22/05/13 'Children's Week'

Last week was what I will conveniently dub “children’s week” for no other reason than me partaking in both an International School Seychelles (ISS) teaching morning and Presidents Village (PV) snorkel. Each of these activities presents a variety of physical and mental challenges.

The PV snorkel was a ridiculously fun experience. For those that do not know the Presidents Village is a care facility for children who for one reason or another cannot stay at home. We take one afternoon with the kids to generally play and snorkel with them on the beach. Often different groups will be brought from the village and last week we had the pleasure of helping look after the elder boys. Having had experience-coaching boys of a similar age I thought I was well prepared for such a task. Evidently I was not.

These boys were strong, so much so that when the eventual shoulder wars were started in the water it was all we could do to stop our necks from snapping. Let me explain, when you give a shoulder ride in a pool for someone back home, have a shoulder wrestling match then maybe fall the person on your shoulders is usually kind enough to release their legs and let you both fall safely. Not the case with these kids, at the slightest waver these kids would tighten their legs around your neck and using your head or shoulders hoist themselves back up. I later realized that this was due to the limited number of men supervising and if they were to get on a strong pair of shoulders (or in my case a slightly stable pair), they had to make damn sure they didn’t fall off for someone to quickly replace them. These kids just wanted to blow off some steam and maybe muck around with someone older who was willing to do so. I hope I am put on many more of these snorkels.

The ISS mornings are a completely different challenge. Basically we present a different topic to do with marine conservation every week hoping to instill a sense of wonder and responsibility for the oceans, this week was turtles. From what I could tell these kids were around 10 or 11 years old and raring to learn.

Expecting to be ready for this with a niece and nephew around this age was a feeling of confidence I quickly had to abandon. These kids were from all over the world, could already speak two or three languages and were more than eager to share their knowledge on any related topic. One student ready to inform me that the sand on the beach was “Parrotfish Poo”, a condensation of island atoll evolution so succinct it was all I could do not to ‘high 5’ that kid.

It was great teaching small groups of kids about the biology of and threats to Hawksbill turtles (by the way the Seychelles is the only place in the world where they nest during the day).  I can only hope the kids gained a little of the interest I have with the ocean.

22/05/13 'Children's Week'

17/05/13 Megafauna Week

This week has got off to a successful start with all the new volunteers that are studying fish passing the test for the Group 1s and Chris (aka Kit) is getting on well learning all the different types of coral. Everyone has now also passed their PADI Advanced, have begun Emergency First Response training and are doing well with their fish spots. I am now almost ready to start surveying and I am very excited and raring to go. All of us new volunteers completed our first turtle behaviour dives with varied success. Some did not find any while Carl and I found 4 turtles - 3 hawksbill and 1 green - and a white tip reef shark!

This week has been ‘Megafauna’ week and has seen the camp watching presentations and programs on Manta rays, which everyone has found very interesting and enlightening - it has certainly peaked my interest. This evening Dr David Rowatt from the Marine Conservation society of Seychelles is coming to talk to us about Whale sharks which everyone is equally as excited for.

Everyone on camp has been making good use of and enjoying the much better weather we have been having compared to last week's daily heavy rain with many using their second day off to snorkel to Secret Beach and, unfortunately for some, returning with a painful sunburn and spent the next couple of days nursing sore backs and shoulders.

All the new volunteers have settled in well and everyone on camp is looking forward to our Reggae themed Thursday evening.

Hope you're all having good weather too,

Hannah

17/05/13 Megafauna Week

17/05/2013 Flo's Thoughts

It feels like we have only just waved goodbye to the last lot of volunteers and yet we are already well into week two of what will be my third month on Curieuse - looking back, the last 9 weeks have flown by. Having been lucky enough to witness a turtle laying her nest in my first week here, it was amazing to then excavate the same nest once it had hatched. We combined the excavation with a long tweet and had our fingers crossed that the two new volunteers, Phil and Jimmy would get to see some hatchlings. They did! Unfortunately neither were still alive, however it was a huge triumph as 74 of 77 eggs had hatched successfully.

There has been chaos in the kitchen finishing off the renovation. The cupboards, walls, ovens and work surfaces are now sparkly clean and although we have enjoyed cooking outside for a few days it was nice to move back inside and appreciate all our handiwork.

Tuesday came around and a snurtle was scheduled and we saw a few guinea fowl puffer fish, unbelievably the two new boys are yet to see a turtle so with luck they will see one in the next few days. Thursday was swiftly upon us and we headed out on the second coco de mer of the week, we equalled the previous record of 141 trees in one morning! Luckily Noel had made some delicious cinnamon rolls the night before to keep us going as we got pretty peckish whilst out in the field.

There was more excitement today when Jimmy spotted a huge skink roaming around. He alerted the staff who came running with cameras and measuring tape to try and record its size as it was at least twice as big as the Seychelles skink that we have here on Curieuse. It was too speedy for the camera so we are now all on skink watch just in case it pops up again.

The staff completed their tortoise tagging workshop at the end of last week with Dr Jeanne Mortimer and as volunteers we cannot wait to get started on a new survey. Despite the camp being very quiet with only six of us we are enjoying the perks of having extra space, 2nds at breakfast and quiet often 3rds at dinner!

Flo

 

 

 

17/05/2013 Flo's Thoughts

14/05/2013 New month, new volunteers

This week two new volunteers arrived: James and me, Phil. We really didn’t know what to expect, on the way to Curieuse we were happy but at the same time a bit nervous. After finally arriving on Curieuse all of our doubts disappeared. The staff were really friendly and the location of the camp is amazing. We spent our first few days listening to presentations about the different projects, which include Coco de Mer, mangroves and bird surveys.

On Sunday, we met the other volunteer, Flo. She arrived two months ago and is staying for another month. We are only 6 on camp, 3 volunteers and 3 staff members.

On Monday we went for our first bird watching ‘tweet’ with Noel. Pat gave us a lecture about birds the day before, which helped, but we did not remember all of them. The walk was fun; we had to walk over beaches and through water to reach the different observation points

Tuesday started off very early, at 5 am. We went on a Coco de Mer walk with Zach. It was worth waking up so early, so we could reach the top before the usual heat. It was really rewarding watching the sunrise while having breakfast. We spent the rest of the morning making our way through the thick vegetation to get to the Coco de Mer palm trees.

From Wednesday to Friday, two of the staff had a workshop over at the ranger station.  So Zach took the opportunity to renovate the kitchen with the volunteers. This involved repainting the walls and the cupboard, and cleaning the floor and the different gas burners. We also had a couple games of volleyball, which Zach all lost.

14/05/2013 New month, new volunteers

14/05/13 A New Beginning

Start of a brand new month, with 5 sparkly new volunteers arriving on Saturday, whilst they settled into base, some of the older guys attended Shark Day at the National History Museum lending a helping hand and teaching the kids about all the different types of shark here in the Seychelles. Though I'm sure we had much more fun paper macheing the whale shark than they did.

Back at base the Camp Volleyball Tournament started off with some questionable skills from all involved but with fish and coral teams all ready for a rematch.

Last night was spent with everyone settling in and getting used to their new roommates with a little help from a excellent pub quiz organised by Jess and everyone enjoyed a yummy orange and coconut cake for Andys birthday.

Monday morning called for a little sprucing up of Cap Ternay, with one group heading up Cap Matoopa clearing the trail and on the hunt for the ever elusive chameleon and the even more mythical Seychellois Bear, whilst others cleared the pathways to the beach and build a wall for the coconut pile.

Were all looking forward to carrying on with Diving, getting Advanced Open Waters and Methodolgies and hopefully getting another sighting of the dolphins spotted yesterday, and as always hungry for Mexican Barbecue Night on Thursday.

Hope your having fun in the rest of the world

14/05/13 A New Beginning