Once Daddy Cloud called his children Drops and said:
-I have an important task for you. Travel the world and see if all countries have enought water.
The Cloud released the first Drop over Lithuania. Drop fell and looked around - so many interesting things! The Curonian Lagoon is on one side, the Baltic sea on the other, and lots and lots of sand in the middle.
- What is it?- asked Ladybug running away from Drop.
- These are the dunes, and over there, the Sundial, answered Ladybug.
"It's beautiful", Drop whispered in admiration.
- Listen, Ladybug, isn't there a shortage of water in Lithuania?
- No shortage of Drop, no shortage. After all, even the name of Lithuania comes from the word "rain".
The Curonian Lagoon
The Sundial
Then the drops together with their Father Cloud traveled to Greece and reached Ilioupoli. A drop looked around and saw a mountain, Hymettus. There the drop saw trees, animals birds, stones, soil.
The drop really liked the animals and especially a fox. The drop asked the fox, "Are you having a good time in the forest?"
"Yes, it is nice", said the fox. "It has many animals like me and I have company. It has many trees and many flowers, too".
The drop was excited and said
"I can fall on the flowers and trees to find friends too."
The drop then fell on a flower and said "What a nice place to land!"
The Daddy Cloud and its drops continued their journey and pushed by the wind they arrived in a place surrounded by the sea...Italy! A Drop arrived in the town of Vignola and met some children playing in the school garden and asked them:
"Do you have enough water?" . The children ran into the school bathroom, opened the taps and answered the Drop:
"Yes! We have a lot of it", but the Drop told them to use water only if necessary because it was precious.
However, a student remembered that at that time there was little water in the Panaro river and that even the supermarket sometimes didn't sell it because there wasn't enough for everyone.
Then, the children asked Drop for some help. The Drop called Daddy Cloud and the other drops, and shortly after it, it started to rain.
The wind blew and carried the Daddy Cloud and the raindrops over Greece. The rain drops saw a beautiful city near the sea called Patras.
The wind was keeping blow hard and carried the raindrops over a mountain called Panachaiko. It was very cold and suddenly the rain drops became snowflakes that were falling on the snowy mountain.
There, a little girl was building a snowman . The snowflakes asked the girl :
“Is the water enough for the people of Patras?”
“It is enough”, said the girl.
“This is good news “ said a snowflake, “and when the sun comes out , the snow will melt and more water will be collected to Patras”.
“However, you must be careful ! You must not waste the water without a reason. So you will have enough water to drink, to cook, to take a shower, to water the plants and for animals to drink” .
Finally, in a short time the sun came out and melted the snowflakes, which became water drops again. The drops entered the river, which is called Charadros, and went down to the sea, the Gulf of Patras.
The drops looked with admiration at the sea and saw many little fish! A drop asked "Does your sea have a lot of water?" The little fish replied "Yes, we are very lucky!"
The waterdrops decided to have a rest on the beach for a while. A lot of children were playing there. No! they are not playing! Actually, they are collecting something from the beach. The drops couldn’t understand what the children were doing, they tried to reach them and ask them:
“Hello our friends! What are you doing?”
The children answered:
“ We are picking up all the garbage that the wind or the water brought to the beach. We love this beach, we play here almost everyday but unfortunately we often find plastic, dirty rubbish. We want our sea to be clean for us but for the fish ,as well.”
Then the cold wind blew the drop over to Athens, in Agios Dimitrios, on the street outside of our school, the 18th Kindergarten.
“Goodmorning friends!”, it said to the kids coming to school in the morning.
“Would you like me to help you with the water? Have you got enough water?”
“Of course dear drop, we have water because we don't waste it. When we turn on the tap to wash our hands or to drink we control it. We turn it on a little!"
Our little drop was very happy to hear that the kids of 18th Kindergarten of Agios Dimitrios don’t waste water and it decided to travel to Kastoria to meet the students in Kindergarten of Pentavrysos and talk to them about the ways of saving water. During its trip on the sky it visited Kastoria’s lake, Orestiada, where it met its friends, the lake’s drops and many birds which were living in this beautiful lake.
After their little chat our drop visited Pentavrysos and the students of the Kindergarten.
“Hello dear friends! I’m really happy to hear that all the kids in Italy, in Lithuania and in Greece are very careful with the use of water. You make me and my friends really happy. Would you like to tell me how do you think that all the people can use water correctly in order not to waste it?".
“Yesssss!!!! We know exactly what we have to do!!! We can turn off the tap when we brush our teeth or when we wash our hands!”.
“We can keep the water clean!! It means that we should not throw garbage in the sea, the lake or the rivers and we must clean it, if we see that there are garbage in them.”
“We can water our flowers with a watering can!”
“We can shower ourselves without filling the bathtub”.
Our drop was really happy to hear all those useful things, it congratulated all the children , it promised them that water will never end if we are careful with it and she continued its trip to another school.
The north stream carried the drops to the South. A strong, cold wind collected them in dark gray clouds over the city of Voula. Lightning bolts and claps of thunder sounded almost directly over our heads! It started raining heavily ….
After a while the streets were flooded. The road outside our school has turned to a rushing river. The kids were observing the phenomenon between enthusiasm and question. The raindrops, as they were passing by, waved to the kids, but when they noticed their puzzled faces they wanted to know the reason.
“You are running too fast! Where are you heading in such a hurry?", the children asked.
“Nowhere special. We are just having fun and probably we will end up in the sea nearby”, answered the drops.
“We have an idea,” said the children again.
“Why don't you go to Africa? We know that people there have too much sun and very little water. They would be grateful if you helped them!”
“How can we go there? Africa is far away and we might lose our way”, the drops said.
“You should listen to their rain sticks. They are traditional instruments which people used them to call the rain when they lack water. Rain sticks will show you the way” .
“What a great idea! Besides this is what we do. We travel around the world and help this planet to stay green and clean”, said the drops.
“Have a nice trip”, wished the children, hoping to see the drops soon again…
The book " The long journey of the drops" is the collaborative work of the school- partners of the Etwinning project "Playing with Water", for January 2023.
The writers and illustrators of the book "The long journey of the drops", are the students of the schools (in order of appearance):
Kauno lopselis-darzelis "Spindulelis", Lithuania
1st Kindergarten of Ilioupolis, Greece
DD di Vignola, Italy
34th Kindergarten of Patra, Greece
38th Kindergarten of Patra, Greece
18th Kindergarten of Agios Dimitrios, Greece
Kindergarten of Pentavrysos, Greece
3rd Kindergarten of Voula, Greece
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