September 26, 2011
Hi all,
Even though I will be leaving on the 28th, I thought I would get started on my first post (yay) on this blog! As you already noticed, there will be the same posts in French to allow most members in my family to understand what I'm doing. If you're here, it means that you know already a little bit about my life. I just graduated from Boston University with two degrees in Marine Science and Journalism. I am now taking a year off school and I decided to get involved with an NGO, called Global Vision International (GVI). They have a marine conservation research and divemaster internship in the Seychelles, which is what I'm doing. Basically, I will be living in the Seychelles for the next 5 months. First off, let's introduce the country a little bit.
The Seychelles consist of an archipelago of about 100 islands in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar. The principal islands are Mahé , Praslin , and La Digue .The Seychelles were uninhabited when the British East India Company arrived on the archipelago in 1609. Thereafter, they became a favorite pirate haven. The French claimed the islands in 1756 and administered them as part of the colony of Mauritius. The British gained control of the islands through the Treaty of Paris (1814) and changed the islands' name from the French Séchelles to the Anglicized Seychelles.The islands became self-governing in 1975 and independent on June 29, 1976. They have three official languages, French, French Créole and English. Créole should be really easy for me to learn.
Anyways, this 22 week scuba diving internship starts with 10 weeks on the Seychelles Marine Conservation Expedition. During this time I will develop my scuba diving skills and my understanding of marine conservation. Our research base is located in the Bay of Ternay, on Mahé Island, and it's fairly remote from the rest of the island. The closest town is about 30 minutes away. I will probably have Internet access only once a week so do not expect daily updates from me! I'll try to do my best. I found this photo of our bay on Google, so here is where I'll be living for the next 3 months:
Not too shabby eh?
We already know that we are going to be focusing on coral monitoring and surveying. We have been asked by the GVI staff to learn about 50 coral species upon arrival, which is SUPER HARD. It's only Latin names, and it's just very tough when you don't get to see the corals in real. We will still have lectures at the research camp from the staff, and we will be tested before being able to completely survey the reef, but I'm trying to learn as much as possible beforehand. We will also be helping with inverts population monitoring, whale shark migration research, plankton monitoring, marine turtle research, and cetacean sightings and data collection. I BETTER SEE A WHALE SHARK.
For the following phase, I will be based at a PADI dive centre also on Mahé, probably in Beau Vallon, on the north coast of the island. Here I will undertake my PADI Dive Master course, shadow dive centre staff, and help the dive centre with all its commercial operations such as; taking clients diving, equipment maintenance and marine conservation lectures in local schools.
Technically, GVI has two research bases in the Seychelles: one in Cap Ternay and one on Curieuse Island, a remote and uninhabited island next to Praslin. They usually split the volunteers in two groups between these bases. However, with the recent shark attacks that you've all seen in the news, the government decided to close any water activity - diving, snorkeling, sailing...- around Praslin and thus, GVI had to close down their base on Curieuse until further notice. So basically, there will be 30 of us at the base at Cap Ternay. It should be very fun and interesting.
So yeah, let's talk about the volunteers. The big majority of the volunteers will not be staying during 5 months. Only 6 or 7 of us are actually staying for that long. The other volunteers can be there for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 5 weeks, 10 weeks.... I cannot tell you more since I don't really know any of them yet. Some of us have been talking on Facebook, and it looks like I'll be the only Frenchie. Not a big change really. My only anxiety is what I am going to do if I need to cook for 30 volunteers plus staff members. When I did another internship in South Africa last summer, I already had to cook for 12 people and that was terrifying! We'll see.... As long as there are no monkeys again to come in the kitchen and steal our food like in SA!
I guess this is all I can say right now. I found this video below and I thought it was pretty sweet, so enjoy. I cannot tell you when the next update will be, but don't hesitate to leave comments or questions or anything.
Love,
C.
SEYCHELLES 2011 - Another World from Mauro Panei Doria on Vimeo.
Hi all,
Even though I will be leaving on the 28th, I thought I would get started on my first post (yay) on this blog! As you already noticed, there will be the same posts in French to allow most members in my family to understand what I'm doing. If you're here, it means that you know already a little bit about my life. I just graduated from Boston University with two degrees in Marine Science and Journalism. I am now taking a year off school and I decided to get involved with an NGO, called Global Vision International (GVI). They have a marine conservation research and divemaster internship in the Seychelles, which is what I'm doing. Basically, I will be living in the Seychelles for the next 5 months. First off, let's introduce the country a little bit.
The Seychelles consist of an archipelago of about 100 islands in the Indian Ocean northeast of Madagascar. The principal islands are Mahé , Praslin , and La Digue .The Seychelles were uninhabited when the British East India Company arrived on the archipelago in 1609. Thereafter, they became a favorite pirate haven. The French claimed the islands in 1756 and administered them as part of the colony of Mauritius. The British gained control of the islands through the Treaty of Paris (1814) and changed the islands' name from the French Séchelles to the Anglicized Seychelles.The islands became self-governing in 1975 and independent on June 29, 1976. They have three official languages, French, French Créole and English. Créole should be really easy for me to learn.
Anyways, this 22 week scuba diving internship starts with 10 weeks on the Seychelles Marine Conservation Expedition. During this time I will develop my scuba diving skills and my understanding of marine conservation. Our research base is located in the Bay of Ternay, on Mahé Island, and it's fairly remote from the rest of the island. The closest town is about 30 minutes away. I will probably have Internet access only once a week so do not expect daily updates from me! I'll try to do my best. I found this photo of our bay on Google, so here is where I'll be living for the next 3 months:
Not too shabby eh?
For the following phase, I will be based at a PADI dive centre also on Mahé, probably in Beau Vallon, on the north coast of the island. Here I will undertake my PADI Dive Master course, shadow dive centre staff, and help the dive centre with all its commercial operations such as; taking clients diving, equipment maintenance and marine conservation lectures in local schools.
Technically, GVI has two research bases in the Seychelles: one in Cap Ternay and one on Curieuse Island, a remote and uninhabited island next to Praslin. They usually split the volunteers in two groups between these bases. However, with the recent shark attacks that you've all seen in the news, the government decided to close any water activity - diving, snorkeling, sailing...- around Praslin and thus, GVI had to close down their base on Curieuse until further notice. So basically, there will be 30 of us at the base at Cap Ternay. It should be very fun and interesting.
So yeah, let's talk about the volunteers. The big majority of the volunteers will not be staying during 5 months. Only 6 or 7 of us are actually staying for that long. The other volunteers can be there for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 5 weeks, 10 weeks.... I cannot tell you more since I don't really know any of them yet. Some of us have been talking on Facebook, and it looks like I'll be the only Frenchie. Not a big change really. My only anxiety is what I am going to do if I need to cook for 30 volunteers plus staff members. When I did another internship in South Africa last summer, I already had to cook for 12 people and that was terrifying! We'll see.... As long as there are no monkeys again to come in the kitchen and steal our food like in SA!
I guess this is all I can say right now. I found this video below and I thought it was pretty sweet, so enjoy. I cannot tell you when the next update will be, but don't hesitate to leave comments or questions or anything.
Love,
C.
SEYCHELLES 2011 - Another World from Mauro Panei Doria on Vimeo.
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY
ReplyDeleteFrench translation for the above: YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY
Oh, did I tell you I'm secretly fluent in French?
xoxo,
S
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