Well we have had a very productive period recently and we have had a wonderful finish to the week, (for which I would love to thank the volunteers for sacrificing a day off and also thank the village children for their time and effort).
Yes it's that time of year again, September 19th, PADI Project Aware International Clean up day! Everyone was up and about remarkably early (bearing in mind it was a Saturday!) ready for action at 8am! The team divided into 2 parties, one heading off down the beach and the other to the village both with buckets and bags for rubbish than you could shake a stick at and, complete with a full compliment of scampering eager children who, after a brief interlude playing in the sea came straight back to help again. After 2 hours the place was looking much different and we had accrued a pile of some 75kg (the actual weight was considerably more but in the interests of accuracy we took in to account the weight of both sand and water in our calculation)! Then, and to help cool down, on went the SCUBA gear and the volunteers went diving for conservation (here I would like to thank Frazer and Frederick, 2 people who came out to our little island in their own time to help out). During the dive we managed to wrest 16kg (again weight of water was accounted for) from the bottom, mostly this was nets and fishing detritus! For the childrens part in all the work the volunteers banded toghether and bought enough Coca Cola for each child who helped out to get a tin, bearing in mind it is a samall fishing community the gesture was really appreciated by the locals and so more thanks go to the volunteers for their generosity!
So with a total of 91kg cleaned up and lots of smiling happy faces, I wish to say well done to all those involved in a truly useful and fun filled day!
