Wednesday, March 2, 2011

01/03/11 Community Work with the International School

Monday saw the last of the community work (for the Monday Group) with the International School. The day was all about the work that GVI do. We had built up to this lesson with the previous week’s lesson about Climate Change, Greenhouse Gases, Endangered Species and the Effects of Global Warming on the Ocean. This week we had several stations that the kids could move around to instead of the normal 3 groups.

We had Scuba Diving, Coral Reefs, Fish and Turtle surveying, Where everyone is from and Plankton Sampling. With such an interactive lesson plan the kids were kept occupied nearly all morning, which is always the challenge (a good one) with kids first thing on a Monday morning! All the kids and even the teachers seemed amazed at how much work we actually do and how we are linked with the different GVI partners here in the Seychelles. However, I think the biggest interest was how we managed to carry all the gear AND survey at the same time without needing to hold our breath! I thought it was quite funny that they thought we were supermen and women with huge muscles! It was great fun watching them try the gear but then also finding our hidden fish and turtles on the beach.

Then it was time to hit the water for a swim. All the kids, big (GVI volunteers) and small (kids), were delighted to be able to cool down. There was snorkelling, swimming, splashing and even jockey-back fights to burn all the unspent energy! Our very own Grace even demonstrated her Scuba gear in the water to show how it all worked. Some of us even managed to earn some ‘jewellery from the sea’ which was just big clumps of floating seaweed! Eventually we rounded all the gang up for a group picnic on the beach and a final group photo with some of the fishy friends sneaking into the photo. The community work has been great fun and we really felt like the kids have learned something about marine conservation. I hope it will continue to be such a success.


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