This is 2/3rds of Team Flamingos (Coleta and Maddie) checking in. Last Friday, on August 30th, I (Maddie) had a very special birthday here in Mozambique! The volunteer crew and I had the chance to go do some pottery at a local woman-owned business. It was a rainy birthday, but we had a great time getting our hands dirty with clay and making some beautiful pieces such as a starfish shaped candle holder. Most members made bowls, but there were also some cute whale and turtle shaped trays. Since we had the day off on Friday, we began our next work week on Sunday. Our team started bright at early at Guinjata fisheries. Guinjata fisheries was so fun on Sunday that we went back on Monday! Well, we were scheduled for Guinjata fisheries on Monday. The fun continued onto Tuesday where we completed two transect dives. I saw many Goldbar wrasses (I love wrasses) and our team worked really well together to complete the data logging for both transects. On Wednesday, we started again bright and early but this time at Paindane fisheries. The biggest perk was being able to see the most gorgeous golden sunrise (see picture for reference).

In Paindane, upon arrival, we measured some fish and chatted with the fishermen. On Thursday, we had two transect dives, but our team was a bit down due to the absence of one of our group members (Maddie), who was feeling unwell. During the first dive, the team encountered some jellyfish face-to-face for the first time. Dana, our dive lead, helped to improve the situation, and afterwards, everyone was laughing about it because it was quite funny. We ended the day logging all the species. We wrapped up Friday with Guinjata fisheries, where we encountered several species of lobster for the first time, as well as a guitar fish. Weʼll see what adventure this weekend brings!