is growing by the minute!

Bobby