Overdue Seychelles Arrival Update

It was an interesting long journey from Bangkok to the Seychelles, it seems the best way to get here is through the Middle East! After a leisurely morning getting some last minute things done in Bangkok (one last massage, banana pancake & shake, sheets, and a haircut – 1^st one since July and I was really overdue!) I headed to Bangkok International airport (again,) and soon enough it was wheels-up for Doha, Qatar. The plane was almost empty (lots of room, yaay,) and landed after dark but the temperature was still over one hundred degrees and I was thankful for the air-conditioned bus waiting at the bottom of the stairs from the plane. I had a 7 hour layover and since the gate area didn’t open until shortly before boarding, I roamed the airport to pass the time. People-watching was a blast and I entertained myself trying to figure out other flyers’ back-stories. Wherever you go and whatever airport you happen to be in, business people all have the same look – weary and unhappy but smugly superior to all the tourists they act forced to endure. When people began to cluster in the area of my flight’s gate, I also tried to figure out which of us were bound for the GVI Project like me. The target would be solo, youngish, college graddy looking, with an excited, ready to try anything air, and practical clothes. Backpacks would be a mandatory accessory. Soon enough, a young, blonde, fresh-faced California-Girl type sat down next to me and pulled out a Sudoku book. Check on many major probable categories and it wasn’t long before we struck up a conversation, and sure enough, Sam from Malibu (but with an Aberdeen, Scotland accent,) was a volunteer too. The flight was packed, but we blatantly seat-hopped to sit together and talked for what seemed like the whole flight.

The plane landed on Mahe Island, Seychelles at 6-somehting AM and I caught my transfer to the Coral Strand Hotel where I spent a couple of days diving and hanging out on the beach before getting picked up by GVI. One by one, we gathered others from our group and by the night before the big day, there were 18 of us going out to dinner together and excitedly trading names, stories, and wondering what was in store for us the next day. Amazingly, I shared a hotel room with another American named Howard – a brand new Wake Forest Grad and DC native – small world again! One of the volunteers, Julian, was returning for the final 5 weeks of his 15 week project and the poor guy was nice enough to try to answer all questions thrown at him.

Early the next morning, taxis brought us to the Base for the project where we claimed beds in one of the three dorms, and got busy hanging mozzy nets and finding our way around. The site lies between some large rocky hills on the shore of Bay Ternay and used to be a camp for Seychellois teens, but now houses a couple of research projects and a military guard-dog training camp. Only a little bit is used for these purposes and there are abandoned, spooky looking buildings busily falling down all over the picturesque valley. It’s a 5 minute walk to the closest beach, and there is an amazing bay 10 minutes up the road, too. Palm trees and flowers grow everywhere – it’s a camera dreamscape any way you look.

Next we met the staff, got the tour and some guidance and it has seemed like a blur ever since. Daily teams cook all the meals, clean the whole camp, fill tanks, and work the boats in between classes and diving; plus there are weekly duties like checking safety equipment, shopping, and compressor, boat, and vehicle maintenance. As of this moment, not quite two weeks in, I’ve had 5 coral classes, a turtle class, 2 health and safety classes, a reef threats class, a reef protection class, a class on neighboring islands, an oceanography class, reef survey methodology classes, plus a morning and nightly briefing every day. Oh yeah, and a fire drill. Today I became a certified Coral Reef Research Diver – woohoo, another card. For those not already certified, there was a PADI Advanced Open Water Class and an Emergency First Responder Course that I didn’t need to take, so I’ve been one of the lucky ones with some free time. There are about 25 volunteers and we are split in half into Coral (me,) and Fish specialists and the amount of knowledge we needed to absorb in a hurry to be useful to the research was tremendous! Within a week, I’ve learned to spot 14 different families of hard corals and ID 47 different genera within them – in their Latin names! I can tell my Acanthastrea Mussidae from my Psammacora Siderastreidae, can you? To be allowed to do the research, we had to pass a test by a score of 95% or better. Most everybody fails it a couple of times – last phase only had one pass the first try – but four of us got it first time out and now we are doing our spot-check dives where the staff points out corals underwater and we hover as close as we can and figure out what it is. I got 25 in a row right yesterday until a tricky species of Montipora Acroporidae tripped me up. Next up are some soft corals, zooanthids, corallimorphs and anemones along with invertebrates like sea cucumbers, octopi and lobsters.

In case you were thinking this is some kind of vacation and I’m living it up out here, let me take you through my day today. I got up at 6AM, assembled my dive gear before breakfast, then went to the AM briefing. After the Methodology class, I was out on the dive boat for a 45 minute dive practicing laying two different kinds of transects, following patterns, and recording data. After hauling our gear back and cleaning everything, I helped people study for their 2^nd Coral Exam, did some laundry and then it was time for lunch. Right after, I had the wonderful job of Boat Bitch for the third dive. A quick lesson on the chain of command aboard ocean-going vessels: the captain is God and there are mates beneath him, then petty officers and crewmen with a skill, then next are the ordinary seamen and finally the cabin boys. Beneath them is the Boat Bitch. Well, on our little diveboat, there is only the skipper and the BB… I’m making it sound bad, but it’s actually usually lots of fun getting all the gear in place for the divers, taking down dive data, hauling anchors and safety gear and doing whatever the skipper needs. Today was the exception. As soon as the divers hit the water and I got my sunscreen applied perfectly, it began pouring down rain and the wind blew it all sideways under the boat’s awning. We still needed to do some repairs to the engine hydraulics and pump out the bilge (manually, of course.) By the time divers began to come up an hour later, we were soaked to the bone and freezing, but laughing about it through blue chattering lips. I manage to “fall” into the warm ocean several times and the long swim to the beach (so the boat isn’t high and dry at tomorrow’s low tide,) after we offloaded everything was kind of pleasant due to the 82F water temp. While the other volunteers were taking their 2^nd tests, I put gear away, drank three cups of hot tea and played a couple of hands of Hearts until dinner. It was lentil curry and rice (meat is only once or twice a week,) then we had some paperwork and PM briefing for tomorrow’s events. At 8, I borrowed the computer of my dorm mate Holly, and wrote this piece so I can upload it this weekend at the internet café in town, and soon, it will be bedtime when lights go out at 9. Tomorrow, I’m on tank fill duty in between two turtle snorkels and spot dives and a coral class.

If you are starting to suspect I love this you are very right! I’m having a blast! It is such a great experience and I’m lucky to be here doing this – it’s good for the earth and good for me, too. I’ve met all kinds of cool people on the project, from DC to South Africa and all kinds of places in between The group seems to be gelling pretty well and I genuinely really like just about everybody here. The GVI staff is enthusiastic, helpful and great and makes our participation seem important and valued. It’s not all work though, there have been some days off and they seem to include lots of the local beer and rum. Last weekend I watched the Rugby World Cup in town with a bunch of staff and volunteers then we hit a local dance club and tore it up until 5AM. Sunday was a beach day and I played volleyball in the water with some local kids and volunteers for hours. We even have a couple of soccer, (ahem – football,) games every week so you know I’m in heaven. The first time we played was sure a shock for the European volunteers when the team with the three Americans on it won 6-2! While I was far from the best player on the field, I got two goals, two assists and afterwards I was so proud when another volunteer asked me, “Who knew you could play like that?” Today’s game got rained out, but I have hopes for tomorrow or Thursday…

While most of the diving has been limited to coral spotting and I almost never get my head up off the reef, I have still seen some cool stuff. There are lots of nudis around, I’ve found turtles three times (including a beautiful Green turtle,) seen dolphins, and been snorkelling with whale sharks! The neatest of all was when, on a morning dive, we saw an octopus swim way up off the reef pursuing a lionfish! After an epic but one-sided struggle, the 8 armed victor settled back on the reef for its lunch and another octopus came over to check things out. I could have watched for an hour, but we had coral work to do, damn!

This coming weekend, we have both days off and half the volunteers are doing their Rescue class in Beau Vallon, so the rest of us are trying to find lodging nearby and have a nice break from camp life. Hot showers! Things are pretty crowded in the area because there is a Creole Festival going on, but I’ve got my fingers crossed… If you are reading this, it means I got somewhere with internet so maybe I got lucky.

OK, it’s getting late (9:50!! – and I used to be a nightowl,) so I’m going to finish my book (Vonnegut’s Thank You Mr. Rosewater,) it’s really good and calling me.

Stay Happy And Wet,

Clement