ECO TALE
In a simple but weird act of magic, the little star reached the Portuguese skies. Only 57 seconds had passed since she had last been seen in Italy! Tired of such impressive performance (flying at the speed of light), the star fell on the main mast of Sagres, the school ship of the Portuguese Navy, which was arriving from her third circum-‐navigation trip. This tall ship is a tree-‐masted ship with 22 square sails on the fore and main masts. The star got stuck in her main mast which rises 42 metres above the deck. After some painful moments, she finally managed to free herself from the hooks and fell on the deck… luckily she didn’t get injured!
The ship was reaching the Sado estuary, a broad, shallow estuary to the South of Lisbon. This amazingly beautiful place is worldwide known for its breeding and wintering water birds, a large population of dolphins, frogs, lizards and snakes as well as its well-‐conserved sand-‐dune habitats.
The little star was absolutely delighted with the scenery! “Wow, this is awesome! What a lovely place! I’m sure it’s a SPA! Yes, it must be a SPA – a Special Protection Area. Everything is so natural and well cared for. But, what place is this? Where am I?”
A strong male voice was heard not far behind her: “We are overlooking the Sado estuary at the moment. It is one of the biggest Special Protection Areas in Portugal…”. Simultaneously the melody of a typical Portuguese song -‐ Fado – was being played on one of the crew’s IPOD. It was so loud that the star could tell what it was… and that was enough!
“I have always heard that Portugal was a small country but a very beautiful one and it is, indeed, very beautiful!” The star was fascinated! The view was absolutely breath taking. However, as the ship was reaching the shore the waves were stronger, so the star got sea sick and fainted! She was saved by a baby dolphin who had been watching her for a long time. Her light was so bright and engaging that the dolphin couldn’t help following it. He wanted to save the star so he took her to the shore! The entire population of dolphins followed behind as well as hundreds of different species of birds. It was a wonderful parade!
The star woke up very dizzy. Her sugar levels were very low… she opened up her eyes. The place was crowded. People were speaking in very different languages:
tourists! The place was full of tourists! She woke up in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. There was a pretty young girl in the crowd. She was wearing a lovely silver dress along with a very nice hat made out of recycled cloth, cork bottle tops and pink paper flowers. The girl looked gorgeous! She was eating a pastel de Belém (a typical delicatessen from Lisbon), which she shared with the frightened star. She then realized it wasn’t a dream. ”Yes!... I’ve made it! I’m alive! I’m alive! I know this place, I googled it for one of my History assignments. This is Lisbon! That’s the Torre de Belém and that’s the Padrão dos Descobrimentos over there! The first Portuguese navigators departed from here to discover Africa and Asia and America… Vasco da Gama, Diogo Cão, these are just a few I can remember … ”
The star twinkled twice at the pretty girl in the silver dress and within seconds she was on her shoulder. Neither the girl nor her parents had experienced such an impressive moment ever. The star was grateful too!
“If you’re in Portugal, you have to visit all the beautiful places we have around here”, said the girl’s mother. So they set off on a trip along the coast line of the country and visited many wonderful white sandy beaches, tall lighthouses, great medieval castles and fortresses… The girl’s father was driving an electric car. There are plenty of these cars in Portugal. People are getting friendlier with the environment each and every day. Then they went to the countryside where they contemplated equally beautiful landscapes, green forests, crystal clear rivers… No matter where they were heading, south or north, east or west, everything was beautiful. “You, guys, recycle a lot, don’t you? You have so many recycling points… they’re everywhere!” the little star uttered. “You know, I’ve travelled a lot lately, I’ve seen not seven but a hundred wonders all the way to Portugal. I’ve been to some unpleasant places too, that’s true, but the most important thing is that I’ve learned a lot!”
The star was so happy and, therefore, so bright and shinning that she flew high up in the skies, disappearing out of the people’s sight and reach. The silver dressed girl wasn’t sad or worried. She said to her mother: “Love and joy led her up where she belongs, mommy!!”
Tired again, the star woke up in a different dimension. At least she believed so: everywhere she looked at was green, natural, divine. The sky was bright, no clouds, mist or whatsoever… just some huge white blades hanging somehow from the skies..... “I died and now I’m in heaven….”, the star said with relief.
She was somewhere in the Douro Valley region. The place was spectacularly beautiful with the hills falling steeply down to the river’s edge. The most dominant feature of the landscape was the terraced vineyards which have been built throughout the centuries, row upon row. The Douro Wine region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Cultural landscape, where Port wine has been produced for the past two thousand years. The white blades were part of the huge turbines belonging to one of the many wind farms in the place. She was marveled!
While the star was contemplating the magnificent view, she heard a strange sound… croaking, she thought. She looked right and there it was: a cute baby frog! The amphibian couldn’t stop crying. He was desperate. He had lost his family: both daddy and mommy frog were run over by a car and his twin sister had died of grief. He was all alone in the world now. Poor thing!
The star was all ears to the frog’s story! She had no idea of the problems this species was facing: habitat loss, climate change, pollution, pesticides, competition (this is, new introduced species) and predators. She knew that frogs absorb air and water through their skin, so they are the first to be affected by a polluted environment -‐ they are affected by water, land and air pollution because they live on land and in the water. However, she didn’t know that in Portugal most frogs and toads are run over by cars …… “That’s tragic and……….strange, too!” she thought. “But I have an idea! It’s very easy! I’ll help you my friend!”
A strange noise, followed by a strong vibration, was felt by the star… someone had posted a like in Go Green, Go Clean, Act Now Facebook. “Thank you Comenius people! With teachers and students like you, our planet will always be blue!” could be read in Diogo Cão’s laptop.
“Diogo Cão, the navigator?” the star asked.
One of the talking wind turbines answered: “Not in this world! Diogo Cão, the teenage boy from Vila Real! That famous boy from Diogo Cão School! Come on, let’s meet him!
“The boy must be very interested in environmental matters!”, the star thought! She was right, indeed.
Diogo Cão introduced the star to all his schoolmates and showed her all the projects they were dealing with, the ideas they came up with to help solve some local
environmental issues… They showed her their Comenius Project website as well as the Facebook. After adding her name as a friend, she promised to advertise it worldwide and add as many eco-‐friends as she possibly could. The star was really very surprised to learn that all the children in Portugal were very friendly and cared so much about planet Earth. She was also happy to learn that many schools were awarded green flags meaning they were eco-‐schools, friends of the environment!
“Well, well, well!! What about the frogs?” the star asked the students.
“Frogs? What frogs?” the students asked.
“Well, you know, on my way to Vila Real I met this lovely baby frog… He is an orphan! His parents were run over and his sister…well, it’s a very sad story! Now I know that’s the first cause of frogs’ death in your country. But I had an idea to save the frog population! I had some meetings with your local authorities (Town Hall, Environmental Associations, Animal Protection Groups, University…) and everything is settled.
“So, tell us! What can we do to save the frogs?” asked the curious kids.
“There are many things you can do but let’s just focus on these four things: building underneath road-‐crossing tunnels for them to cross without being smashed under the wheels of passing cars; setting up 40 cm high walls along major roads to trap the amphibians and then capture them and safely transport them to the other side of the road; joining in special events such as “Clean up Alvão Mountains”; making a frog habitat in your garden or in your school. It’s easy, isn’t it? You’ll get the leaflets with all the detailed data tomorrow and then you can start working!”
“Wow, that’s rather easy! Why didn’t it cross our minds before? But, are you sure it will work? Will the politicians and the “big green leaders” help us? Do they even care about the frogs?”
“Of course they do! Partnerships with schools are already arranged. And let me tell you something: they showed themselves very interested and helpful!” the star explained.
The kids were very enthusiastic with the brand-‐new project and couldn’t find the right words to express their happiness!
Brighter than ever before in her long star life, she flew over the kids’ heads, performing an old stars’ dance, touching each of them here and there. Blessings!
That’s what she was doing, blessing them! She wasn’t an ordinary star, she was a fairy star, who was also a friend of the environment. And by that time she was ready to leave. She had accomplished her mission among the Portuguese people. She twinkled twice and disappeared into the misty sky. She headed east to Romania.
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