Greenforce

Bahamas Update - week 7

2011-03-22T17:16:00.000Z

Well, the start of the week the weather wasn’t too great so Monday we were given a free day so we all went off to do Island Exploration. We all split into groups and hitchhiked all over getting rides from the locals. Tuesday we did some fish point dives at Amphiteatre and started our underwater fish tests. Wednesday and Thursday, again we didn’t dive unfortunately as the weather didn’t permit it, but then Friday and Saturday we had the opportunity to dive a blue hole. Half of us dove Friday afternoon and the rest Saturday morning. We went to Churches Blue Hole on the island and did a 30 minute dive at 18m. Saturday night was a night of celebrations as it was our Expedition Leader’s birthday, so this was definitely a good night. A few of us then got a ride up to Forfar, the American camp on the island, and stayed there the night. Sunday morning we all came back and the group recovered together in the sun (Will, a little bit too much as he got horrendously burnt) and got ready for diving again Monday.

Stevie and James

Bahamas Update - week 9

2011-03-21T17:55:00.001Z

This week the weather has been good so we’ve done a lot of diving. The rescue divers have all gained their rescue qualifications and we’ve done a lot of survey dives so we’ve gone to a number of different dive sites and have been able to see more of the reefs around Andros. On Wednesday we all went on a fun dive and spent half an hour stealing each other’s fins underwater, and so using our air much faster than normal! On Friday most of us hitchhiked to Nicholl’s Town in the North of the island and spent the day there lying on the beach and eating chicken. In the evening we went to Queen’s Park, where the locals go on a Friday evening to dance and drink, and we, of course, threw ourselves into the local way of life. On Saturday we all went to Somerset beach, an absolutely gorgeous beach by AUTEC, the naval base. Some of us walked all the down the beach trying to find an oceanic blue hole we were told about but after a very long walk of making little progress along the beach we turned around, arriving back to find people going out for rides on a mini catamaran, photos of which can be found on Youtube when you look for AUTEC sailing! Only one week left in the Bahamas now, let’s see what happens!

Katie (and Joe, who did nothing)

Bahamas Update - Week 8

2011-03-15T11:30:00.001Z

The week started by the entire group finishing the PADI DEEP DIVING SPECIALITY on Monday going to a site called ‘3 Anchors’ at the tongue of the ocean, where we went down just past the edge of the tongue at 40 meters allowing us to look directly down into the complete darkness which was 6000ft down. An unforgettable experience. A few members of the group were lucky enough to see a 12ft Great Hammerhead Shark swim a few meters from them, whereas others were lucky to see a Sea Turtle swim past. The second final dive for the specialty was at a site called Coliseum where we went down to 30 meters. On Tuesday we finished off the final underwater fish tests and starting practice surveying, by the end of the day everyone had passed the fish test and had done a practice survey over a regular site we use called Ampi. We ended the day with a few drinks in celebration of Becky’s Birthday.

On Wednesday we had a free day for island exploration and another day to top up the tans. Thursday we were back in the water and continued with practice surveys at Ampi, allowing us to feel more comfortable with surveying. On Friday we got back in the water for a morning dive before the weather changed allowing us to do one final practice survey before we would start before on the following Monday. On Friday one of the volunteers Harvey left to carry on his travelling so 1 member down, a few in the group decided to head down to Queen’s Park for the regular Andros Nights where music and drinks and of course conch fritters were there in plenty!

On Saturday the group headed to a local swimming pool to continue with the RESCUE DIVER CERTIFICATION. After the group had finished we all headed up to Nicholls’s Town hitching a 70 mile round trip up the island, to a Music and Arts Festival being held for the day by the local community. The festival had for sale many of the local crafts found on the island and foods and music common in the Bahamas. We all head back down to Timmy’s Bar for the evening, where we proceeded to celebrate Oli’s Birthday which was the following day. On Sunday we had our usual free day where a few went off exploring down to Small Hope Bay Lodge and others relaxed by the beach and sea.

Highlights of the week included the amount of diving we got done managing 7 dives due to the excellent weather we were fortunate to have last week! The group all finished the Deep Diving Specialty and the fish tests. We managed to eat well due to the continual kind donation of food by a member of staff at AUTEC Naval Base and we were all ready for surveying in the following week.

By Will

Bahamas Update - Week 6

2011-03-01T16:41:00.000Z

This week in Andros we dove at Three Anchors, a site which leads to the Tongue of the Ocean. Here we completed some of our deep dives and the group saw a reef shark and two turtles! The rest of the week we continued our fish point dives and we all passed our fish exams!

We also went to Junkanoo, a local Bahamian festival, where the school children dress up and dance, we got to paint the children’s faces that we teach during the week to make them look like Indians, which we all enjoyed immensely, giving the girls the idea to show support for the children and paint even our own faces. We had a cracking night out which then lead onto Saturday night which is of course party night … Good times!

Stacey and Sophie

Bahamas Update - week 4

2011-02-17T10:11:00.001Z

Week 4 at Greenforce started on Monday 7^th February, where we were all greeted by fantastic weather here at Stainard Creek J We were awake early to begin all our advanced open water certification in deep and drift diving.

The first group of the morning got going with the deep elements, where they witnessed a reef shark around 10m below them after they entered the water. This was exciting for many of us as it was the first time that some of us have seen a shark swimming in the waters with us.

Great weather followed in the coming days of the week, so on Wednesday 9^th February, all of us decided to go snorkeling down at the point which was a 15 minute walk. This was also exciting as under the beating sun, 4 of us got to see and swim with a spotted eagle ray. This was also exciting as they are spectacular creatures to see.

Thursday 10^th February brought hot weather again as we made our way down to the school at 2 o’clock. After a successful hour teaching session we later played the Forfar guys at football at Queens Park. 3-2 to Forfar L

Friday 11^th February all of us at Greenforce took a trip down to Uncle Charlie’s Blue Hole, where we all jumped off trees and rope swings for 2 hours J It was great fun!

Saturday was a relaxing day, as we were able to complete some knowledge reviews in our PADI books for our advanced certification. Saturday night was a treat as we were given pizza for a meal and then headed north for a motel party along with Forfar, which was great fun all night

Bahamas Update - week 3

2011-02-10T14:25:00.002Z

We started week three by finishing off learning our fish and with a shark lecture by C.J. including some incredible pictures from her experiences including some from the neighboring island of Bimini. Everyone then started learning for the fish test on Friday of course while lying on the beach. We are all now beginning to settle in to the island life.

We completed our PADI Open Water Qualification. We dove at two different dive sites the first called ‘Kateatorium’ where we did two of the dives and saw a great barracuda. Then on Thursday and Friday we dove at ‘Ampi’; where again we saw a barracuda and some stingrays as well as various other fish. We did some underwater fish points with Sam and Jules. On Friday we did our final PADI open water exam and our first land fish test.

On Thursday afternoon we did our second afternoon in school, where shark songs and food web lectures were done as well as small wrestling matches with the manic school kids. On Sunday most people headed up to Jack’s Restaurant to watch the Superbowl. The rest of the week we have been enjoying the sea and beautiful white beach as well as topping up the tans while learning our fish for the next test.

Will & Harvey

Bahamas Update - week 2

2011-02-10T14:25:00.001Z

The week started off with more fish lessons and tests to check our progress. We also were given a lecture about mangroves, which are heavily present in Andros. We followed up with a field trip to view mangroves near our camp led by CJ.

On Thursday we made our first visit to the local school with lectures that we planned, which was more or less successful since the children were very excited to see us. On Friday we did our first dive to Staniard Rock, which was part of our confined water dive in the process to achieve certification. Everyone was very excited to finally be in the water.

On Saturday we experienced our first open water dive, which was absolutely amazing, including seeing a barracuda and many other fish that we had learned about in fish class.

Lots of love from/ viva Deutschland from

Kanna

Bahamas Blog – January Phase 2011, Week 1

2011-01-26T14:09:00.005Z

We arrived in sunny Andros Tuesday afternoon and were greeted by our pleasant and enthusiastic staff wearing their Gapforce shirts. Then we took taxis to our new home away from home in Staniard Creek.

We were all happy to see the ocean as our front yard and were all eager to get started with our diving. Since we arrived we have been going out on snorkel trips and on Thursday some of the

group were fortunate enough to see a whale shark! In doing these trips we are familiarizing ourselves with all the fish we are learning about in fish class and this way when we start collecting data on the reef we are well prepared.

On Saturday we were taken to nearby Rainbow Blue Hole where we did our

swim tests before we begin our Open Water training. So far our days have been filled mostly with great snorkeling,

relaxing on the beach, taking walks in the nearby area, seeing puppies, doing our chores, having fish classes and lectures, watching movies with ocean related topics as well as the PADI Open Water DVD, cooking (challenge for some of us J), eating, and supporting our local bar.

A great start of our adventure!

Tanzania Expedition - Update

2010-11-25T10:48:00.000Z

5th October –

First day of living with the Masaai tribe. We met all of their neighbours and wives. There were so many tiny children wanting to hold our hands and climb on us, so we were all carrying them around at some point. We explored the Masai ‘bomas’ and huts. The only problem now is learning Masai as well as Swahili, which is confusing but worth it; a lot of Masai speak fluent Swahili anyway. It seems the thing to do at the moment is just smile and nod, which is what they do back, and so everyone’s happy.
Afterwards Dom drove us around the expanse of Esilailei which, upon arrival, is indescribable. The land is largely flat, due to the dryness before the short rain season, after which everything will apparently start to turn progressively green. Behind this for the entire drive, however, we drew closer to majestic rows of blue mountains, receeding with mist far off into the landscape. Towards the more forested areas, and Mto Wa Mbu, everyone waves and shouts, to try their English or lure you into their bar/shop. The time was perfect too; the sun had cooled off and was just about setting, which sends Esilailei into a romantic haze. summoing the time of the welcome cermony.

We had heard and so already knew the Masai welcoming ceremony, so of course, on return they had a small goat waiting for us, tied to a tree. I’d anticipated this moment for a while, but admittedly felt slightly nervous. By the time the cermony was over it was pitch black, and people were playing Reggae out of our car, which lightened the mood. We ended the night by cooking and eating the goat meat. Aaaw yeeeaaaahh!

10th October –

...

We went to the Masai market (on every Thursday) to buy some Masai blankets and sit under a shelter on a bench for hours drinking Banana wine. Good times. It tastes like 10% scrumpy, and it’s 500 shillings a bottle, which is hardly anything. Drunk Masai elders kept coming up to chat, so it was a great opportunity to learn some more of the language. Dom’s friend ‘Dutchy’ sold us all a ton of jewelery, with a free gift, for ‘goody price’.

2010-10-29T10:40:00.004+01:00

After a sad farewell to our week eight leavers it was back to our daily routine with lots more jobs to do...so a trip to Namena was exactly what the doctor ordered to boost the spirits of the remaining eight volunteers! With our old pal Up & Under up and running again, we set off across the choppy seas for a two tank dive. After an amazing exploration of Grand Central Station seasickness got the better of us during our surface interval so it was a blessing in disguise when a broken mask forced the second dive to be aborted in favour of a return to camp.

However there was no rest for the wicked as it was our final ladies night that same day which meant cooking for thirty and drinking grog late into the night. The rest of the week we were kept busy with our rescue diver training which we all passed!!! Our final Saturday party was a lonely affair with the number on camp nearly halved but once the Bounty rum kicked in, spirits were high!

The next couple of days were rather emotional, starting with our final Sunday in Navatu, followed by our only nine weeker, Lauren, leaving.

But once again the perfect cure was....NAMENA! Our recently qualified Dive Master, Trainee Steve, marked the occasion of his 100th dive by going commando, save for a sulu...a brave decision as he was chosen to lead the dive...we enjoyed it very much!

Our final days on Nasonisoni Island were filled with goodbyes.

Firstly to Navatu, who invited us over for a kavalicious Ta-Tau, secondly to our beautiful camp, which we lovingly tidied up (phase 23

- it's never looked so good, enjoy!) and lastly each other. And so phase 22 comes to an end. Thanks for the laughs and the memories, we've had a BANGIN' time!

Ecuador Week 5

2010-09-14T10:32:00.002+01:00

At this point we are now old hands at forest living and our task is to finish off building steps. This is not easy work when it’s hot and humid! Despite this we have a great laugh and it felt like a fantastic achievement when we finally completed them. One of the highlights of spending time in the forest was the interesting characters we met there, a mix of scientists and volunteers who had all had intriguing reasons for being out in rural Ecuador. Katie and Adam were also lucky enough to visit the library in the local town of Tabuga which played host to another bunch of great kids eager to play and learn the odd English word. That concludes our time in the dry forest, after this it’s off to the Amazon rainforest for our next adventure!

Ecuador Week 4

2010-09-14T10:15:00.001+01:00

A week in and we are now starting to deal with being woken up at the crack of dawn by bullfrogs, howler monkeys and the questionable singing voice of our resident cook Bigote, named after his impressive moustache. This week we are able to explore the local area more and visit the lalo lor project leader Jason’s farm and are introduced to his pig and dog. We also get the chance to meet a few of the kids in the area who are possibly the most energetic children in the world. One should consider themselves lucky if there are less than 5 hanging off you at any one time. Another interesting experience is visiting the nearest town Perdernales. It is certainly well off the tourist trail and gave us a chance to see the real Ecuador. The weekend arrives and it’s off to the beach again, this time we all head to Canoa to surf and relax, while party animal Adam heads to Montanita for a South American fiesta, one in which comes highly recommended. This involves live bands and nightclubs with swimming pools inside!

Ecuador Week 3

2010-09-14T10:14:00.001+01:00

We say goodbye to Quito and head off on a 6 hour bus journey to the coast and our digs at the dry forest. It was a slight change from Quito with no electricity and howler monkeys swinging past our rooms at all hours. After a couple of days adjusting to the new surroundings we grew to like the place. This week is when the real work began, and that means machetes...and more machetes, which appear to be used for everything imaginable in rural Ecuador. After a week of conservation our group splits into two and head to the beaches of Canoa and Puerto Lopez for the weekend. Living in the forest offers opportunities to see some of the coolest animals on the planet, including snakes, butterflies and various arachnids that were frequently pointed out by our indigenous tour guide Maximo. Adam was even offered the opportunity to handle a wild snake after Maximo tracked one, an offer which he sensibly declined.

Ecuador Week 2

2010-09-14T10:13:00.000+01:00

Seven days in and we are now comfortable with the city and possibly a little too comfortable with each other. The highlight of this week was climbing the live volcano Cotapaxi. Several hours and numerous falls later, particularly by Jess, and we reach the peak flanked by Germans, Belgians and every other nationality imaginable. The cycle ride down was exhilarating and this being Quito the day certainly did not end there. Only 2 of us came out completely unscathed and thus decided to go for a swift drink. In Quito the party rarely ends quietly and we proceeded to return at 7 in the morning.

The next day we go to watch the famous Liga De Quito at the estadio Olympico, home of National football club. South American football is renowned for its exciting and free flowing approach, and this match did not disappoint with 5 goals and a win for top of the table Liga. As the week went on we were able to further practice our newly acquired Spanish with trips to Quito Market and were introduced to our ‘crazy’ team leader Frankie, and our group is finally complete. Quito and a fear of heights are not a great mix as I was to find out, but this did not spoil my trip up the Teleferiqo cable car which offers spectacular views and a concentrated hit of oxygen if one is interested. The week is rounded off with a trip to the beautiful cloud forest Mindo. You are surrounded by natural beauty including humming birds and endless waterfalls. Despite this the best thing about Mindo is the extreme zip lining which seems more like bungee jumping. It’s a great rush and it also offers the best view of the forest. Come night and we had, according to Katie, the ‘greatest pizza in the world’ and of course we partied (again) until the early hours.

Ecuador Week 1

2010-09-14T10:07:00.001+01:00

It’s almost 3am and everyone has finally arrived and extremely tired, 3 hours of sleep later and we commence a city tour. Welcome to Ecuador. After a lovely Ecuadorian breakfast we take a very crowded bus to the old town of Quito. We begin by looking at some Churches and learn the odd fact that by being too ‘delicioso’ you are likely to go to hell. Little did we know it would get a lot stranger than this. Throughout our first week in Quito we discover that the nightlife is not something to miss, however on day 2 we realise that singing is not one its stronger points after visiting a local karaoke bar. We round off week one by visiting the Equator line. A few interesting facts about this place are that you cannot walk along the equator line properly and it is strangely easy to balance an egg on a nail.

FIji Update Weeks 7-8

2010-09-09T14:25:00.001+01:00

Fiji:

Two weeks on in camp, that’s 14 more days of porridge and island life is in full swing. We were saddened to see the departure of three volunteers but our tears were soon dispelled by the return of our Mighty medics Bex and Joe. After this joyous reunion, we were then invited to the annual rugby sevens tournament in Nawara to support our village of Navatu. Nawara is a bustling metropolis (by Fijian

standards) that is supposedly a mere thirty minutes away by boat....Thirty minutes if your steering doesn't break causing volunteers to need to dunk whole limbs in the water to create enough drag to turn us around the river bends! After finally finding a place to moor the boat we decided to walk to the rugby which was now only fifteen minutes away but once again..."supposedly" (The Fijians have a very queer concept of distance versus time!) Half an hour later we were fortunate enough to be picked up by a local bus and on climbing aboard we recognised many a face from the surrounding villages. Upon finally arriving at the rugby, a great day was had by all, and though Navatu didn't win the volunteers got fresh beef which was a greatly received treat.

The week got better from there as our mighty medics brought us back a rare and delightful treasure from their travels, CHEESE!!!! We used this valuable commodity to make ourselves pizzas in the make shift pizza oven (an oil drum covered in cement).

Diving has been top notch over the last few days and one dive we saw seven sharks, two Bumphead Parrotfish and an intimidating large shoal of Great Barracuda. Not only is the aquatic life thriving but terrestrial animals are doing well to! Buru, our camps puppy, has started walking and after a de-flea by means of a tea-tree oil bath is now ridiculously cuddle able!

See you in 14 days! Lucy xxx

Fiji Update: Phase 22 Weeks 4 to 6 Blog update By Lizzie Wedderburn

2010-09-02T15:54:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately the compressor broke last week, but our expedition leader Steve went to the capital, Suva, to get it fixed. It did mean that we couldn’t dive for a week which meant we had to come up with different ways to entertain ourselves. These included taking a walk up the hill to see the most amazing view ever, an inter Bure volleyball tournament and snorkelling trips. The less adventurous of us spent long afternoons at the sand spit, which is about a half hour walk from camp but well worth the journey.

As well as relaxing we caught up with our science training by going on many an educational snorkel. As soon as we were diving again we did our in water fish tests and cracked on with our size estimation skills. On Sunday the 15^th we went to our local village Navatu where we spent a beautiful sunny day with our adoptive families. After lunch everyone headed up to the hammock to soak up the view and then dispersed again to have multiple plates of cake and cups tea and not forgetting the kava!

We have started spotting whales out in the passage but unfortunately none of them have been close enough to identify them but apparently its humpback season. As well as whales we have seen a lot of White Bellied Long Nosed Spinner Dolphins which love to play in front of our boat, Up and Under. We saw a pod of about thirty of them including a few babies which were SOOOO cute!!! They’re not the only babies on camp though as one of the camp dogs, Alice, has given birth to an adorable puppy which we have named Beru.

It has been very hot recently which is great for the sunbathers amongst us but not so good for our fresh water supply so we are al hoping for rain some time soon, which makes a change from being home in the UK! It’s got to the stage in the phase were people go a bit nuts and in keeping with this a number of people on camp have shaved their heads to varying degrees, including me... This Thursday A level results came out so we all waited nervously whilst people got their results but thankfully everyone got into Uni. Some of the staff went on a ration run on Thursday as well so we all got our post and packages which made us a bit homesick but also brought us good things such as BBQ sauce, Milka chocolate and Sudokus!

This Sunday we went to another local village, Raviravi. This was awesome as the village is lovely, plus they had FLUSHING TOILETS!!!!! This was a very welcome change from carrying buckets of water up the hill to the toilet :D The food was amazing and the villagers were really welcoming and we all had a really nice day and were very sad to leave.

Today, Monday 23^rd August, was a sad day as three of our number left. We had a group photo on the beach and then waved them off with a few tears. None of us can quite believe that we have spent six weeks here already, it feels like just yesterday that we met each other at the airport looking very pale and quite tired as opposed to now when we are all very brown but still quite tired!

Anyways I’m off to be social so it’s goodnight from Nukubulavu camp!

Tanzania - End of Programme Update

2010-08-24T15:24:00.003+01:00

So in the first three weeks we stayed and worked in Uchira, which was great fun! We taught English twice a week in a school, which was really rewarding, painted a hospital ward (which we offered to do, and pay for the paint, because they couldn't afford it), planted trees, and our overall project for the three weeks was an agricultural project, which we then had to present to the village council in Swahili! A bit of a scary experience, but really good!

When we went into the bush with Dom, we stayed with the Maasai, in a real boma, because there was only two of us, which was in incredible experience! The children are so friendly, and though you can't understand a word they say, or vice versa, they have so much energy and just play with them all the time! Then during the day we went on research transects, driving through the bush and noting down everything we saw. Over the course of the four days, we saw so many giraffe, impala, gazelle, dik dik, and even a serval, which are pretty elusive! Also, just driving over from Arusha, a herd of 22 elephant just casually crossed the road! One of the most incredible things i've ever witnessed!

Overall the trip was incredible, and I was just upset I wasn't staying for longer! The friendships you make with the other volunteers is brilliant as well, and Dom was incredible! Not sure what else I can say really, but definitely go there, you will definitely not regret it!

Tanzania Update

2010-08-09T11:41:00.006+01:00

"The first there weeks in Moshi were great, to say the least. It was the perfect introduction to life in Africa. Everyone we met, including both the villagers and the staff, was welcoming and helpful. The work was hard but rewarding. At first I was hesitant because it seemed like our individual projects weren’t going to be relevant to the village council, but after giving the final presentation—in Swahili—and hearing feedback I realized how much they appreciated our work.

Three weeks was just the right amount of time in Uchira. Leaving was sad, but that is proof of how much fun we had. The three day safari felt like a little reward for all the work we did in Uchira; I had a blast and it got me really excited to live in the bush.

So far, the bush has exceeded my expectations. The Masai are very welcoming, the camp is comfortable, and the scenery is breathtaking. I can’t wait to live there for the next five weeks!"

Julia Longo (USA)

FIJI: First four weeks

2010-08-09T11:02:00.010+01:00

Well that’s week four over and it only seems like one weeks gone by! After arriving in Savusavu we picked up all our rations and made our way to our new home for the next 10 weeks, Nukubulavu Camp Greenforce. The whole group got stuck in right away and got the whole place up and running and it wasn’t too long before we were all in the water to start our dive training.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever done any diving but sticking your head underwater and breathing in air is a really weird experience at first. Once you’re over the whole alien aspect of it though it all just feels right and seeing the fish and learning the skills soon came naturally to the whole group, most of who are now qualified Advanced Open Water Divers!

Now that we can all dive we’ve started our science training and just this weekend we had our first fish tests. It is slightly harder than we all expected but the satisfaction of being able to know what we are seeing and that the data we will soon collect will be of use in protecting Fijis marine heritage is totally awesome. My favourite fish that we could see out here is the Spotted Eagle Ray which can grow to three and a half metres across and is often seen at our best dive site, Namena. Namena is our local MPA (Marine Protected Area) where no fishing is allowed and as such the fish get really big and really plentiful....there are also rumours of Hammerhead Sharks out there to, which I can’t wait to see!

Every Sunday we go to a local village for church. We alternate between our nearest village Navatu and the other villages in our local district, Kubulau. In Navatu we spend the day with our adopted families but during visits to the other villages we stay in a large group and get involved in the community en masse. This last Sunday we went to Kiobo which is home to the chief of Kubulau, Tui Kubulau. What made this so special is that Tui is an epic guitar player and he had the whole Greenforce team singing along to classics like Hey Jude, Hotel California and Sweet Home Alabama. Sitting under a tree and drinking Kava with our friends and singing tunes really brought it all home about how special and lasting the memories from here will be.

So anyways I’m off to eat a hearty home cooked meal cooked by my fellow volunteers so its moce (goodbye :D) for now!

Harry Henley

Ecuador- April Phase 2010

2010-06-04T10:05:00.002+01:00

Week 5 – last week of Lalo Loorb

The last week off the Lalo Loor was a busy affair. We immersed ourselves in the community for a few days preparing the new liberty for the kids of Tabuga. A lot of sanding and painting but well worth the dust. Wednesday we finished up our steps on all the trails. On Thursday we visited a local organic farm ran by the Lalo Loor Coordinator Jason. Here we spent a relaxed day learning about organic farming and picking fresh fruit to make smoothes in the afternoon. Thursday night we went for a little stroll around the jungle and we saw a fer de lance snake , a silly amount of frogs, and spiders galore oh and a tarantula the size of a dinner plate Friday we cleared a trail that lead around the reserve and after a quick spot of lunch we got ourselves into Pedernales for much needed internet time and food.

We spent the weekend back in Quito. To be honest this was a much needed affair to catch up with our favourite Mr. Finns Mc Cools. However no time to relax on Sunday because we had an early bus ride to Huasquila

Week 6 to 8 Huasquila
We arrived in Huasquila Sunday afternoon to fresh Pina coladas and comfy seats which actually had backs to them. Walking up to our rooms, we stumbled across a pool and we realised Frankie hadn’t given too much away about this tourist resort. Our first working day started off with weeding in the garden, followed by hosing the earth for the greenhouse. Once we finished work, there was no debate about what we’d spend the rest of the day doing...pool time. Our first Wednesday afternoon off was spent discovering a waterfall in the primary Amazonian jungle with a local guide, while others headed off to the local town of Tena where the supermarket actually stocked jars of Nutella, to Jenny’s delight. The only problem was that the following day, Hannah somehow managed to smash a full jar of Nutella goodness on the path.

After a hard week’s work, chopping Bamboo and bagging soil, we decided to let off some steam by going rafting after a hearty breakfast of delicious porridge, eggs and bread. Our journey down the River Yatunyaku involved a lot of falling into the water (or in Ananya’s case, being pushed into the water) and swimming the rapids. After a lunch consisting of chocolate cake and burritos, which Frankie helped himself to 4 times, our Irish guide became adamant on getting Jenny in the water but of course was unsuccessful. The following morning was spent working on our tan by the pool and obtaining more jars of Nutella for our pancakes at breakfast.

Our second week started with a bang, when we went to cut several bamboo trees down with machetes in knee deep puddles of mud we had to carry heavy bamboo trees across and kept getting stuck. After stabilizing the greenhouse with bamboo, our next monumentous task was digging a 80cm wide and deep trench across the garden. After 2 solid days of digging and hoeing and getting very muddy (though this was mainly due to Frankie pushing Jenny into the trench) we had a fine-looking trench fit for a World War 1 soldier. The second week also marked the arrival of our latest American co-volunteer, Hannah Vogel, newly nicknamed Ben who joined us on our escapades around the Amazon. The rest of the week involved bagging soil into plastic bags which we found out to our delight was for planting cocoa trees. A lot of the seeds which were given to the two Hannah’s however went mysteriously missing... the rest of the week passed uneventfully apart from Ananya somehow literally getting ants in her pants, when a whole colony of red ants decided to nest in her shorts on the clothes line.

Our well deserved Saturday off was spent on a trek in the primary Amazon forest which also included canyoning on several waterfalls. Our trip involved tasting the jungle cuisine, which consisted of ‘dragon blood’ from a tree, heart of palm, salty ants and sugar cane all washed down with water from a bamboo stick, while dressed up in natural, vine earrings and red noses made of flowers. When we weren’t eating, we were hiking down a river and realised rubber boots were actually a hindrance when the water level was higher that the boots. After canyoning, we hiked up steep, dense jungle where Joe somehow managed to get himself, Naomi and Hannah covered in termites. Sunday started off with a trip into the nearest town Tena, where we stocked up on chocolate and other necessities such as internet. The rest of our day was spend watching films and the less lazy of us went to visit the nearby animal rescue centre.

Bahamas- April 2010- Week 5

2010-06-03T09:57:00.001+01:00

It’s been a mixed week – the low points were consistently windy weather, so we only managed one dive (but it was a good one!) and Sarah going home (we miss you!). There have been loads of highs though.

The dive we did was a fun dive: we over-weighted ourselves and went down with no fins on so we could race across the sandy bottom and build human pyramids 20m down!

We kept busy the rest of the time – we had some really interesting lectures from Dani and Ian, the scientists, on Island Formation, History of the Island and Sharks (did you know that Hammerheads have no pain receptors and Nurse Sharks have the most forceful bite?). We visited Pigeon Island and had various competitions such as a Scavenger Hunt and a Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank game, although now, 6 days later, only two inventions are still standing – the shower tidiers and the football goals.

Saturday night’s theme was Disney and it was a really good one – the girls all dressed up as Dalmatians with Siobhan, the camp leader, as Cruella De Vill e. We also had Aladdin and Abu and Peter Pan and Captain Hook!

So, it’s been a busy week and I’ve really enjoyed it – the weather should be great for week 6, so hopefully it will get even busier!

Vickie Miller

Bahamas- April 2010- Week 4

2010-06-03T09:53:00.002+01:00

Week four has been the week of the crossword, with clues being shouted across camp constantly. It has also been the week of close encounters with Bull and Nurse Sharks and ‘Big Pop’ the 8ft Loggerhead Turtle.

We start the week with more of our Advanced Open Water dives (perfecting our buoyancy whilst doing slaloms if always good), and also went on snorkelling trips. The amount of coral and fish life you can see just a couple of meters under the surface is amazing!

The paper fish tests were also sat this week and everyone passed with flying colours, so we can now move onto the in-water fish IDing. Pierre the first aid mannequin was also introduced to us as part of the EFR course we started and completed this week, and as a result, offers of medical assistance are now common (whether required or not!).

We also went on a few trips around the island this week, to Morgan’s Bluff (the most Northern point of Andros) and to the Fresh Creek Lighthouse and Somerset Beach, which looks like a picture in a magazine.

Saturday evening’s dressing-up theme as ‘Cowboys and Indians’ and ended up with a water fight on the beach in which everyone got soaked – a good end to an enjoyable week.

Laura Mann

Ecuador- April Phase 2010

2010-05-21T17:23:00.003+01:00

Weeks 1-4

We all arrived, some of us early some of us mega late. We all had dinner together apart from Naomi who arrived at 10. We were debating the idea of eating her dinner but she came just in time.

Our leader Frankie gave us a quick intro on life in Quito, mostly the dos and don’ts, but he saved most of it Monday, before our city tour.The Inca capital offered a mix of traditional and colonial architecture in the old town, whereas La Mariscal (in the new town) offered a cosmopolitan mix of new and old. The heights of the basilica made us all gasp with its view and sky scraping walk up its many spires; not to mention seeing the president in the main square. We were pretty sure he saw us and waved. We did all of this in just one morning. We came back to our hostel for a quick bite to eat and start our Spanish lessons. Ananya did Spanish at School so she had a head start. However poor Joe didn’t have such a feel for the language and had to dance salsa because he couldn’t remember Simon says...embarrassing for him... funny for us.

After four hours of Spanish we thought the Inca market was due a visit. After walking around bargaining for local handy crafts we all decided to just go next door and buy DVDs instead. Jo got more dancing practice courtesy of a salsa lesson we all had. Hannah loves to salsa. But to her disappoint, Jo was her partner to which all she could say was Noooooo!. We had dinner and then argued about people’s film choices for the evening the inevitable row over action movie verses chick flick. Chick flick won that time. Four girls to two guys. Girl Power !!!

We got our first experience of the equator when we went to the Mitad del Mundo. We got to try out various experiments such as balancing an egg on a nail and watching water spin in the other direction...mind blowing! When we got to the official equator line, the northerner vs. southerner jokes started coming out....according to Naomi, everyone north of London was classed as a northerner. The tour moved to a guinea pig pen where we got to pet them. Unfortunately Joe and Ananya spent a good 5 minutes concentrating on catching one so much that they were oblivious to Hannah’s antics.

Our first week of Spanish lesion held us in good stead for things to come especially for the otavalo Inca market on Saturday. This time we all perched our Inca goods such as jumpers all with lama print, our granddads would have been proud, also Inca bracelets and necklaces and last but no means least happy pants. These need to be seen to be believed bright stripy trousers that make the 80s look dull. Some of us wore our new purchases out to an Irish bar in La Mariscal called Finn McCools. Being at an altitude, most of us didn’t quite realise that altitude may have affected our alcohol tolerance level a fair amount. The bar was such a hit, we returned there a total of 4 times during our time in Quito.

All with a Chuchake everybody apart from the leader Frankie stayed in for a Sunday morning lie-in. We decided that the Teleferico was a good idea. This cable car takes you up to 3500 from 2800 in a matter of minutes. And all suffering from the after affects of Finn mc cools this was maybe not the best idea. The ride up made Jo a little queasy, luckily he just made it. Once at the top it was well worth it. A clear day on top of this mountain really makes all the difference a stunning view of Quito well worth getting over a chuchake with .

Welles, batteries, chocolate and sudo cream. Monday was our shopping for the jungle essentials. Jennie decided that chocolate was high on the list of priorities. We all followed suit. After all it just makes sense. Another night out to remember at Finn Mc Cools once again. This time for an hour and the pub quiz . We started well but kinda lost it towards the end. This was also the last night of Finn’s in its old location. Probably one of the best nights at this bar ever seen. This was definitely reflected in everybody’s Spanish the next day.

Spanish, supermarket, really good Mexican food and then a girls night out at bungalow. The resident 2 4 1 bar for gringos. Frank and Jo decided to give the hair drying, nail painting make up fest a miss ......this time . We all salsa danced for the evening. Until the point where Naomi decided to go freestyle . To which a circle formed around her for a least a few songs.

Last Spanish lessons followed by a local cooking lesson for ceviche ( a prawn soup). After lunch we got the bus to Mindo . Mindo is only a few hours away, just a stunning but in a more scenic way. Lots of birds, butterfly’s combined with zip lining , cannoning, and swimming in a massive pool, fresh Ecuadorian coffee and tubeing along the river. The only problem was that that we only got the weekend to stay here . A few days more would have given it justice

Sunday morning was the bus journey from hell where 3 children decided to empty the contents of their breakfast onto the floor of the bus, while the next bus broke down half way to the coast, which meant we had to get on a new one that was full of chickens. 8 hours later, we arrived at Lalo Loor, an a-seasonal deciduous tropical dry forest. Greeted by our hunky coordinator Jason, we had a quick tour of our jungle lodge with the dos and don’ts and later settled down to a candlelit dinner while being serenaded by howler monkeys.

Monday morning we were woken up at 5am by howler monkeys which was not the best start as we had a 3 hour hike around the reserve to look forward to. On our morning walk, we saw toucans, a vine snake, more howler monkeys, huge conga ants, and about a million spiders. In the afternoon, we spoke about our projects which we would be working on, such as trail making/building and reforesting.

Our first week, consisted of using jungle materials to carve out and build steps into the forest floor to encourage tourism to the area. For most of us this was the first time we got to use machetes. The initial excitement wore off after about 20 minutes when everyone started developing blisters through cutting stakes. Our other volunteer coordinator and resident compulsive liar/comedian Maximo entertained us in our time off with stories of how he dated Shakira (which he hadn’t), how he worked as a bodyguard for George Bush and his Thai heritage, which he nearly had us convinced about before we realised nothing that came out of his mouth was true.

On our first weekend off at the coast we headed to the laid back beach town of Canoa with our new American friends from Lalo Loor. After arriving on that Friday evening, we got a taste of Canoan nightlife, which we realised was not the most fun on Fridays. However that was soon corrected by a few drinks at the Surf Shack, a local gringo hotspot, with typical American meals. With a bit of dutch courage from several banana coladas, we managed to dance the night away to salsa on the beach, although Frankie decided to ditch his party animal reputation by going to bed BEFORE 12 o clock...twice! The next day consisted of a full day or body boarding the waves, burning on the sand for some of us, and eating gigantic pancakes at the Surf Shack, which offered its own hike called ‘We saw a tarantula eat a frog’. We returned to reality on Sunday night when we got splattered with mud in the torrential rain during a 15minute walk back to the lodge in complete darkness.

Monday of our second week at Lalo Loor, we learnt new techniques for path building, with our new ‘friend’ Paul, the Peace Corps plonker. We turned a slippy earth mound into a decent set of stairs, made all from renewable jungle material and even managed a simple yet effective drainage system. The following morning, we woke up to Bigote ‘moustache’ enough said. The girls all went out at sunrise to catch wild birds for the reserve’s survey. It proved unsuccessful, with a grand total of zero birds being caught. Hannah soldiered on after her early start and did reforestation with Naomi and Joe, whilst the others enjoyed a relaxed morning at the lodge. Our day got a little bit hairy, with our American friends discovering a Ferderlance (One of the most poisonous snakes in the world) in the stream bed about five minutes away from our lodge.

Wednesday was a complete washout, meaning we spent the whole day indoors, cabin fever started to set in until we heard some trees falling in the evening. Frankie gave us a safety talk, in between running in and out of the house every time we heard a tree crack, about what we should do if the lodge did get struck by a tree.

The next day, Joe, head of the Sabre foundation, discovered a new bird for the reserve. After an early morning, Jason arrived with the materials to complete our steps from Monday. Everyone got to use their lumber jacking skills, sawing up wood and hacking pieces of wood into stakes. During this time we all got given our jungle names, Naomi the foghorn of the group got appropriately named after the foghorn of the jungle, the Chatcha Laka. Maximo had a soft spot for Ananya, naming her after one of the prettiest birds in the jungle, the Mot Mot. Jenny, Jennifer Lopez according to the compulsive liar, was named Armadilla, Joe was given the name Tarantula and Hannah with her piercing look was named Eciz, Federlance in English. Finally Frankie our leader was called the most manly of things Mariposa ‘Butterfly’.

Friday morning started with more wood preparation for Monday, sawing planks and cutting stakes. The afternoon was free with everyone taking a trip to Pedernales for supplies for the weekend. The weekend we spent sunning ourselves on the beaches of the local area, where the sand was too hot to walk on, making trips to the ocean interesting. Even after lathering on factor 50 we still ended up like lobsters. The evenings were spent toasting marshmellows and learning how to make smores from our American amigos..

Bahamas- April 2010- Week 3

2010-05-07T17:23:00.002+01:00

The week started abruptly for the learner divers who were faced with the prospect of their open water exams. Thankfully we all passed and gained the first of our dive qualifications, much to our relief.

Through Tuesday and Wednesday studies continued meaning we can now successfully identify over 100 different types of fish. Along with this we began our Advanced Open Water qualification by studying and then mastering the multi-level dive.

Our free-diving skills were also tested for the first time. Following a series of deep, relaxing breathing techniques on the beach, we took to the water; with the group noticing a vast improvement in their ability to hold their breath underwater and dive to new depths.

We also had our first opportunity to introduce ourselves to the local school children of Stanyard Creek. Split between three classes at the local primary, we introduced ourselves followed by our theme for this phase – the affects of rubbish on the local environment and the reef, with the promise of a beach clean and big art project to follow.

After a busy week the group was treated to a barbeque on the beach, with some food supplied by local friends, including a large hogfish, lion fish fritters and some conch salad, caught and prepared by some of the group earlier that afternoon. Full and satisfied we relaxed into Saturday evening looking forward to another busy week ahead.

Richard Howe

Bahamas- April 2010- Week 2

2010-05-07T17:17:00.001+01:00

Meeting new people for the first time can be extremely nerve racking and overwhelming; but after a week of fun and games you begin to fall into a groove again. Becoming a volunteer with Greenforce is one of the best decisions “you” could ever make. The experiences you’ll have and the people you’ll meet are worthwhile.

We began the week with our first dive. There’s nothing like the smell of fresh neoprene combined with porridge in the morning. After a day of diving and activities, we all meet up in the “outdoor” kitchen for our weekly meeting. Weekly meetings inform every one of any upcoming activities or problems that have occurred during the previous week. Having weekly meetings really help to ensure things run smoothly.

Over the next couple of days most of the volunteers have retired the deck of cards and have now begun to explore the island a little more. We took a couple of snorkeling trips and have had the privilege of doing a creek clean up. The creek clean up really opened every one’s eyes as to how one piece of garbage can grow into millions of pieces.

As the week comes to a close every one begins to realize how precious time is and how close we have all become in such a small amount of time.

Ashley Delforge

Bahamas- April 2010- Week 1

2010-05-07T09:53:00.010+01:00

Woo! After months of speculation (what will everyone be like?) and preparation (hours spent trawling through dive shops) an arrival at the island of Andros was imminent. The excitement and fear of meeting new people, in a completely different environment (a stunning one at that) is always overwhelming, but after a round of Fire in tha Holes at Timmy’s bar hours were spent talking to each other, asking typical ‘I’ve just met you’ questions! One of the most popular being ‘so what is it you do’?

Waking up to the sound of the ocean in the morning is a luxury you never get used to, unfortunately the same can’t be said for the porridge (just be sure to add plenty of sugar)!!

Poor weather conditions meant that we were unable to dive during our first week, but that didn’t really seem to bother anyone as a game of cards was always there to fill our day around the classes! However, when diving is unavailable and we’re not in class, then there is plenty of snorkelling available off shore, which is especially exciting when you see some of the fish mentioned in fish class, and if you aren’t in the mood, you can always find a packet of bourbons from Mr Johnson to munch on.

It’s surprising how close people can become after just a week, especially after the weekly Saturday night dress up (this week was famous couples) at Timmy’s bar. Actually the evenings have been rather eventful, involving shark fishing (unsuccessfully, as crabs became the main interest), learning how to play poker, quiz night and film night!

Sarah Onion

Fiji Phase 20- Week 4-5

2010-03-08T12:51:00.005Z

Tuesday 9^th: Rations arrive, everyone was delighted (HURRAY! from Tom). Vicky cut her hair into a really cool fringe.....

Wednesday 10^t^h: Fish points all day which were really good fun. Gav and Chaz were clearly the best spotters since phase 2. We had burgers for dinner thanks to Paul. James had more mayonnaise than he bargained for!

Thursday 11th: Yet again Gav and Chaz impressed staff and volunteers with flawless size-esting. One might say they were trainees in the making. Dr Alex Warner was bottom of the class yet again but we love him and he is a really good doctor.

Friday 12^th: Ladies night, ladies from the village came to our camp for a fun filled night of cakes bingo and dancing. James and Tom sought to woo the Fijian ladies with their rendition of the popular anthem YMCA. Scottish dancing followed in which Gav and Debs excelled. Before the night was done the cheeky girls (Gav and Chaz) made an appearance and the guilty party are now referred to as the cheeky boys by the Fijian ladies.

Saturday 13^th: Fun dive at Sirens and a new dive site was christened ‘DEVIZES’ after the famous market town in the heart of Wiltshire, England. JoJo’s birthday was met with a fantastic sponge cake courtesy of Deborah.

Sunday 14^th: Classic village day consisting of food, sleep, church, food, sleep, food. A good day had by all!

Monday 15^th: More fish points in the day followed by a lads + Vicky night dive, manly!

Tuesday 16^th: The start of arguably the best week on camp so far. We’ve had a big feast thanks to Ben ‘the hairy hunk fisherman’ Lewis for catching a big coral grouper. Big shout out to Vicky’s mum who kindly donated pancake mixture that was appreciated by all.

Wednesday 17^th: We woke to a still bay and one word was on everyone’s lips.... ‘Namena’. Sprits were high as we waited for the decision; Paul soon announced we were going YES! Two boats went throughout the day and amazing dives were had by all at two sites Grand Central and Chimneys. Everything is bigger and better at Namena and sightings included sharks, turtles and Humphead wrasse.

Thursday 18^th: Picture the scene; Gav fishing in the shallow waters, Vicky sunbathing peacefully, Hahja and JP having a cup of tea, when all of a sudden Ben ‘disturber of the peace’ Lewis shouts “WHALES”!!! We all madly scramble for our kit and Paul took us out on the boat to go and swim with the whales. We did and it was amazing!

Friday 19^th: Invert points, Chaz and Gav top of the class. In the afternoon there was a fundraiser in Navatu for the church, we played volleyball in the afternoon followed by dinner and then plenty of Kava until 12:30am!

Saturday 20^th: Everyone woke up with a Kava Hangover which makes your head feel like smog and your tummy feel like a lead balloon. Camp clean was the last thing we wanted to do but we battled on and were rewarded when Paul, James and Tom went fishing and caught a 30kg Giant Trevally. Gav and Tom came down with the lurgey. The party went on despite the number of sick people. JoJo was showing her best fish impressions.

Sunday 21^st: We went to Raviravi and stayed in a house with a sofa! Much to our delight we had short but song filled church service and delicious communal lunch followed by tea and cake. We had the standard Sunday nap and then standard Sunday Kava. Vicky and Mike then came down with the lurgey.

Monday 22^nd: Half the group went to Kinder and Beni was being his usual self. In the afternoon we started coral points. Learning some of the basic life forms of coral and how to recognise them in the water.

Gav & Chaz

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 3

2010-03-03T11:50:00.007Z

We woke up on Tuesday ready for a boat dive to the outer reef, it was the first time we had dived on the reef and it was incredible! The visibility was amazing 20-30m and loads of us saw sharks and turtles. JP and Rosie saw their first turtle and had a celebratory dance, Vicky and Hahja created the crazy O.K signal dance and Debs and Eleanor saw a Tawny Nurse Shark. Defiantly the best dive so far. In the afternoon we had a killer volleyball tournament, a 5 team round robin and a final that is yet to be played due to illness and injury.

Wednesday was the day of Ratu Semi’s funeral in Navatu. We had an early start (5.30!) to walk to the village and the sun was just rising when we arrived. The funeral service was held first thing in the morning, the church was full of villagers paying their respects to their Chief but we were privileged enough to be given seats in church for the service. The service was very touching and the priest gave some kind words in English for our benefit. After the service we followed the coffin to the burial site, the young lads of the village carried the coffin and wrapped the casket in woven mats before lowering the coffin into the ground. They then buried Semi with their bare hands as a sign of respect and with speed and dignity they built a surrounding wall around his grave out of stones. Throughout the burial everyone sang hymns, it was very emotional for all the villagers, volunteers and staff. After the burial we spent the rest of the day feasting, drinking Kava and celebrating Semi’s life with his wife Ma, we all felt very privileged to experience something that not many other visitors to Fiji have seen.

The day after the funeral we started our science training; to begin with we started on basic fish anatomy. We also started our in water size estimations whereby we have to estimate the length of different sizes of piping underwater making sure we account for the distortion of the water. Some of us found it difficult to start with but Al seemed very pleased with his effort, we won’t mention his mark!! In the afternoon we had 2 new arrivals, Lorna and JoJo who have just finished degrees in medicine and are joining us for their electives. Due to a huge electrical storm we couldn’t do our night dive but we all had a rain shower on the decking instead.

On Friday we started the day with our Navigation dive, which everyone successfully passed, we then carried on with our size estimations. In the evening group 2 managed to get their night dive done, everyone was excited about the chance to dive the reef at night, we may not have been the most elegant group but we all passed our dive with flying colours. The weekend began on Saturday with a drift dive at Ariel’s, we saw Hawksbill, Loggerhead and Green Turtles, a White tip reef shark and a large Shark sucker. In the evening we had a ‘when I grow up....’ themed party. Some of the best outfits included Rosie’s ballet dancer, Vicky’s P.E Teacher and James’ Ninja outfit .

On Sunday we visited a new village called Namalata, everyone was amazed by the fully functioning toilet which was used to its full benefit! The church was bigger than Navatu but the chief of the village was kind enough to welcome us to the service in English. We sang plenty of songs before a well earned lunch of sausages followed by Kava, of course! Monday morning saw half the group go to Kinder in our village and the afternoon saw us undertake our Deep dive to 30m. Nobody really felt the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis but the dive was wicked. All in all another awesome week in paradise.

Rosie and Vicky

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 2

2010-02-16T10:06:00.003Z

Tuesday saw us ‘Open Water Babies’ get started on our skills. We managed to get half of our confined water dives completed which we were all pleased with. Paul had been on a fishing trip and caught a 27kg Tuna which we had for dinner, everyone agreed it was yummy and the best meal so far. The next day we ploughed on the Open Water training, finishing our confined water dives and starting our open water dives at a site called Lovers. We were all shattered and rounded off the day with some well deserved sunbathing.

On Thursday we found out the Semi, our village chief who we met at the sevu sevu had passed away in his sleep. Everyone was shocked by this news and there was a sombre mood in camp. To respect Semi and the villagers in Navatu we stopped diving for the day and treated it like a Sunday relaxing in the sun. On the Friday we did our Emergency First Responder (EFR) training, we spent the day trying to resuscitate “Annie” covering each other in bandages and learning some basic First Aid.

The next day the village gave us permission to continue diving so we pressed on and managed to get everyone qualified to Open Water Divers! In the afternoon we had camp clean, the boys were conveniently nowhere to be seen and when they reappeared we told them there would be no party until they had re-sanded all the paths , you’ve never seen people move so fast!

On Sunday we experienced our 1st church service in Navatu. All our families were pleased to see us and filled us up with pancakes and tea for breakfast, it beats porridge any day! Church was about an hour long, the girls sported their sexy Bula dresses and the boys their pocket sulus, smart shirts and ties. We sang Fijian hymns and we were given speech on behalf of the congregation to welcome us to the service. We had lunch with our families and in keeping with Sundays we had an afternoon nap to help digest our food. During the afternoon we had Kava, which we are starting to get used to and then returned home for dinner.

On Monday we undertook shore dives to help practise our underwater buoyancy and navigation skills, a boat dive also went out to Ariel’s Garden which was an amazing site, there were even sharks and turtles spotted! Most excitingly dinner that night was roast chicken with roast veg which went down exceedingly well!

Vicky

Fiji- Phase 20- Week 1

2010-02-16T09:54:00.002Z

The 19th of January soon came around for all of us and we met up, the majority, in Labasa where we were greeted by the smiling Debs. Once together we were told the plan for the next few days and then we were given the ultimate team building exercise of a Fijian truck ride, one I will never forget! We arrived in Savusavu and ended the day in the best way possible, a steak BBQ.

We woke on the 20th for the shopping trip in Savusavu where we all bought last minute essentials and the custom Fijian dress that we needed for the villages we would be visiting. The lads all bought the traditional Sulus and Bula Shirts, the girls then bought their Bula Dresses that they would wear on our visits. Our last meal before camp was a banquet of Pizza, something I never thought I would crave, God I sound like I’m pregnant!!!

21st, the first day of camp but probably most remembered for the breathtaking ride to our Camp. At the end of the road Paul was there to meet us to help unload the trucks into the boat Up and Under. The views across the bay to our island was spectacular and to think I will be spending 10 weeks here with sun, sea and beautiful views as standard! As we arrived on camp we unpacked and were placed in the Bures that would be our apartments for the next phase.

On the 22nd we started our jobs with everyone pulling together to get camp up and running. Then most of us went to check out the house reef which compared to the UK waters did not disappoint! Saturday was probably the best day of the week; the qualified divers went for a boat dive on the outer reef. As we went down the visibility was so good I felt like we were stepping into a David Attenborough documentary. The pristine coral and the amazing colours we indescribable!

In the afternoon we went for our Sevu Sevu which was the welcoming ceremony performed by the village chief. The village is so friendly and we were put into our families who will look after us while we are here. We were also given our first drink of Kava. It is a root of a plant ground up and mixed with water and is a uniting drink the whole village take part in. Sunday was a day of relaxing as we didn’t attend church, instead we sunbathed.

Monday saw the qualified divers visit Kinder to become play toys for kids of the village. Whilst we were away the divers who were starting their dive training had a fun filled day of dive theory. So the first week has flown by and I hope the phase continues to be great fun.

Nat

Fiji-Phase 19- Week 7

2009-11-30T13:36:00.004Z

After weeks of training and studying we have finally started our surveying. Our first day began disastrously loosing equipment (but at least we were on time!). The staff generously gave us a second chance and after some practice we are now the best surveyors in Fiji!

This week has been a good week for wildlife with sightings of spinner dolphins, at which everyone on the boat chaotically belly flopped into the water. We also had our first boat trip to The Namena Marine Reserve. This site is teeming with amazing wildlife and scenery. Divers reported seeing numerous species of sharks, schools of barracudas, Napoleon Wrasse and various other super sized fish.

Saturday night brought the usual fun and games but was a bit over cast by the anticipation of Anna, Gemma and Jade’s departure (and of course the puppies!) departure. Luckily Karen was there to brighten the mood (shlimmy schlom!). Even though we felt a little worse for wear on Sunday morning with Vicky’s pancake breakfast lining our tummies we enthusiastically embraced a wet boat trip to the catholic village of Natokalau. Apparently Vicky is a confirmed catholic….. We were delighted to find a flushing toilet, short church service and a lovely buffet lunch. The village was beautiful and the locals were as friendly and hospitable as always.

On Monday morning there was a tearful farewell to Gemma, Jade and Anna as they set sail for civilisation a sad atmosphere set over camp but the arrival of post the next day brought much excitement (especially to Caroline who now has a very well stocked ration box!). Now that we are in our last couple of weeks we are trying to savour every minute and embrace the corned beef. But next week we look forward to more surveying, amazing new dive sites and the return of Jade and the puppies also congratulations to Ben and Eleanor who will be spending 10 more weeks in paradise as the trainees for next phase Whoop! Whoop!

Lots of love from the most amazing girls on camp Iselin and Lucy xxx

Fiji- Phase 19- Week 6

2009-11-23T15:52:00.003Z

Week 6 of our Fijian adventure has been strongly science orientated and great leaps forward have been made. We started the week with fish and invertebrate point dives, courtesy of Debs & Karen, where a big moray eel and a lionfish were spotted. By Thursday we were taking and mostly passing the invertebrates’ test, after some last minute cramming of lobsters, clams and nudibranchs. We moved onto coral (fire coral burns, don’t touch it!) and finally survey techniques, now practice surveys are practically ready to give way to real ones and the important work begins. Everyone is ready and raring to go surveying new and exciting sites. One of which, Gangster’s Paradise, we visited for our fun dive on Saturday, littered with fantastic coral formations and swim-through opportunities. The joint winner of spot of the week occurred on the return journey when Theresa saw a school of dolphins off the port side, Paul wheeled the boat around and we ended up with twenty spinner dolphins dancing around the bow of the boat, a magical moment for all. Sharing the limelight this week was Ben’s sighting of a 3m long Grey Reef Shark on a snorkel to the outer reef, which swam past us only 6m away, my reaction was simply ‘wow!’ That trip was topped off by getting a ride home in a boat from the Chief of Kubulau district’s brother. Other great underwater sights this week have included an octopus, a painted lobster, a lionfish and both green and hawksbill turtles.

On the human side of things this has been a week of parties with the Nu-rave party on Saturday night (most of the glow in the dark paint came off before church the next day) and birthdays for both Gemma & Eleanor. We celebrated Gemma’s with deep fried Mars bar doughnuts and a hand-painted card made by Hayleigh and Jade. For Eleanor’s 18th her mum in the village sent a flower decorated cake and she finished the day off with a girly sleepover (the guys slept outside, because we are manly). On the subject of food this has been another stellar week, I remain amazed by the dishes people can create from noodles and corned beef. Meal of the week was won by Swedish meatballs and spaghetti, although I must apologise as the identities of the chefs have escaped me. Bread creativity has peaked this week with a garlic flatbread and Siân’s onion and herb focaccia. Eleanor’s pineapple fritters were a mid-afternoon treat on Tuesday, our thanks to her mum for the pancake batter. Paul’s return from Savusavu on Saturday morning brought further merriment, as he brought not only fresh vegetable rations but also our personal rations (many bags of cookies, chocolate, coke the little and sometimes not-so-little luxuries we crave) and the gifts of sugar, flour and the like we brought for our village families who take care of us so well.

We were back in Navatu this Sunday for church and lunch, as ever we were glad to be back in our own village, where the great food & better company makes the day fly by. This is especially true when the early high tide meant we had to rush back if we wanted to remain dry (Helen G got back to the very last corner, within sight of camp). The new oven on camp (Paul got bored and 15 minutes later had decapitated the old one with a hammer and chisel) was thoroughly tested on Monday to create a taste of England in the form of fish and chips, although you would struggle to find Pacific Walu baked with lime leaves and garlic butter in any local chippy back home.

A sad moment this week was Ben & Adam’s discovery of dead hawksbill turtle in the shallows, although this was tempered by the sheer fascination of being able to examine such a fantastic creature up close. Walks up the hill behind camp have been the order of the week, with many people undertaking the actually quite easy climb to the utterly breath taking views one way along the main land towards Savusavu and the other out to sea with the reef laid out in front of you in all it’s glory every contour visible beneath the low tide. All made even more spectacular by the continued improvement in the weather, summer is defiantly here, the winds have dropped and the blazing sunshine has been the order of the week.

Finally our congratulation to our most injury prone volunteer Colin who is back in the water after dislocating his shoulder although on his first time back in the water he managed to swim into a jellyfish. Song of the week goes to Ryan’s rendition of ‘I believe I can fly’ which helped his quiz team the Power Rangers to victory on Thursday. We will give Rob the last word with his quote ‘I’m not scared of Triggerfish, I’m just ready to fight them’ (it was in fact 2 inches long).

Adam

Fiji Phase 19- Week 4-5

2009-11-17T17:00:00.006Z

Wednesday saw the start of fish points with a house reef snorkel, and also a jubilant Theresa and Ciaran as they passed their open water dives. A few of us headed off to the outer reef, enjoying some duck diving into the many holes and crevices making up the reef, a Hawksbill turtle came along for company. Thursday was the start of size estimations measuring sticks underwater with a 20% margin of error; some took to it better than others.

Saturday was Colin’s birthday which was a great end to the week considering a hammock incident. Halloween was also a highlight complete with a staff Addams Family, scary spice, Harry Potter, pirate, skeleton, failed surgery patient and many more. After a Sunday in Navatu, Monday saw the entrance of bad weather and a very strong drift dive at Lovers.

Ellen sadly left on Thursday, but Thursday also saw our first fundraiser in Namalata where there was a flushing toilet! The Kava was broken out early, as was the guitars, leading to a very fun afternoon all for a good cause.

Friday meant ladies night and Guy Fawkes. The ladies from the village arrived with cake in hand and we put on the tea, we partied the night away with games including pass the parcel, bingo, a lot of dancing, limbo and musical statues. Our effigy was burnt and the Fireworks came out and it was a great show that the whole island could hear! The highlight of the night was when the ladies broke the bench next to the volleyball court, maybe it should be ‘eat less’ from now on.

Saturday saw some amazing dives at Ariels; Sam spotted 5 sharks along with some turtles. Sunday lead us to Raviravi for church and Kava. Ciaran’s birthday treat came in the form of the opportunity to serve the Kava and he rose to the challenge on his special day.

Chris

Bahamas- October 09 Weeks 1-3

2009-11-10T13:35:00.004Z

Week 1

From my point of view this was the beginning of paradise. We arrived at the Greenforce camp with a lot of nerves due to the fact that this was a completely new experience for all of us as well as not knowing anyone else.

For the first few days on camp we learnt about the rules and regulations and adjusted our bodies to the heat and time difference, which is bliss!

Once we got comfortable to our surroundings we began diving. Half of the group already had some sort of diving qualification. So in week 1 we did check dives just to refresh our memories and our basic diving skills. The others began their open water training.

Learning how to cook good bread for lunch was a great way for the group to work together and tasted amazing. Overall week one was exciting and interesting as we got to know the other volunteers that were with us. We also got to know the three leaders of the camp and slowly eased our way into camp life.

Week 2

All the guys that started their open water qualification managed to complete it all with flying colours. We also learnt about the marine life in the Bahamas and the fish that are a part of that ecosystem which was very interesting.

When the weather is bad for diving we usually venture out. On a couple of days the wind picked up so we went up north to Morgan’s Bluff. Here we were given an insight into the history of Andros. We also went to a blue hole called Captain Bills where every volunteer loved jumping off the five meter diving platform which was fun!

Throughout the week we were lucky enough to get to swim with dolphins sharks and rays which were amazing. Some of the group started their advanced open water course this week. On Thursday we went to a local school and taught them about basic marine life. We were teaching children between 6 and 10 years old which many of you may know can be terror but sweet at the same time.

Despite the weather we did manage to get a lot of dives in. On the weekend we managed to try a new sport called free diving. This is diving without a tank and only holding your breath, which the whole team did well and continued practising through the day.

Week3

At the beginning of week three we went on a military base called AUTEC. Here our leader gave a presentation on the marine ecosystem of the Bahamas to the school children. We also had lunch and dinner there which was amazing as food on camp is very basic.

The weather for the next few days did not look good so our leader decided to start our EFR course. It was a very interesting course and we often had a laugh doing it. We also went to the famous Androsia shop on the island and many of us bought wild clothes for the fun nights.

Mid week we saw dolphins on a snorkel on the shore just off camp. It was exciting and many of us swam with them again which is an experience of a life time especially being so close to camp. We managed to get some dives in and these were very exciting too as we got to see a couple of nurse sharks.

Everyone did more fish revising and the rest of the group managed to complete their Advanced Open Water course. Now everyone is comfortable in the water and can’t wait to do more diving and surveying.

Adrian Williams

Bahamas- October 09

2009-11-05T17:42:00.003Z

A Day in the Life of a GMRS Volunteer

Settling into life on camp has been easy for everyone on our phase, certainly for me at least. We have a pretty solid routine here. On weekdays we’re up at 8, just a shade after sunrise (unless you are the unlucky one making porridge, then it is half 7).

Straight after breakky, weather permitting we can get some diving in. I don’t worry too much about the weather though, I’ve logged 28 dives in a month and my tan is looking (in the words of our Scotsman Laurie) “Braw”!

By lunchtime everyone is ready to eat a horse – we don’t have a horse, so noodles will have to do! That is, unless it’s Wednesday, when we have a treat – Pizza. We make it from scratch; in fact, we make bread 3 times a week if you include the pizza base.

After lunch we squeeze in some more diving, unless it’s Thursday, then we go to the local primary school, and try to teach the kids about marine life. I say try because sometimes they can be quite a handful, but you can’t fault their enthusiasm!

In between the diving, cooking and eating, we learn about the fish of the reef. For me there is not much more satisfying than seeing a fish and actually knowing what it is. It’s only been a month but I know my Grunts from my Snappers, Wrasses from Blennies, Groupers from Parrots and many more.

Come evening time, we always cook up a feast. Everyone puts a lot of effort into dinner, which is a moral booster. It’s amazing how much variety we’ve thought up considering the basic foods; it’s even better if we’ve speared a Lionfish and can have a little starter (the Lionfish taste superb).

The action doesn’t stop after dinner, there is always something going on. I love going with the staff down to the dock to see if we can spot some Lemon Sharks in the Creek.

At the end of a long day, I crawl into my mosquito net and sleep like a baby – got it all to do again tomorrow!

Alex Sapple

Fiji- Phase 19- Week 3

2009-10-30T15:03:00.004Z

Bula all!

This week has been a great week for creativity in the kitchen- highlights including Charlotte’s meal of the week corned beef meatballs (genius considering corned beef is a cow in a blender), Anna’s birthday meal of chips, baked beans and chocolate cake and pizza with REAL CHEESE!!
So the week started off on Tuesday with an adventure to the sand spit, which is a 40 min walk round from camp. The weather was beautiful and some amazing photos were taken jumping in the air. We slept out on the deck and stayed up till 12 to celebrate Anna’s 23rd birthday.

Our great newbie (Ciaran) arrived on Wednesday morning and saw straight through our rumours of Hayliegh previously being a man and 3am rat patrols. In the evening we celebrated Anna’s birthday by playing old school party games- twister being a lot of fun.
Thursday- we’re qualified divers yay! We finished our PADI open water with dives at lovers. The almighty blue bure won the weekly quiz- which was slightly easier than the previous week’s medical round.

On Saturday everyone went on an amazing dive to Ariels- highlights included seeing a loggerhead turtle and a white tip reef shark. Saturday night was party night and the theme was Rubik cube which involved many clothing changes throughout the evening with the aim of becoming one colour. Much fun was had by all- you gotta love the bounty!
Sunday- feeling slightly worse for wear we set off in the boat to the village of Kiobo, where we went to church, ate Fijian food and had our afternoon siesta. The rest of the afternoon was dominated by a long kava session in which we were lucky enough to be serenaded by Tui Kubulau who sang many songs from his days at Castaway Resort.

On Monday we pressed on with our Advanced PADI course, which included us doing a navigation dive off the shore and a night dive. There was also a trip to kindergarten in the morning in our village Navatu and we taught the kids the Hokey Kokey.
Tuesday; another section of our advanced was completed the deep dive going to 25m which was amazing.

Lots of love,
Anna and Charlotte
Peace out!

Phase 18 Report- Fiji

2009-10-30T14:38:00.003Z

Nukubalavu, Kubulau

Phase 18

Staff:
Paul Hinchliffe – Expedition Leader; Dive Instructor
Jade Chittenden – Dive Instructor
Deborah Blaik – Chief Scientist
Karen Smith – Assistant Scientist
Hayleigh Kelway – Trainee
Josh Rowe – Trainee
Rachael Harrison – Medic
Paula Veileqe– Divemaster

Volunteers:
Will Lake, James Fluker, Emily Jenkinson, Ben Thyer, Amy Darby, Ben Swatton, Chloe Whitfield, Meilyr “Gywn” Dixey, Alex Gilby, Sarah Drake, Brad Rogers, Vicky Sinclair, Dani Hayes, Suzanne Roach, Holly Truszkowska, Kristy Foale, Allyce Miller.

Village Life
Our first trip to the Navatu this phase was for Kaya’s 1st birthday party, we were lucky to spend this time in the village celebrating.
Most of our Sundays were spent in Navatu with our families, we did however visit Natokalau and Kiobo for church.
We attended fundraisers in Navatu, Natokalau and also Kilaka, a village we hadn’t visited in over 2 years. Kilaka is the furthest village from us in the district so on this trip we spent the night in the village. On all three occasions there was plenty of food, kava and dancing!

Our village of Navatu held a rugby sevens tournament at Kubulau District School, there were teams from not only our own district but the whole of Vanua Levu. It was a brilliant two day event, the biggest the district has seen in years, the ladies from our village put in a lot of effort cooking for the hundreds of people who came to watch. Sadly Navatu didn’t win but we did manage to come in second place.

For the first time since Greenforce has been in Kubulau we visited the village Cogea in the nearby district of Wainunu, the village is situated up the Wainunu river. As we were unannounced we took kava for a sevusevu and the villagers showed us the hot springs. They then kindly invited us to stay for a kava session with lots of kava, music and dancing, which is generally the theme of most parties here.
The last village event we attended was Paula’s sister wedding in Raviravi. It was very interesting experience to witness a traditional Fijian wedding, but sad to see Siliva leaving our village.
Navatu rugby team
Sightings:
We had a lot of amazing sightings this phase from tiny little seahorses to massive rays.
On a few occasions dolphins were spotted, we even got up close when they swam by the bow of the boat. There were also 2 sightings of a giant reef ray, which had a 2m wingspan and a manta ray breaching on the horizon.
This was also the first phase this year where multiple octopus were found on our own house reef.
Sadly a sperm whale beached itself further up the coast by Kilaka, a couple of the staff then had the opportunity to photograph and help to measure the whale, for WCS. It was 16m in length and by the time we arrived the locals were already removing the prized teeth.
On a positive note at the very end of phase on the way to Namena a couple of Humpback whales were spotted in the distance. One was also spotted migrating through the channel right outside of camp as it breached totally out of the water – Amazing!
On top of all this during the phase we also were lucky enough to see Giant Moray eels, the endangered Humphead wrasse and a few different species of sharks, including a 10ft Zebra shark, which has never been seen before by anyone here at Greenforce.
Beached Sperm Whale

Training and Surveying:
The dive training this phase went really well, a couple of days of bad weather meant that the confined water dives took a few more days than expected but we caught up and everyone was certified during week three.
The science training went smoothly and for the first time we managed to get the 6 weekers in for a few survey dives before they had to leave camp. The science training was the same as last phase with fish species and families being learnt along with invertebrates and coral lifeforms.

With a small number of volunteers this phase everyone got to survey almost every site (including the staff). We managed to collect all the data for both Reef Check and FLMMA and had it sent off before phase had even ended.

This phase started with 17 volunteers but by the end there was only 6 left so the last couple of weeks on camp were rather quiet but no less eventful, everyone made some brilliant friends and they will all miss the Fijian way of life.

Fiji Phase 19- Week 1-2

2009-10-28T12:30:00.004Z

Week 1

Arrival in Fiji on the 6th October went smoothly considering the size of the group, with only a little bit of baggage trouble. Though a handful had been staying in Nadi, most of us were not so fresh after two days of travelling.

Our first destination after arrival was Savusavu where we experienced our last days of luxury before heading to camp and also had a chance to shop for those few essentials we’d miss before heading out. The journey across to camp on the 8th involved around 3 hours in the back of a truck driving along bumpy dirt roads with only wooden benches for posterior support. A lucky few, myself included, rode in the trucks with the bags and had a slightly more pleasant experience.

Bumpy road journeys were soon forgotten as we boarded the boat for the first time to be ferried over to camp. It was a short trip in perfect weather which put everyone in high spirits when we arrived. Excitement wasn’t over however, as a short time after making camp a tsunami warning sent us all up the hill for safety. Thankfully no killer wave materialised and we soon made our way down.
By Saturday the 10th we were more settled into camp and ready to go to the village for the first time to meet our families, be ceremoniously welcomed to the island and take our first taste of Kava. The villagers were wonderfully welcoming and delighted in filling us with all kinds of tea and cake, something which they continued throughout Sunday after we’d been to church.

Those qualified divers among us have been diving regularly including one night dive which Colin said was “the best dive ever”. The rest of us learning to dive have now finished our theory work and the skills from the first two confined water dives.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself so far and with the exception of some illness in camp, I think that everyone is happy and looking forward to the rest of their time in Fiji.

Sam

Week 2
October 12th; sun shining and a bit windy. Everyone passed their PADI Open Water theory test! Then the diving began for the new open water divers. However it didn’t last long due to windy weather. Spirits were lifted a couple of days later when the bug passed and the sun came out again!

On Thursday all volunteers became emergency first responders which prompted many ongoing jokes. We all still haven’t tired of saying “My name is ‘your name’, I’m a emergency first responder!! May I help you?” at even the most minor or ridiculous injury. For example when Vicky managed to get a coconut stuck on her finger!

Towards the end of the week half the open water divers passed the “open water diver test”. Everyone has taken to the Fijian way of life; on Fiji Time, spending time in our village at kinder and with our Fijian families and of course drinking Kava.

So far the days are flying by far too fast and no-one wants the experience to end. Lots of Love from Fiji.

Sîan & Vicky

Fiji- Phase 18- Week 6-7

2009-09-07T12:53:00.006+01:00

Phase 18 Blog- Week 6

We started the week with another birthday, this time it was Kristy’s turn to celebrate her special day on the island. We were taught the survey on land on the volleyball court before being put into the ocean to practice surveys on the house reef. We were excited to be putting all are hard learnt science into practise by starting real surveys around Kubulau, after a few ropey attempts we all got into the swing of it pretty well. Debs, Karen and Rachel also went on a trip to help identify a stranded whale that had died further up the coast, it turned out to be a 16m male sperm whale! The smell was VERY pungent when they returned!
Measuring the 16m (52ft) Sperm Whale.

This week we were lucky enough to have our first two fundraisers. Our first was in the village of Natokalau; we had great food, lots of Kava and even enjoyed sober dancing. The money raised that evening went towards an anchor for the youth group’s boat. The second was in our home village of Navatu where we raised money for an upcoming wedding, with Debs, Karen Ben S and James putting in a truly amazing performance drinking Kava well after the others had left for bed!
Saturday was the day of camp clean and fun dives. We got to go to ‘Shark Attack’ (it’s just a name, HONEST!) where we had an awesome drift dive. The food that night was also awesome with beef burgers on the menu following fish and chips earlier in the week courtesy of Paul’s fishing skills- it was a good week for food where we were spoilt rotten! Saturday night we had a Leavers Ball for the six weekers leaving; Kristy, Amy, Ben S and Allyce.
After a Sunday spent in Navatu Monday morning came round all too quickly and it was time for the six weekers to start the journey home, which was emotional for everyone, especially as the rest of us followed Kristy’s goodbye treasure hunt she had set up before heading home. Luckily the week finished on a high note with the return of Gwyn our Medforce volunteer from his 10 day placement at the hospital in Savusavu. But even with his return camp still felt very empty =(

James and Will

Phase 18 Blog- Week 7

The week started with surveys but due to rough weather conditions dives were cancelled. This gave us time to relax in the sun and play some volleyball. Thursday and Friday we all went to the Kubalau 7’s Rugby Tournament, which was two exciting days watching rugby teams from all over Vanua Levu including our very own volunteer Ben playing for the Navatu 3rd team. There was a lot of nice food and of course Kava. A particular highlight was bread and jam. Lots of new friends were made, especially with the North Fijian army who friendly invited us to sit in their tent on day two. Sadly Navatu didn’t win but came second taking away $500, which was donated to the church.
Afternoon nap in the Fijian Army’s tent Navatu 1st’s vs. Natokalau in the semi final

Saturday was another amazing day. With the sea conditions still rough Paul took us down the Wainunu River and we visited a local village. As we were unannounced we took Kava for a Sevusevu and the villagers showed us to the hot fresh water pools then kindly invited us to stay for a Kava session. This included lots of Kava, music and sober dancing. We then went back to a nice spot along the river bank for lunch and swimming.
Farewell from the villagers as we set off for a picnic on the Wainunu River
Saturday night Jade made us chilli and garlic bread. What a treat! Then as always party night commenced with a pub quiz. Sunday we went to Navatu for church. In the afternoon there was Kava and cake to celebrate the rugby and Ben presented the prize money to the church. Monday morning was camp clean and then in the afternoon a fun dive at Lovers. That night the ration run returned with all our goodies which was the perfect end to a great week.

Dani

Fiji- Phase 18

2009-08-26T11:15:00.002+01:00

Phase 18 Blog- Week 1

The phase started with a pretty cool beginning! 12 of us ended up meeting in Nadi airport and were disappointed when our flight to Labasa was cancelled due to the plane breaking. We were all tired and hungry and were pleased to hear the airline was giving us accommodation and food until the flight to Labasa the next day. The hotel was amazing with good food, air-conditioned rooms and a big pool. After a relaxing day and night at the hotel we were split up and put on three different flights to Labasa. The next morning we were met by the last member of the group- Brad. That day we went into Labasa to buy some much needed items- Bula dresses and pocket Sulu. That night we ate out at a restaurant in Labasa. The next morning we got up VERY early and did not have the best start to the morning with lamb sausages for breakfast! We all piled into the truck for the 5 hour journey to the nearest point on land to our camp. The journey was fairly eventful with a punctured tire and having to get out to push the truck out of the mud! We were met by Paul- Expedition Leader- who took us on a 5 minute boat journey to our island. As we drifted towards camp we were met by the friendly trainees Hayleigh and Josh who gave us a tour of camp. That evening was spent stargazing on the decking.
The next morning we enjoyed porridge for breakfast! Hayleigh and Josh showed us how to do all the camp jobs and we all worked together to make a sandy path to the toilet during a tropical rainstorm. In the afternoon we went for a snorkel and had a swim test. We also began reading our PADI manuals. Since it was a Saturday, the night was spent playing drinking games and lying on the decking! On Sunday we lazed about in the sun reading our dive manuals. On Monday we were joined by the three medics Alex, Gwyn and Sarah!

By Suz and Amy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 2

The week begun watching the very exciting PADI videos! The already qualified divers enjoyed diving on the house reef. On Tuesday we all went to the village of Navatu for our sevu sevu (welcoming ceremony). For most of us it was our first taste of Kava. This was the day that we met our Fijian families! By Wednesday we all had our completed our dive theory test! We all had a brilliant time in Navatu attending a birthday party. The women in the village prepared a feast of fresh fish, pork and many other traditional Fijian dishes. In the evening fun was had by all with Kava, singing and dancing! On Thursday and Friday the water was too choppy to complete our confined water dives. However, the qualified divers managed to fit in a few shore dives. We also had some lectures on fish anatomy, coral ecology and special species! Friday night was Steve’s last night so a few of us joined in with a goodbye Kava ceremony. On Saturday the water was finally calm and we started our confined water dives. Sadly we said goodbye to Steve. On Sunday we went to church for the first time. After church we all went back to our family’s houses for lunch and an afternoon nap!

Amy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 3

By week 3 everyone had completed their open water dives and we all started and finished the PADI advanced theory in one day! We started working on our advanced dives: boat, deep, drift, night and navigation dives and everybody did well! On Friday it was our first ladies night’ when the ladies from Navatu came to camp for an evening of fun. Many games were played including limbo, twister and musical statues. Everybody had fun and the ladies brought round some delicious cakes!
On Saturday we travelled by boat to the local school to watch the rugby. Some of us joined in with a friendly game of netball and football and Ben T and James were lucky enough to participate in a rugby game with the local team. On Saturday we had a pub quiz and played bure wars. We all dressed up in our bure’s colours and undertook challenges, it was a good night! On Sunday it was a trip round to the village for church lunch and a well needed nap.

Suz
Phase 18 Blog- Week 4

On the first day of week 4, Brad left us and we celebrated Jade’s birthday. We began our lectures studying fish and then invertebrates. We needed to learn some fish to species and others just to family. The 5th August was a MOMENTOUS occasion as Kristy and Vicky spotted a seahorse whilst washing up in the rock pools in front of camp. It’s the first time a volunteer has ever spotted one!
The week was filled with fish and invert point dives and snorkelling lessons. During our spare time, we would be revising. This week we also performed our size estimation dives. This is where volunteers have to estimate the size of many pieces of tubing suspended on ropes between 2 buoys located in the inner reef. This must be completed correctly 3 times with only 20% error in order to pass.
Friday nights dinner was AMAZING- Jade and Karen made beef burgers in fresh bread with fried eggs! This week also saw the beginning of salt water showers as we are out of fresh showering water! On the fun dive on Saturday the second boat had dolphins swimming alongside it which was incredible!
Saturdays night’s theme was ‘Superheroes’, costumes ranged from ‘Wonder Woman’ to ‘Wolverine’ and even saw the appearance of new superheroes such as ‘The Stranglers’. On Sunday, we visited a new village named Natokalau. It’s a beautiful village that practises Catholicism which meant the church service was short and sweet in a beautiful little church. A sevusevu was performed to welcome us to the village, so Kava was being drunk throughout the day. A great lunch was cooked for us including fresh fish, chips and tomato ketchup! On Monday there was the first sighting of the octopus in the inner reef by Allyce, James and Ben S. Today was also the day the staff went to the mainland and bought us back our ration items.

Kristy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 5

Another week rolls on with the return of Paul and a new arrival Rach! If only mozzie bites weren’t so itchy! Scratching = legs full of holes = no diving! This week also brought about the first two Namena days! Namena is a diving area about 40mins away from Nukubalavu (our camp), where everything is just more bigger and better! Forget spending dive after dive searching for big fish, in Namena you can’t avoid them. Half the group have also been lucky enough to see Humphead Wrasse! We also celebrated the 2nd birthday of the phase (Happy Birthday Hayls!), so we decided to head up the hill from camp and take in the view of the whole reef. Looking out from the top we could have easily been looking at a postcard the view was so amazing. Whilst most of us headed straight back down the hill, Will, James and Josh had other ideas and went for a trek through the jungle over the hills and found logs for the evening’s birthday fire. We finished the birthday celebrations on Saturday night with a super-awesome Nu rave party. BRING ON THE GLOW PAINT! A good night was had by all! The normal Sunday visit to the village was the perfect way to recover from the week- CAKE!

Will and James

Fiji- Phase 17

2009-07-09T10:04:00.001+01:00

Phase 17
Week 7
3rd – 9th June

Week 7 began with bad weather, which led to postponed diving – gutting! Boat diving was also off as Nic the Nurse being taken to Savusavu Hospital with an infection to the leg. With this, the staff took the opportunity to teach everyone back at camp the Survey techniques used for monitoring the reefs of Kubulau. The following day, with the weather failing to improve, the staff decided to go get a ration run done. In a successful attempt to brighten spirits, an idea of buying a pig from the village and spit roasting it was put to the group, to which everyone (veggies not included!) jumped at! The pig was huge! It was brought to camp and everything was prepared here, just as the villagers themselves would do. Our homemade spit was impressive, and with much help from the boys from Navatu, we subsequently cooked and ate what was the nicest meal on camp by far!!
On Friday, we went to Raviravi village for our second Fundraiser. In the village we played Volleyball and touch Rugby with the villagers. It turns out we are not as good as we thought! The weekend began with a chilled out day for some, and the beginnings of a PADI Rescue Diver Course for others. After a wee rest, those not doing the Rescue Diver Course went on a shore dive.
On Sunday we went to Navatu village for church in the morning and spent time with our adopted families.
The week ended with a pickup in the weather, which whilst lifting spirits, held the promise of better things to come.

Richard & Ed

Phase 17
Week 8
10th – 16th June

Bula everyone, my name is Tomb! It’s my turn to do the blog for this phase and we’re on week 8!

On Wednesday morning a group of us decided to get up at 04:00 in the morning to see the Morning Star or ‘Volasiga’ as it’s known in Fijian (It’s also the name of one of the camp dogs). It was a cloudy night and all you could see was the moon and this huge star rising from the east. It was pretty magical.
It was also Emily’s birthday that day and we made her a card and a cake which we cooked in our concrete drum oven. Trainee was also chosen for Phase 18.
On the Thursday, we woke up to terrible weather and the water was too choppy to take the boat out so all the dives were cancelled. With nothing to do, we decided to play Assassins! This is where everyone writes down a place, a weapon and your name. You then put all these in separate cups and everyone pulls out a person they have to kill, a place where they must kill them and a weapon they must use to accomplish this task. Unfortunately somebody was ‘murdered’ in the first 10 minutes and for everyone else, paranoia just set in! The rest of the day was spent playing darts, Celebrity and just chilling out.
Friday we had a few drinks as the next day we were having a sleepover in another village called Nadivakarua. It was a pirate theme so everyone had stripy clothes, moustaches and bandannas. Mikey had a Fijian style wooden leg, it was awesome. Some went as ‘ladies’ of Tortuga. Lots of pictures were taken it was a mad night, I can’t remember much.
Saturday was an amazing day. First we went to the local school to watch a Rugby tournament between the men from different villages. We ate samosas & rotti parcels which were made by the ladies from all the villages and were soooo tasty. We also had a game of football against the Fijians to open up the days games. We won 3-0, no surprise there!!! But we were all knackered afterwards due to the heat and all being really unfit!! After the days games, we got a truck to Nadivakarua, an awesome village 20 minutes drive from the school. We all slept in this massive house which had a huge veranda, and a flushing toilet! Outside in the village, they had this huge concrete giraffe fountain. The food was so good; we had 2 types of fish, prawns, and really hot chillies. Then we all got on the Kava and had a jamming session with Tui Kubulau, dancing & singing passing the hours too quickly. It was such a laugh and a really good night that we’ll all remember.
On Sunday we had Church in the village and then went back to camp. The truck journey back was mad, riding at 40mph we were sliding everywhere in the wet mud, it was seriously bumpy!
On Monday, the 8 weekers who were leaving the next day said goodbye to their families then had kava back at camp listening to some Reggae music. Good times!
Tuesday the 8 weekers left, Michael, Nat & Miriam, we gave them leaving cards, all the girls cried! It’s okay because we had lentil burgers for dinner, which is the best dinner!!

Phase 17
Week 9
17th – 23rd June

So with surveys well under way, it was time to get as much completed as possible (weather permitting!). Coming into week nine we had half the surveys completed and it looked promising to get all the surveying finished. However, the weather was looking to take a massive turn for the worse come Friday and as such we all pulled together to make a huge push in making sure we could get as many survey boats out as possible while things were good. In a matter of 2 days we got 12 survey boats out. A record number of dives and an awesome effort by Vols & Staff combined. The days were long, tiring, and tough with tides and currents working against us, but let’s face it; we might as well be Superheroes, because we nailed it!
Although the surveying hasn’t been completed this phase, we got as much done as possible with only a few transects needing to be followed up next phase.
The remainder of the week was fitting in fun dives whenever the wind allowed us, trying out new sites such as Tables & Bowls; a site never dived before. It was abundant in Tabular corals that just engulfed the sea bed as well as having many a swim through. It was a sight to remember!
Friday night brought along our second ladies night of the phase. It was our time to say thank you for everything they have done, cook for them and play some party games. Sadly, our food never lives up to the food prepared by the ladies, but hey, we tried! The night was awesome, we danced, we laughed and we all parted with smiles on our faces!!
Saturday was Mr Rowes’ birthday. It was THE shit! The end
Sunday we were off to Navatu for our final church service. As always, the hospitality was second to none. However, due to a Kava ban by the Methodist church in Fiji, Sundays have been short as there are no grog sessions for the whole of June…..upsetting to say the least!!! We love the Grog!!

Josh, Hayleigh & Steve

Phase 17
Week 10
24th June – 1st July

Crazy weather in our last week wasn’t going to bring us down, so we decided to party like we were in primary school. Out popped the games. Doing fake subjects (Theatre) and working on kiddie camps came in handy and out popped out squirt, wink murder and Zip Zap Boing. Just goes to show that all you really need for a good time is good friends and a little imagination.
Thursday was a good day, with a busy and emotional weekend ahead; this was the last big night. Paul sorted us out with real meat, and the cooking operation started. Can anyone think of a better meal than steak, onion rings, jacket potatoes and beans all coated in butter. Real butter. Not bloody Marg. To top of the night we cracked a couple of bevies, and a cracking night ensued. Good music, good food and good company, it’s what dreams are made of. To know it’s your last night with the family that you have lived with for nigh on 3 months is emotional but it beats any night out down your local.
Saturday was our last visit to the school for some rugby. Another monster win for the Greenforce football side (2-1) and the biggest rugby tournament to date. More samosas, rotti parcels, and my first taste of wee wee. Delicious.
After getting camped packed up we made our way to Savusavu, a veritable haven of full English breakfasts, pizzas and most importantly cold beer. After working hard on our food babies we got on the ferry for our last move. Off the ferry and straight on to a bus and a 4 hour ride to Nadi. First port of call was the bar, closely followed by the pool. That night we hit up the hard rock café! Never has a humble burger tasted so sweet. By the time we had finished I don’t think there was a single person who could move for the ridiculous amount they had eaten. On one of the Numerous nights out, at the infamous Ed’s bar, a couple of early leavers got to meet the Samoan rugby team, and keyed off the night in style.
The last days were some of the most emotional we have ever encountered and possibly the saddest goodbyes we will ever have to say. But knowing to be so hard makes it all the more special, and is a credit to the friendships made. This experience has brought a random group of people, from all walks of life, together. And although the phase is over the friendships aren’t. Here’s to phase 17, Good times.

Josh

Fiji update

2009-06-19T17:10:00.005+01:00

Phase 17: Week 1- 21^st April -28^th April 2009

Wednesday:
All the volunteers arrived at Nadi bay! We all got together and got to know each other by the pool. We did a brief intro on what the next few weeks had in store for them and Steve and I showed up in normal camp attire - Sulus. That night we all went and had a big meal at the Bounty Bar and filled the whole place!
Thursday:
After a heavy night at Eds bar I had to take the volunteers to buy there Bula shirts, Bula dresses, pocket sulus and other bits and bobs. That night we went to pizza king!
Friday/Saturday:
After a night on the ferry we arrived in Savu Savu where we then got our supplies of food. (That’s a lot of porridge!!) We then started the 3 hour truck journey leaving civilisation behind us. It was good fun! We got stuck in the mud numerous times and had to get out and push the truck but we finally got to Nukubalavu, our home for the rest of phase, only 5 hours after we set out!!
Sunday:

Sunday was our “spag out” day, we set up camp, sanding paths, setting up our bures and settling in, getting to know each other a little better!.
Monday:
The volunteers set off for our local village, Navatu, for our Sevu Sevu (asking permission to stay on their land, being accepted into the village and apologising for anything we may do in the next 10 weeks that offends them). The first test of being accepted into the village was experiencing grog (kava) for the first time!
Tuesday:
It was time for the volunteers to get wet! They had to swim 300 meters and tread water for a few minutes to pass the fitness test and they are now all set to start their Open Water course.

Love Always

Rosser the Trainee

Phase 17: Week 2- 29^th April – 5^th May 2009

Everyone is settled into camp life and so begins all the dive training. With Paul, Jade and our new Instructor Will.I.Am, the volunteers are put through their paces and introduced to the weird feeling of breathing underwater! The Instructors work extremely hard taking one group in after another to the point that they must have aged 50 years by the looks of their wrinkly skin!! Luckily though, we are situated right on the beach and all training diving is done from shore.

Saturday brought about my 24^th birthday. All the volunteers woke up at 06:00 to sand the path to my bure (I live on a hill and it was no easy task!). Buckets of sand falling to the ground 2ft from my face (I’m passed out! Beauty sleep is a necessity!). I then get woken by every one having written ‘Happy Birthday Steve’ in the sand with shells and singing Happy Birthday as I stumble down my nice new path. The staff pooled together and bought me a Guitar (I love it….and I love them!). Throughout the day, we all get a dive in and we prepare our costumes for the Adam & Eve/Back to Nature Party! Hundreds of Doughnut balls are made….some are stuffed full of chocolate (did I mention I love these people?!). Feeling fat…we party, and as the first proper Saturday night on camp, its loud, its crazy, it’s an absolute freefall but definitely a night to remember!

As always, hangovers are always best spent asking for forgiveness in church the next day! :-/ And once again we return to Namalata. Namalata seems to host the first church service of every month where several villages come together and spend time with each other. This always proves to be an awesome event; the food, the singing, the Kava. We are part of this community and it’s what we love about the place. However, the first service of the month is particularly long and the faces of some volunteers were begging for the end!!

Monday, we, as always, run a playschool for the kids in Navatu village. Thankfully, the kids are on a 2 week holiday from School (as usually they board throughout the week) and as such, playschool is heaving! The volunteers had their work cut out for them, but, with a few crayons, and an origami lesson, they’re rewarded with a shed load of cake!

All in all, it’s been a brilliant week for the volunteers to blend into life out here and they’ve all put so much effort in. There seems to be an awesome bond this phase between the volunteers and the community here!

Steve Fitzpatrick

Assistant Scientist

Phase 17: Week 3- 6^th May – 12^th May

The third week started with half the group attempting both deep and navigational dives for their advanced dive course. By the end of the week all divers had attained advanced open water status! YAY!
However, the single greatest achievement of the week, was the production of lentil burgers, by those on dinner duty (including me, cat) it was the greatest meal so far, although it took 3 hours to make!
Saturday was a day of rest and fun dives, followed by the weekly Saturday night booze fest. The theme was 60’s and 70’s with some of the team remembering these eras better than others (Pops).

Sunday, whilst normally a day of rest was spent celebrating mothers day with are adopted Fijian families. We dare you to eat as much tea and cake as we did. We attended 2 church services and were entertained by a Fijian rendition of what we think was the story of Moses. It was an excellent day all round. Monday morning half the group went to kinder whilst the other unlucky half had to clean camp, after this, fish lectures began, wish us luck in identifying fish that look EXACTLY the same.

Pops & Cat

Phase 17: Week 5- 20^th – 26^th May

EFR course completed
Fundraiser to Kiobo
Met the Chief of Kubulau
Thunder & rain on Friday/beautiful sunshine come Monday
1^st Namena trip
Watched Twilight on movie night
Palm tree fell down – Kodak moment for a Phase photo
Fish Identification points

Another week gone & its hard to believe we’re nearly at the halfway point! Many of us have lovely tans to show for our month in the sun. Some of us do not!!

The weather has been funny this week; monsoon like rain drenched us on the way to a village fundraiser at Kiobo. However, by the end, it had redeemed itself with gorgeous sunshine come Sunday. The weather was so beautiful today (Monday) that the first lucky few divers got to take a trip out to Namena. They were all on such a high when the came back, telling tales of turtles, sharks and amazing water visibility that had the rest of us drooling. Hopefully the 2^nd visit will not be too far away!

Another high point of the week was our fundraiser in Kiobo on the Friday. Due to the weather it was not the outdoorsy event we had imagined, but sitting in a small room with a tin roof, drinking lots of Kava, eating cake and dancing was more fun than anyone could have hoped for! We’ve got some real movers and shakers amongst us it seems, and everyone was happy to see ‘THE GUNS’ make an appearance (Naka Sonic!) The chief of Kubulau joined us for the evening - now there’s a man who loves his music! He invited a few of us to sing along and (after an initial panic) much fun was had by all. Everyone agreed it was a great night!

Lily & Steph

Phase 17: Week 6- 27^th May – 2^nd June

This week has been an eventful one, filled with fish, coral and invertebrates revision and yet more size estimation dives!! The weekend started with a game of ‘Capture the Flag’, fortunately no major injuries, just a few cuts and bruises. Saturday night was the last night for the 6 weekers. We had ‘Bure wars’ with various games. “Good organised fun!” The first game was spin stick. This involved drinking beer from a snorkel, spinning around and running across the volleyball court whilst wearing fins.

However, ‘beer pong’ (played with beer caps) drew the biggest crowds, ending in a show down between Paul & Jade for the staff team, against George & Josh from the Chill Out Bure. It was a tense game but George & Josh won, putting the Chill Out Bure in the lead, with the Staff coming in a close second. Good effort guys.

The 6 weekers departed on Sunday morning. It was surreal to wave goodbye to them and it hasn’t properly sunk in that they’ve gone. They won’t be forgotten. The mood was picked up for Nurse Nic’s birthday. We made flap jacks, a rare treat and a better use for porridge oats!

We’ve started learning survey techniques, so it shouldn’t be long until we’re in the water. Everyone is now busy studying for fish tests. Hopefully we all pass this week. Wish us luck!

Annabelle & Hayleigh

Day 21-25 Nepal Annapurna Trek

2009-06-08T13:18:00.002+01:00

So after our inspiring week staying with the families in Chitwan, the group split, with about half travelling back to Kathmandu to commence the Everest Trek; while the others travel to Pochura for the start of the Annapurna Trail. After a week of 100% Dhal Bhat, the Annapurna crew got stuck in to some overdue Western style eating and shopping, even managing to squeeze in a very English picnic in the middle of a road island. Very scenic indeed. Before leaving the comforts of tourist town, the group began to mentally prepare for the trekking ahead.The first day of trekking was relatively simple, in respect that the direction of travel wasn't continually upwards. Even the hot, midday sun was defeated with a 'mountain fresh' dip in the glacier river. After several hours walking we pulled up to the tea house where we would retire. After a sweat-busting shower, the group gathered to play cards. Next day was literally the stairway to heaven. With the direction up, up, up; the day was a definate thigh and bum muscle workout. General chat and singing did make the day pass. However the thought of bed and Nepalease tea more than spurred most on. Now at our highest altitude so far, the group manged to pull together for a 4am start, where we would travel up Poon Hill to get a spectacular, panoramic sunrise view of the Annapurna range. Unfortunately, the British weather crept in, but even with some cloud on the horizon, it was still well worth the extra effort. Little did we know it wasn't the early start that had this day marked; but the ongoing battle against the leeches. Though only several centimetres long, they proved more than mighty enough to make these hard-worn trekkers squirm!The group will contine for several more days in order to reach Annapurna Base Camp, and already we have seen numerous ecosystems and cultures of these mountainous regions. Who's to say what will await in the upcoming days?

Project Report Bahamas 1st Quarter 2009

2009-04-03T15:06:00.004+01:00

Quarterly Report: 1st Quarter 2009. GMRS Phase 5, January – April.

Current Personnel:
Jason Kincaid – Station Manager and PADI Dive Instructor,
Kate Barley MSc – Chief Marine Scientist, Station Manager and PADI Dive Instructor,
Mark Tilley BSc – Assistant Marine Scientist, Paul Fuller – Trainee.
Volunteers: Stewart Morton, Katie Maurina, Liz Slaughter, Ross Collins, Nadina Hnatiw, Dean Gray, Sarah Perry, Mike England, Lisa Holton, Callum Brodie, Lucy Barber.

Update and Overview
This phase we have moved to a new location in Staniard Creek at Timothy Johnson’s property and bar (Colors). The start of the phase was full of dive training and building projects including the dive stand, compressor area and a brand new rock oven on the beach which has proven fantastic for bread making and dinners. The weather has been our nemesis this phase with prolonged periods of strong wind affecting our diving. We have however carried out many surveys with our volunteers on the reef after they learnt the fish to the satisfactory level. Three of our volunteers have also completed their PADI Rescue Diver courses at the end of the phase. Our last Sunday saw us carry out a daring forest fire back burn at Churches Blue hole, helping the BNT to protect the substantial wooden structure present at the site.

Sightings - On February 13th we were all lucky enough to swim with four Dolphins in the shallows not far from shore. The group was comprised of three adult dolphins and one juvenile (about 1m long!). During mangrove snorkels 6 large Spotted Eagle Rays
(Aetobatus narinari) were seen. Some of the volunteers were lucky enough to see two large Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) on a fun dive at our dive site Kate-atori-em resting amongst the reef formations. The Blackear Wrasse (Halichoeres poeyi) and the Gray Triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) have been spotted in the shallow sea-grass in front of the station. Our trainee Paul Fuller also spotted a Silky Shark (Carcharinus falciformis) in deep water whilst snorkelling from the boat. The huge resident Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) at Amphitheatre was also observed by one lucky volunteer and our trainee.

Coral Reef Research

Number of REEF Surveys Completed
28
Hours underwater surveying REEF fish
18
Number of sites surveyed
4
Depth range (m)
5-20

After completing dive training, peak performance buoyancy and fish identification tests on land and in water our volunteers were ready to survey. This phase we managed to carry out 28 REEF fish surveys (11 last phase) for diversity and abundance at four different sites on the reef, despite the wind wreaking havoc with our schedules. The results of our surveys will be submitted on the REEF website in the near future very shortly.

Unfortunately due to the weather we were unable to complete any Reef Check surveys this phase despite training some of our volunteers. This was unfortunate but hopefully we will be able to carry out Reef Check surveys on our permanent monitoring sites next phase.

Community School Work
This phase we have been able to carry out a teaching program to three classes in Staniard creek primary school, on a Thursday afternoon. The enduring theme this phase has been symbiosis and helping out the environment so that it continues to provide for the inhabitants of Andros. Having lots of volunteers has meant that we were able to have lots of help in every class and the process has worked very well with a new topic every week for the children. We have covered the island itself in terms of defence from hurricanes and the ocean’s power. Jobs provided directly by the reef e.g. fishing (commercial and subsistence) or scuba diving guides were looked at as well as trying to push the prospect of working for the BNT in either the existing marine protected areas on the barrier reef or the west side national park. Food was a great topic with many of the kids knowing more than we did about the resources here! We were trying to explain the concept of responsible harvesting through the use of worksheets and activities. The new marine turtle legislation banning any capture or killing of turtles as well as outlawing the use of any turtle by-products (shells, meat, eggs e.t.c) from April 1st 2009 was discussed (with mixed attitudes !). Also looking at case studies of regions on a global scale which have not protected their natural resources was hoped to reinforce the ideas we had already covered in previous weeks. The kids and the volunteers as well as the staff enjoyed the process and we hope to have just as successful an experience next phase.

Staff Changeover
It is with regret that we have to announce the ending of a very successful relationship between Greenforce Bahamas and two of its long standing staff Kate Barley and Jason Kincaid. After a period of nearly two years training volunteers in diving and marine science as well as making their experience as good as it could possibly be they are moving on. The British Virgin Islands await them as dive instructors and I’m sure they will do just as well there also. Taking their place the new staff are Siobhan White BSc as Station Manager and PADI Dive Instructor, Ian Hamilton BSc as Assistant Marine Scientist and myself as Chief Marine Scientist (eek !). We aim to keep up the high standards that they have set for us in the future.

Acknowledgements
All the staff at Greenforce Bahamas would like to thank the volunteers of ‘Phase 5 GMRS’ for their help, enthusiasm, humour and work this phase, we couldn’t have done it without you (no honestly we couldn’t !). A big thanks to our trainee Paul Fuller for all of his help this phase, we will miss him and his camera but wish him all the best for the future. Well done to all of our divers who have passed Open Water and Advanced Open Water this phase we know Jason is a pain to work with but someone has to do it. Apologies about the wind – we will try and cut down on the beans next phase ! Thanks for your patience when the diving wasn’t on and we were finding alternatives. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves and wish you all the best in the future, be that travels, university, jobs or life. Thanks for a great phase.

Mark Tilley

Fiji Weeks 4 - 5

2009-03-03T12:47:00.007Z

Imagine a tiny patch of sandy beach surrounded by crystal blue water, a mini paradise that can only be reached when the tide is low. The Sandspit is about a 30 minute walk around the island from camp. Its great for a girly sunbathe or a little game of football with the crystal clear water providing the chance to cool down with an all important snorkel although be wary of the tide as at high tide the sandspit disappears.

Shh....he’s coming....quickly, light the sparklers, aim the party poppers.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL!!!!! Saturday saw Paul's surprise party, he was oblivious to the planning, we had real chicken for dinner dipped in garlic butter! Yum! Chocolate cake and Mars bar doughnuts. It was sooooo good! The staff also had a little surprise for all of us.....Ice!....They made ice, they are gods! You have no idea how much you miss a cold drink, it was amazing! Then we partied the night away under the stars!

The past few days have been the best kind, lazy days involving lying out on the deck getting lost in a book or taking the raft out to the deep blue where you can dive off without fear of hitting your head with your mask and snorkel and see what's under the sea.

Church on Sunday was chilled out as usual, we got fed fresh fish and noodles then spent the afternoon with the villagers. It was an all round good day.

We had the inverts test this week, all about sea urchins, lobsters and anemones. With an afternoon of revision we all passed the test!

On a sad note Wednesday was Harriet and Chris’ last night, they were only here for 6 weeks, so we made them kava bowls out of coconuts as a farewell gift, which were signed by all. It’s a great group here and we’ve all bonded well so it was sad to see them go but no doubt we will all meet up again!

Nicola

Fiji Weeks 1-3

2009-02-19T10:42:00.003Z

Week 1 – 21st to 28th Jan
By Harriet & Lily

19 volunteers arrived at Nadi Bay Hotel all very tired, sweaty & pasty, but very excited!

On arrival everyone jumped into the pool and enjoyed a nice shower. After a night of very little sleep we were put on a bus pilled high with everyone’s luggage and headed off for Lautoka. From there we bought our rations & Bula shirts for the lads & Bula dresses for the girls; all beautifully colourful & flowery! The next evening we boarded the 12hr night ferry from Lautoka to Savusavu. This provided chance to bond. A few brave volunteers even experimented with the local drink of choice; KAVA!!!

From Savusavu we got on 2 trucks and had a journey of a lifetime controlling flying mattresses and getting a bruised everything while taking in the amazing views offered by Venua Levu.

The final leg of our journey was a short but sweet boat journey to camp. The dawn of realisation occurred as we approached a small but unique Island, and this would be our home for the next 10 weeks. After setting up our beds and spending hours putting up our mosquito nets we settled down to our first meal on camp. Luckily this was made by staff members and was thus edible and enjoyable, a rarity......!

Saturday evening is where we let our hair down! Our first will be hard to beat but I’m sure we’ll give it a go! After around 3 hours of playing ‘I have never’ and drinking copious amounts of the local Bounty Rum, I feel it would be safe to say that everyone felt that they knew one another a little or in some cases A LOT better! Yes James we know everything!!

Sunday involved chilling out on the beach, with little activity from us volunteers for the rest of the day.

The following day was our first visit to the village of Navatu where we met our adopted families and had our welcoming Sevusevu ceremony aka. Grog time! This was a great way to meet the Fijians and get to know more about the Fijian way of life.

Tuesday was spent by the non-divers reading huge PADI books, and a lot of sunbathing for the already qualified divers. Fortunately everybody passed their theory and diving will commence on Wednesday.

Week 2 - 28th Jan to 4th Feb

By Rachel

Beginning of week 2 on camp and all the non divers have completed their Theory.
Big thanks to Paul & Jade!

So for this week it’s mainly completing the Open water dives, sunbathing & digging trenches.
This week saw the arrival of Steve back at camp, our Assistant Scientist, as Debs heads off to Nadi for a week.

Steve was welcomed home on Saturday night with a themed night giving the lads a chance to cross dress (to which they felt waaaay too comfortable doing!) A good night was had by everyone. The normal gossip proceeded the next morning as more couples have formed!

Sunday was the first Church of the month, which brought about 2 other villages to Navatu (Namalata & Raviravi). Unfortunately the heat proved too much for one of the volunteers, Lily, as she had to escape, running past the reverend & village chiefs, looking for ‘some fresh air’!! Luckily, 5 minutes prior, Steve had apologised to the congregation for any mistakes we may make over the next 10 weeks. Good timing really!

The weather so far has been awesome. We have all managed to complete our Open Water dives and are starting to do our PADI Advanced Knowledge reviews. Good times!

Week 3 - 4th to 11th Feb
By Imy

The first part of week three was spent focusing on getting the PADI Advance Open Water course completed which meant that whilst everyone was busy attempting to complete their knowledge reviews, the four already qualified divers had plenty of free time to top up their tans. Once the relevant knowledge reviews had been completed, the trainee divers had to complete five dives in order to qualify as Advanced. These were: Deep, Navigation, Boat, Drift & Night. Despite a few problems on the navigation, everyone managed to successfully complete the course meaning that everyone on camp is now Advanced and is able to dive to 30m!

Friday saw the first Ladies night of the phase and was our chance to give something back to our ‘Fijian mums’ who look after us sooo well in the village and ask for nothing in return. We spent the evening playing games with the ladies such as pass the parcel & bingo, as well as showing them some ‘traditional’ British dancing in the form of the YMCA! Of course it wouldn’t have been ladies night without cake, but luckily the ladies came prepared so we spent the first half an hour eating cake & drinking tea.

The next morning everyone got up at 6AM to say goodbye to Steve who had to go home earlier than expected. We all sat on the beach and took a group photo before the boat left camp.

That evening, Debs our Chief Scientist returned from Nadi. Steve sent some pizzas back which was such a nice change from camp food, even if Jon did manage to drop one of the Pizza’s, to which we still ate. The letters from home put everyone into a reflective mood, so our Saturday night was quieter than usual. Only a few games of ‘Ring of Fire’ and little gossip the following morning.

On Sunday, we went to a new village called Kiobo, where ewe met the Chief of Kubulau. Once again we were amazed by the warm welcome and wonderful standard of Fijian hospitality that we received. Church was outside this week, which was a nice change before having an amazing lunch and our much needed afternoon sleep. After waking, we drank Kava with the villagers and then left later that day to return home to camp, just before the rain.

Monday saw the start of our Science training. We’ve spent the past 3 days learning the difference between fish and how to identify them underwater.

Today (Wednesday) the sea was so still that Paul decided to reward us with all our hard work during the dive training by taking us to dive over at Namena, a protected site that plays host to a huge variety of fish and rated amongst one of the best reef sites in the world!
The dives at Namena were awesome, and we saw such an large array of marine life such as Big Sharks & Turtles of which has given us all the determination to learn our fish ASAP, and so we are going into week 4 frantically trying to learn fish using fish cards and points to help us. We hope that all this information stays!!

Bahamas Update by Sarah Perry

2009-02-19T10:28:00.003Z

We started this week with our usual Saturday night party at Timmy’s bar, everyone seemed to have a good night, and there were a lot of laughs Sunday evening, we all went to Small Hope Bay for a gorgeous meal, courtesy of Stewart's parents. Everyone was loving not having to cook and having proper steak and crab instead of our ‘delicious’ turkey mince. It was a really nice, chilled out evening made even better by the fact we got to go in the hot tub under the stars and overlooking the beach. I don’t think anybody wanted to get out, the prospect of not having any more warm water for the rest of our time here was definitely on my mind and I’m sure it occurred to a few of the others as well!

Monday we all got on with fish I.D class, which we seem to be making some progress in, especially Mike who passed his fish test this week, which is ace! In the afternoon we got to get out and do some snorkelling in Stanyard Pass. Jason managed to get us two fish to cook for dinner, which we had a delicious paella, as he’d earned a forfeit for something and in return had to ‘make us all a treat!’

Tuesday we got on with more classes, it’s funny being in the Bahamas and seeing everyone wrapped up in hats and hoodies like we were back in England. In the evening a couple of the lads went night fishing in the creek but didn’t catch anything, I think next time the girls will go along to show them how its done!

By Wednesday the weather had picked up and it has been beautiful and hot since. We started diving on that day and by the weekend almost everyone has passed their PADI Open Water diving qualification, which we are all really pleased and excited about! We got to see some amazing fish and corals on the training dives, including seeing my first barracuda, which isn’t actually as scary as I thought it was going to be. Its an amazing feeling being 14m down under water, you feel so small looking up to see the boat above you but also feel really calm and content, it’s a surreal feeling and I cant wait to get back in the water to do more! Some of the volunteers saw two nurse sharks today which they were pretty hyped up about.

By far the highlight of this week has got to be when we got to swim with wild dolphins on Friday! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! The ocean was perfectly still and turquoise and we spotted some fins, never have I seen us all get ready and get in the water so fast. We must have been less than a metre away from them, that is an experience I will never forget.

So to end our week we’re having a Valentines party at Timmy’s, where we are having a three legged night and all dressing up as different things, me and Dean are going as wizards, so it should be another interesting night!

The Greenforce Blog Is Back!

2009-02-19T10:21:00.002Z

Welcome Gapforce! With much deliberation and time-consuming efforts we progressed through our rebranding to become Gapforce, during which time the Greenforce blog was somewhat neglected. We're back and with more updates than ever before. First up with their contribution, the destination with a spanking new camp and beachside paradise: the Bahamas.

To find out more about Gapforce, go to the website www.gapforce.org

Tales From Tanzania

2008-10-01T10:23:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Jay and Fran for these wonderful exceprts, full of vitality and wonder:

Close Encounters
Although we see numerous Elephants countless times in the Ranch during our sat camps and it’s always a treat to see them close up at our base camp of Emunyani. Whilst returning from a scouting hike into the Esilalei mountains above camp I began to notice that all around me were signs of destruction, downed trees, bark stripped from trunks and car size highways cut into the thickest bush. These tracks could only be caused by one animal. Presuming these signs were old, as I hadn’t visited this area of the hills for a good few weeks, I carried on home. On closer inspection though it could be seen that the trunk underneath the stripped bark was still moist and with it being the dry season and nearly 38 degrees in the shade this meant that they were only a few hours old. Now proceeding with a little more caution I followed the tracks to a clearing a little further down to the valley to find the large Matriarch and her two daughters continuing on their path of destruction.
Normally I could sit and watch these magnificent creatures for hours but the light was already beginning to fade and the path back to camp meandered conveniently through the legs of the Matriarch leaving me no choice but to climb back up the hill I’d just negotiated, much to my displeasure, and head back through the next valley.
Upon my return to camp I was all ready to relay this exciting news and tell everyone how I’d outsmarted 3 elephants when a dishcloth was unceremoniously pushed into my hand. Seeing as I had ‘intentionally’ made my walk long enough to avoid helping to prepare dinner it was given the treat of washing up solo. Only after I’d finished regaling my story did people understand why I had such a smile on my face whilst washing up the leftovers of Bean Curry and Chips.
This experience got me to thinking about some of the close encounters we’ve been lucky enough to have recently.
Whilst on a Game drive with students from Derby Grammar school we had our first recorded sighting of a cheetah within the Ranch’s boundaries, a beautiful young female resting during the heat of the day. She was, oddly, nowhere near where we had had reports of cheetah previously which is to say she was not in the open plains of the south and North east of the ranch which are teeming with gazelle but in the Acacia woodland which lies between the two riverbeds a mere ½ kilometer from Ranger HQ. Nevertheless it was a spectacularly exciting sighting which clearly got the better of me as I was told to ‘calm down and grow up’ by students 6 years my junior.
Elephant encounters are the most frequent occurrence with the Greenforce team, and these are always incredible however sightings like this stand out in my mind forever.
A 6.30am transect started badly with a volunteer, who shall remain nameless, forgetting their bag and holding up the walk. Normally this would be have been met with annoyance had not 30 seconds later a large bull elephant crashed out of the bush, down the slope and across the path we would’ve have been on if the transect had started on time. Many beers were bought in thanks of nameless volunteer’s forgetfulness.
During a transect north of Zambezi we were forced to change direction rather rapidly by another large bull elephant as we emerged from thick bush to find ourselves just 20m from the bull. We were surprised by not only a stroppy elephant coming directly towards us but also strangely, a half naked man wearing only red underpants just in front of the angry bull. Presumably, after a night on the bottle, the man had woken up in the ranch not only to a charging elephant but also to a very bemused bunch of Wazungus claiming to be a Wildlife survey team. The most shocked of us all though seemed to be the Ranger guiding us who already had his rifle neatly sighted on the man in red underwear instead of the bull elephant.
A few more include Fran and Sebs morning fire watch awakening by a lonely male elephant charging past the tents and cars at Amazon camp and Sadi, our driver, using our Toyota Hilux as what can only be described as a battering ram to move 4 belligerent males from our camp site in the southern plains.
Snake encounters on phase are rare but always cause much excitement and needless to say a little cautiousness. Apart from the occasional Puff adder or baby cobra setting up home within our boma we have relatively few encounters. During one sat camp at Zambezi a mamba was spotted in the grass between the camp and the loo prompting most volunteers to refuse to ‘go’ until we got back to Esilalei……sat camp lasted 3 days leaving us with a very unused pit, one or two very uncomfortable volunteers and a very amused Grass Snake masquerading as a Black Mamba.
Whilst out on a moon hill climb, again with Derby Grammar School (who had by now become wildlife magnets) I spotted my first honey badger, and definitely not a glorified weasel as one student declared. It was soon thought of with a little more respect when said students were informed that as a defense the honey badger rips off the testicles of its attacker leaving it to bleed to death. The remainder of the walk was spent with one hand on the walking stick and the other as an improvised cup, much to the amusement of the lone female hiker who was ordered to lead the walk from them on.
Perhaps the most spectacular sighting came early one morning at Amazon camp just as the sun was rising. After an uneventful fire watch the area seemed to come alive with the sound of hooves, one staff member and a volunteer investigated westwards from camp to see a herd of wildebeest stampede by only to followed seconds later by a pack of lionesses and much later by an out of shape male lion, clearly doing the most important job of bringing up the rear.
These are the types of experiences never forgotten by volunteers and staff alike and I’m sure we will have more to report after next phase, none too close hopefully!

Recent News
- Ras, our camp Guard dog, has recently given birth to puppies. 11 huge, eating machines whose sole purpose seems to be to tear the Achilles tendons from the closest human leg. We are left with only one now with the other 10 diligently guarding the majority of the surrounding bomas.
- Elections have taken place in Esilalei recently to decide a new secretary for the district. The Greenforce vote going to Malunga who promised an end to corruption and cheaper mangoes. Take notes Obama.
- The dry season is reaching its peak with no rain in Esilalei for over 4 ½ months. Waterholes are running low but life persists even in these conditions. The rains are expected mid to late October however they are becoming increasingly erratic along with the rest of the worlds climate. We hope for some relief for the land shortly and eagerly await the eruption of green which is bound to occur as soon as the rains begin.
- Drilling has started within the month in Eluai to secure clean drinking water for the entire village using funds raised from the London Marathon. More details will be posted as and when they take place. See www.maasaimarathon.org for more information.

Ecuador Video and Tanzania Photo Update

2008-07-31T15:50:00.005+01:00

Everyone told me blogs were addictive but I just assumed they were taking the piss...Well here I am again, only a day after my first post, with some more awesome updates. Our Ecuador video is a previously unseen clip from the recent expedition and the acting is top-notch. Move aside Jack Nicholson, goodbye Meryl Streep, the Greenforce volunteers are here!

We also have spanking new photos from Tanzania straight out of the Lion's mouth and onto this very page. Enjoy.

That's it for now. All the best.

Welcome to the new Greenforce blog!

2008-07-30T11:06:00.001+01:00

Hi there

Welcome to Greenforce's blog, which has been designed to show the world who we are and to highlight the progress Greenforce is making with its projects. It will encompass all the news, including the highs, lows (yes, even Greenforce has 1 or 2), trials and tribulations. We also aim to emphasise our great efforts being made to develop communities, the fantastic marine conservation projects being worked on as you read this and also what it means to be a Greenforce volunteer. Hopefully over the next few months, we will be able to see posts from all over the world from staff and volunteers alike!

It is hard to compare our London office news to the exhilarating in-country reports. Having said that, we're not watching any paint dry either...or however the expression goes. No, in all honesty, it would be great to have time to paint and then watch it dry but there have been some major changes that have rocked us here. One in particular is the recent merge with Trekforce (check out the link for Trekforce's website) which has created an exciting and innovative realm of possibility. So for the time being I'll save myself a trip to buy paint at Homebase and settle for a coffee instead.

We'll be back soon with more interesting news!