My Wanderful Blog – Haakon

Part 2 – Soap is a Simple Solution

Clean hands healthy kids skit on Valentines Day at New Global Primary School

Feb 15 2020

By Haakon

One week later I can tell you how the idea of our soap project took shape and turned into a community commitment

First, we thought about what type of soap, and settled on liquid soap because the latrines and sinks are outdoors so that bar soap would turn to mush in the rain. With the help of the the local Rotary Interactor youth group coordinator connected us with Denis (a commercial soap maker) who gave us a procedure for liquid soap. Our Kampala Rotary contact was able the obtain the ingredients and bring them to the village. Denis then came out to Nsawo and taught the three of us how to make liquid soap. After learning the procedure, we brought our first batch (a 20L jerry can) to the clinic and taught the staff how to make it. Two days later we went to the local high school where we taught the chemistry teacher and 100 chemistry students how to make it along with what chemical reactions where happening while making it.

SSaku Secondary School Chemistry class on making soap

The next day, on valentine’s day, together with two of the Rotary Interactor students in the chemistry class we had taught, we went to one of the three primary schools (ages 3-12) to deliver the soap and show why it was important. At first the youngest students were running around while yelling “masungo” (the name for white people here) and not giving us the slightest chance to talk but that changed when we pulled out a box of chocolates and handed them a valentine. Once all the kids were quiet and contently sucking on their chocolate, we got on top the concrete stoop in front of the school and put on our How-germs-spread skit. First my mom acted like she had gone to the bathroom and had gotten germs on her hands (a squirt of peanut butter) but wait there was no soap or water to wash her hands so she walked back to class. She then asked the teacher (one of the high school students) for an orange the teacher said yes, so my mom took an orange and got her germs on it before asking me to help her peel it. When I peeled it, I got the “germs”; then my mom borrowed someone’s pen; then took a sip of somebody’s tea; then played a hand game with my sister, Siri; then I went to the hand pump and got the germ I had picked up from her on the handle of the pump. Soon all of us had the germs (peanut butter) all over our hands and the kids seemed to get the point and laughed too. After the skit we explained the importance of good hand hygiene to the kids and the local high schoolers told the kids about making the soap and their commitment to continue to make and supply the school with soap. We also shared procedures for making bar soap by creating lie from ash, which all households have from their cooking fires. Then all the villagers need to do is add rainwater and fat/oil. The Chemistry class is going to work out the proportions

We completed everything we wanted to and now all that’s left to do is generate adequate funding to keep soap supplies going to Nsawo. So, I made a GoFundMe page with a goal of $250 (enough money to keep soap going to Nsawo’s three primary schools for a year). It would be greatly appreciated by us and everybody in Nsawo if you would donate.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/soap-is-a-simple-solution?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Part 1 Soap is a Simple Solution

Febuary 8 2019

By Haakon

I have been in Uganda since the 1^st, so far four days in Kampala, and since then we have been in Nasawo. This is a village where people make a living farming. There are banana and coffee tree fields, people raise chickens and pigs, they grow their own vegetables mostly. The primary schools do not have electricity, nor glass windows. There is one pit latrine for all the students to use and there is a sink to wash hands, but I did not see soap. Dysentery is one of the highest causes of death for small children, good hand hygiene helps to prevent its spread, so soap is very important. I also noticed the clinic had no soap to wash your hands in the bathrooms. It’s sad to think about, say a woman goes to the bathroom, now her hands are dirty from the bathroom; she then puts her hands on the bed where she is recovering after delivery and caring for her new baby. Now with bathroom germs getting on surfaces, it’s not sanitary for anyone. It makes me wonder if childbirth and check-ups could be made safer if there was just some soap in the bathroom?

So, my mom and I started brain storming ideas that Siri and I could begin to help this problem during the next two weeks, or at least get some system laid down to solve this problem over time. We decided we want to learn how to make soap, then teach a trusted adult figure in the village how to make it safely for example the clinic lab tech or teachers at the Secondary School. Also teachers and the nurse can teach about the benefits of hand hygiene. However, there are a couple draw backs. One, we have to find where we can buy the chemical ingredients for the soap. Two, we need to figure out who can make the soap and how they can learn to make the soap. We are thinking of going to the local high school and asking if they would be willing to teach how to make soap in chemistry class because making soap is a great science project, you have to mix the chemical ingredients correctly otherwise its not safe and it doesn’t turn out just like many other chemistry experiments. The last big drawback is if we want to make solid soap it takes around a month to cure, so we may learn to make liquid soap instead.

I also want to start making hand soap when I get to Seattle and all of the proceeds could go to getting new schools books that will excel the children’s learning. There are many very dedicated teachers in these small villages, but they do not have adequate learning supplies so they can only teach the kids so much. Children are taught in English which is their second language. For example, 9-year old’s are learning how to break up the words (like banana into ba-na-na) which we learned in kindergarten.

I feel most of the kids, if not all of the local kids here have an incredible struggle to make a better future for themselves with what they have. I’m not trying to say they can’t but the resources and lack of funding here is extraordinary. Private school fees are expensive for people here. Even if the parents send their child to a government funded school, it isn’t always worth it because the kids could be better help at home; especially on the days the teacher doesn’t show up. Their wages are so low that if its planting or harvest time, the teachers might stay home and work in their garden instead of go to work.

This is the project I will be working on for the next two weeks along with getting to know the locals, playing, and working with them. I will hopefully find a way to make the soaps with the help of my mom, Siri, and Deborah (a local family friend), feel free to ask any questions or give suggestions. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Underground Stars

By Haakon

Jan 20 2020

About a week ago my mom, my sister, and I felt like we were in fairy tale, but we weren’t, we were just inside the dim blue illuminated caves in Waitomo, New Zealand where glow-worms live. I didn’t really have any expectations, but I would sum up the experience as something magical.

On a clear sunny day in the north island we drove through rolling hills of pastureland , it was hard to image there would be anything more than dirt below us. We ended up at the bottom of a hill, along a creek where a cave mouth opened leading us into the darkness. When first entering the cave it seems like a normal cave, besides the 100’s of stalactites and stalagmites all around us, but soon we turned off our lights and waited 5 minutes for our eyes to adjust to the darkness; slowly but surely dim strings of blue light started to appear all around us in clusters. Looking closer in between every little dangling strand of transparent blue web-like formations, there was a glowing worm. Traveling further into the cave, the air getting cooler and the sound of a distant water fall louder, we boarded a small raft. Floating silently down the underground river, we turned the corner and there they were thousands of specks reflecting off the water and lighting up the walls and ceiling of the cave with a sort turquoise glow. I felt I was right under the Milkyway looking up at the dotted stars across the pitch-black night sky, only they weren’t stars they were glow worms. Their light defined the contour of the cave and we could see their world. We gradually made it back the the mouth of the cave, leaving this wonderland behind us and I was filled with awe that such an amazing ecosystem exists on our planet.

floating down a stream in a glow worm cave

Wanting to understand this more I did little research on glow worms. Glow-worms are not actually worms, they are the larval stage of the fungus gnat. Glow-worms live in damp, dark, and still forests or cave systems where there is appropriate prey (other types of flies), they hang from gully walls, cave ceilings, and along stream banks. The prominent feature of the fungus gnat is hinted at in its larval name (glow-worm). The larval stage takes the predominant portion of the life-cycle, about a year. Then the remaining few weeks and days on either end of the cycle changing form egg to larva and larvae to gnat. The natural glow emitted during the larva stage is called bioluminescence. Glow-worms have a light-producing gland in their tail that is a byproduct of an enzyme called luciferase reacting with the multitude of chemicals.

How does a glow-worm find its food in a dark cave? Glow worms are blind and so create “fishing lines” to catch flies. It takes glow worm 1-15 minutes to form a line up to 500 mm long, glow worms in caves tend to have longer lines then the bush-dwelling-glowworms where the wind can tangle their lines. The glow worms web is made by their mouth and once the web is down, they will coat it in sticky mucous to catch their prey (usually flies). With the bioluminescent light in their tail they can attract/trick flies into thinking that their tail is light to the open sky, thereby catching their prey. Glow-worms then emerge from their tube to eat their prey. Sometimes, if the tension or vibration in the line suggests it is too far down the line to be considered safe they can reel the prey in or cut the over-sized unwanted prey from their line.

Interestingly Glowworms are only found in the southern portion of the ancient continent of Gondwana. 550 million years ago this ancient component of Pangea was comprised of South America, where I just was; Australasia, where I am now; and Africa, where I am going next.

Hometown Hankerings

Flying from Fin Del Mundo to Buenos Aires in the twilight of December

January 1 2020

By Haakon

While we have been rolling down these long never-ending Patagonian dirt roads with enormous mountains to our left and right, I have had a couple things on my mind. One food craving, and two things I miss about Seattle. I have been craving a Dairy Queen blizzard, Hot Cakes (in Ballard), and good Indian food in general. The thing I am really bummed out about missing are, team sports, friends, ski-bus!!, not having to spend an hour and a half searching various stores for somewhat healthy food, and easy routines you can stick to. So, this brings me into what this blog post will be about, how traveling has put perspective on my everyday activities in Seattle.

The main element I appreciate about Seattle is being able to have all your friends around you to hang out with, play sports with, talk with, etc. When traveling, inconsistent Wi-Fi is guaranteed, and you are always on different time zones so it can be hard to even talk with friends. The past 3 months I have really realized how nice it is to have all your friends within a mile from you so you can just do what you like to do together. The second thing I am just really going to miss is ski-bus, last year we talked the whole way to the summit, skied for three hours before hopping back on the bus and riding back to school where we got picked up by our parents we could ask to sleep over because it was only a Friday night and we had the whole weekend to go. The third thing that I have come to really like about Seattle is team sports, not only are they a great way to get some exercise in but you can also be around friends while doing something you love. When traveling it can be very hard to get much exercise in like running for example; if you are somewhere that is unfamiliar you can get lost, and in bigger cities you don’t know how safe it is to run on your own. That doesn’t mean you don’t go on hikes; we have gone on a lot more hikes than we would in Seattle so that is a plus about travel. We have been hiking several times a week through South America in some awesome places.

I expected to miss what I miss about life at home, so I am not surprised. I didn’t think how fast the year would fly by, it’s the New Year already. I don’t know if time feels like that in Seattle but that’s what it feels like on the road. I haven’t got the shock, like oh woah I am really traveling the world; it’s more like I am happy to experience all the things that I am and it helps me be more happy with what I have and what I have learned because of my experiences. As ski bus comes closer, I will get more homesick, but I will just have to remember I have surfed, snorkeled, and mountain-biked while everyone was in school

P.S. Tonight I am flying to Auckland, New Zealand and will be missing out on January 2d because of the time zones, just thought that was wacky.

Reflecting On Riots

Dec 6 2019

By Haakon

Last week, on our way from Peru to Patagonia, we enjoyed a gracious, cozy visit with family in Santiago, Chile. When we first arrived, everything seemed normal – the buildings were nice, and lots of people were enjoying family walks in the park. However, the next day we started to realize that things were far from normal. The day after we arrived, we decided to go to the mall to replace some of our worn-out clothes. As we walked to the mall it almost seemed as if there were no ground-level shops. All the ground-level shops had 10-foot temporary metal walls covering them and were closed even at 11 o’clock in the morning on a weekday. When I got back to Nicole’s house, I asked her why all the metal walls were up. She said the walls were up because of the rioters, and she explained that there was a city-wide curfew that prohibited congregating in public after 10 pm. Most of the main shops had been opened only for very limited business hours for the past two weeks, so nobody could break into them. Some shops selling high-end goods had private security.

One afternoon, my dad and I decide to get haircuts, so we walked down the boarded-up streets to the barber shop. At around 5:30 pm our haircuts were finished, and we started our walk home along the same streets. To our surprise, there were about 30 national police officers, dressed in riot gear, outside the main mall. Now, they weren’t your basic mall cops. They didn’t have rinky-dink Taser’s; they had machine guns. They didn’t have helmets; they had full-body plates and riot shields. They didn’t have mall cop segues; they had bullet-proof Sprinter vans that bore plenty of signs of heavy abuse from rioters, such as deep dents to body work, and cracked windows.

Interestingly, once we arrived into the rural areas where we spent time visiting national parks, there was little evidence of the civil unrest we observed in the Santiago and the smaller city of Puerto Montt. In the small town of Chaiten, life was quiet.

The weekend we were in Santiago, Chile was the 20-year anniversary of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. It is a strange connection in way. The protest in Seattle had some roots in concern many would be left behind by globalization. From what I understand, in Chile, the cost of living has been rising, tuitions are getting more expansive, and pension values going down. In Chile, a country where low wage workers spend 20% of their income on transportation a 4% rise in the metro fare sparked huge flash metro-fare dodging mobs that led to the Metro shutting down and then flash mobs devolved into a weekend of intense rioting and looting and the destruction of 40% of the metro stations.

I am glad that now in United States there is not violent social unrest and the economy for the most part is stable. Still, today in America many feel the economy is leaving them behind, the odds are stacked in favor of the rich and powerful and the cost of higher education is more and more unaffordable. I suppose we are not immune to similar demonstrations. Maybe they will come.

It was an interesting Thanksgiving week, I was reminded to be grateful where I live, I am reminded not to take the ease and safety I feel at home for granted and to be more grateful for what I have.

Plowing through Peru

Nov 22 2019

By Haakon

Two weeks is not much to see a whole country like Peru but I have been able to see a lot of cool places and view different perspectives. For a week we stayed in Cuzco, the former capital city of the Incan empire. We went to a small farming town for a home stay and we have toured lots of ancient Incan sites.

We landed in Cusco mid-day, so we drove 6 miles in 40 minutes to our apartment (still not as bad a Seattle traffic) along the way I saw so many motorcycles with more than 3 people on them. I was wrong in thinking Peru would be warm because all the places I stayed at were 10,000 feet in elevation, so I had goose bumps. I also realized everyone here is wrapped in baby alpaca hats, sweaters, socks, and blankets. On the second day we actually found a sports bar that played the MLS Cup! The sounders beat Toronto for the second time in the MLS Cup while the Cusquenan team played for the national spot and all of Cusco celebrated with fireworks. A couple days later I celebrated my 13th birthday. The day got off to a frustrating start stuck in Khan Academy purgatory. Then the evening was way better with a reservation at Gaston Acurio’s restaurant, Chicha. I enjoyed a really good dinner of a trout ceviche, alpaca curry and this dark chocolate balloon filled with butterscotch and ice-cream.

The most interesting experience of the past weeks was staying at the farmers house, the reason why is because it put perspective on my life. When we first got to town, we were greeted by an elderly woman wearing a bright traditional dress, we were then taken to her small (but cozy) adobe brick house where she gave us some breakfast. The table for meals was next to the wood burning bread oven so they could stay warm when it got cold. For breakfast we had corn tamales, bread, and fava bean tea with baked corn to put into the tea to add flavor. We walked to our guides parents’ house, he gave us a hoe to work with, then he led us to the field, the field was around 10 acers full of corn. Our job was to turn the dirt so the corn could get more nutrients, I was told to take my shoes off and get working, so I did. I didn’t really realize how hard it was but after doing 35ft of lifting dirt while bent over I felt my back would snap; and the people in this town do this all day their whole life (barefoot with animal manure all over the ground). I don’t know how. When I was finished, I washed my feet by an animal trough before going to the next field for an hour’s work. The farmers drank this kombucha-like drink called chicha which my mom says taste like sour beer. After everyone had finished farming, we returned the hoes to the house, all the adults sat down and ate boiled fava beans and rubbery cheese (probably old milk) while Siri and I sat and watched. The oldest farmer was an 82-year- old man who has been farming everyday from 5am-5:30pm since he was 6 besides school.

Finally, the last part of our Peru visit we got to stay several nights in Ollantaytambo, the Inca site was the last stand of the Inca rebellion. We stayed at this place called The Inca king Hotel, a small place down the walking streets in the center of the old town with all sorts of plants growing on the wall and flowers popping out of every hallway. You can only get to Machu Picchu town by walking or by train from Olantaytambo. One morning, at 6 we got up and walked 12 blocks to the train station, the second we got there everyone was offering us random things like massages, water, backpacks, Peruvian hats, soda, etc. Eventually we found our way to the train where we got our ticket stamped and got on. The train ride was around an hour and a half to Machu Picchu along one of the largest tributary rivers of the Amazon. We got on to the bus to head 4 miles up steep hairpin turns to the top of the mountain where the ancient city lies. The view from the top of the mountain was amazing you could see the sunset, the cloud forest, and the ancient city. It really must have felt
like a city on top of the world.

The train ride back was crazy. First there was a traditional dance that involved masks and colorful dresses. Then there was a fashion show hosted by the train staff for alpaca wool clothing. Of course, halfway through that show, I had to go to the bathroom. Now, to get to the bathroom you had to walk past the crazy half of our train car. I got up and started to walk and all
the tippsy, or just very enthusiastic, people started cheering and clapping like I was part of the fashion show just because I was walking down the aisle. I had to show of my shirt like it was an item in the show. After going to the bathroom, I had to do the same and they were even more excited. In the end I made it to my seat alive and was able to enjoy the rest of the ride. That is my Perurail story.

Evil on the Equator

Nov 10

By Haakon

We just finished our one-week trip around the eastern Gallopagos on one of the Rolf Wittmer boats. One of our stops was on Floreana island where our guide told us about the curious histories of the first three family’s that settled on Floreana during the 1930’s.

The first to come to Floreana was Dr. Friedrich Ritter, a dentist from Germany and his hygienist, Dore Strauch. In 1929, they left their spouses in Germany and ventured to the Galapagos to escape the inter war great depression after WWI and find peace and tranquility on a remote island. He envisioned life of strong work, a vegetarian diet and lack of creature comforts, even clothes (I am thinking of a bad ecuadorian sunburn). Knowing there would be no dentists for him there, he had all his teeth removed to avoid dental emergences; Dore declined to do the same. She brought with her, her best friend, a pet donkey.

The second group of European settlers was Heinz and Margaret Wittimer. Dr Wittmer was a veterinarian, he came with his blind son and his pregnant wife to escape Nazi Germany in 1934 and in hopes of finding a healthy environment for their son. When they first arrived, they used a cave which pirates lived and built it out to include some log and rock walls. Their second son, Rolf, was born soon after to be followed three years later by a sister, Floreanita. The family used other caves to store canned fruits and vegetables, some livestock left by buccaneers roamed the island so occasionally they killed bulls for meat and leather, used two cows for milk and cream, and they had a boat that came four times a year that supplied them with flour and other things they couldn’t obtain on the island by themselves. They raised chickens and vegetable garden later. The extended Wittmer family still lives in the small town on Floreana which we did not visit. A cool fact is: Margaret’s son, the first person born on Floreana, was Rolf Wittimer who started a small boat tour company with his fishing boat, which has now turned into multiple fleets for lots of family’s like us visiting the Galapagos.

The trouble started really with the third party to settle on the island. Austrian “Baroness’’ Eloise Wehrborn von Wagner Bosquet came as an aspiring entrepreneur with her entourage of three men, Rudolf Lorenz, Robert Philipson, and Felipe Valdiviseo all with whom the “Baroness” was said to have romantic relations. The baroness had an idea of starting a hotel business which may have been her worst decision ever.

Shortly after the Baroness arrived, the disputes started with everyone else on the island and the Baroness. Like I said the Baroness was an aspiring entrepreneur and her initial idea was to open a grand hotel on Floreana, the others did not want a huge hotel on their remote island. Out of the blue, in 1934, strange deaths and mysterious disappearances occurred that still haven’t been solved. The Baroness and Robert Philipson disappeared on a morning walk without a trace. Others say they boarded a passing yacht for Tahiti though there is no record of this, nor of them turning up in Tahiti. It was said that she never went anywhere without wearing her pearl necklace however the necklace was found in her home. Shortly after the disappearance, Rudolf Lorenz hired a Norwegian fisherman to take him to San Cristobal island where he could catch a boat to the mainland; months later both their bodies were found on Marchena (one of the far northern islands in the Galapagos), the fishing boat wrecked.

Dr. Friedrich Ritter, the vegetarian, apparently died of food poisoning as a result eating chicken soup. According to the Wittmers, he said before dying that Dore had poisoned him, though she always denied it. After Dr Ritter’s death, Dora returned to Germany with her donkey (and it is said she died later in a Blitz).

Some talk of the of the Tortoise curse – those that come to seek selfish profit from the islands invariably die or leave.

-San Cristóbal Galapagos Interpretation Center

Jungle Jumble

Oct 27 2019

By Haakon

This week was really fun, wet and tiring. It started with us leaving Samara on Monday, driving 6 hours to a small palm oil growing town of Sierpe. In Sierpe there is a “ferry port” it’s a small café with boats that take you to a couple points along to Osa Peninsula, our stop was the Jungla del Jaguar. The mangrove river portion was calm but then it got exciting as the captain maneuvered the way through the crashing waves on our way to the ocean. When we got to our lodge’s beach, we had to jump out of the boat into the water with all our bags and run to the beach where we were greeted by James, a biologist who introduced us to the place before we took our bags to our cabin.

The next day we went for a morning nature hike with James in the pouring rain. We were able to see a troop of Spider Monkeys, a Toucan, and a couple orange and black lizards. I didn’t really realize how humid the jungle is. Apparently here humidity is between 80-100%; it feels like it and everything smells damp. On the second day we went to the Corcovado National Park holding 2.5% of the world’s plant and wildlife and being the most biodiverse place in the world! The guide we had was great. He showed us multiple cool animals and reptiles on our walk. We saw a Sloth, an Anteater, birds, Lizards, Geckos, White-nosed coati, Scarlet macaw, an American Crocodile, Squirrel Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, White-faced Capuchin monkeys and a Spectacled caiman. I just want to say the Sloth is not only the smelliest thing ever they are also soooooo slow its insane it took her 30ish seconds to turn her head. The sloth has the second slowest metabolism of any animal on earth. On the way back the captain stopped to let everyone see a pod of whales, the whales were 35 feet long and got 50 feet from our boat.

Finally, we had had to go home so I woke up at 5:45 to go back to Sierpe where we would get a car to drive to San Jose. The “ferry showed up at 7, it was a 25-30-foot-long fiberglass boat with open air seating and twin 250HP engines, the captain was wearing board shorts and a trash bag since it was raining. First I had to walk up to my waist to get in the boat before sitting down in my shorts and t-shirt, the boat was going really fast so all the rain felt like mini bullets on my face, then as we picked up more people the boat filled with water. During the last 30 minutes of the 2-hour ride I started to feel really sleepy and my muscles weren’t able to move well. By the time we got to Sierpe and I couldn’t move my legs out of a crouching position, I was having trouble talking, my hands were white, and trembling uncontrollably for a bit. My mom said I was mildly hypothermic, so my dad got me hot tea, I was okay within 20 minutes.

Now I am sitting in my hotel room in San Jose writing this, with the sound of traffic not waves outside the window. Tomorrow we are flying to Florida for a connection flight to Ecuador for two nights and that’s the general plan for the next couple days.

Summing up Samara

10/17/2019

By Haakon

Here is my surfing update and how Spanish school is going.

In the past couple weeks I have really been advancing on the surfboard. First I switched from an 11-foot board to an 8¾ ft board which allows me to turn. Second, I am now able to go on way bigger waves. Lastly, I can go across the wave not just forward which makes my surfing a whole lot more fun. For the next couple days surfing conditions will be bad because we had a full moon the other night, which was cool but it’s unfortunate at the same time. For our last week we are here I think it would be cool if we (my dad and I) could go surfing on the back end of this island 200 meters from our beach, the only hard part would be paddling out there and catching the waves.

Spanish school is not what I expected it to be. In the past couple weeks, I have had 4 teachers because every week we switch teachers. It seems that the school is focused on grammar more than vocabulary which is good because I can learn vocabulary when in other places and use the words properly. I get my favorite teacher this week, Darihana, who is fun to be taught by because time passes quickly doing activities like going to the roadside fruit stands and stuff like that to practice our Spanish. I thought there would be more kids not just my sister and I, most of the students are 19-22 year olds taking a gap year. This final week we met a family from Santa Monica who are doing the same thing we are – learning spanish for a month and then traveling the world for a year. The two daughters, age 11 and 13, are close in age to us and we have been having fun going to the beach before and after class; better than the last weeks hanging more around the house

That has been my last couple weeks in Samara summed up, next we are going to the Osa Peninsula in southern Costa Rica; after that the Galapagos!

What to do?

by Haakon

10-10-19

Well, this week was boring so my mom told me to write about the effect’s boredom can have on your health.

I looked up the effects it can have on you depending on how you use it and found that long term boredom can make you feel depressed, have more anxiety then normal, and even make you eager to overeat. The positive effects are a boost in productivity and creativity when your mind has time to wander or you are searching for a cure to your boredom. The main cause of boredom is lack of interest in your current situation which is very common for people from the age 11-14, as teens are letting go of what they consider childish play or interests, yet do not yet have the independence to participate in more complex plans or activities on their own. What most teens find to be a good strategy to cope with boredom, is to have a list of things you can do to cure boredom according to reliable websites; playing with a family pet, calling a friend you know you can have a good conversation with, practicing a sport to get outside, and researching something that interests you. Today I researched boredom and it was better than being bored, It was kind of interesting.