Our penultimate week in Moz was, as expected, a total blast. We started off the week with a dive at Manta Reef, one of the top rated dive sites in the world, where we saw lots of morays, a giant turtle, some cool pipefish, and one of my favorite animals on the reef, a peacock mantis shrimp. I also had one of the most magical experiences of my life. During our safety stop, we were approached by a giant school of devil rays that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was incredible to watch them swim around under us, and for a moment I forgot what I was doing and accidentally sank about five meters while I was supposed to be decompressing. If I wasn’t running on a limited oxygen supply, I would’ve stayed there forever. On land, Ark (who has since earned the title of official LTO Events Organizer) put together a base-wide football match, pitting the staff of Jay’s Dive Center and Restaurant against the staff and volunteers of LTO. Everyone got involved to either play, cheer, or watch, and it was a nice way to celebrate the friendships we’ve formed not just among ourselves as volunteers, but every single amazing person we’ve come across. And not that it matters too much, but we totally won.
During our work week, Team Chelsea took over at the school in Paindane and spent the week teaching about the impacts of littering and the danger ocean plastic poses to humans and wildlife alike. While they were there, they also painted not just one, but three entire walls of the school. They freshened up some old paint and livened up the buildings with a bit of LTO flair. They were a bit worried about their artistic abilities at the beginning of the week, but as you can see from the pictures below, Joe and Sophie totally crushed it. They also managed to teach and engage with a combined classroom of 80 children at once, which I didn’t know was possible until they told me about it.
Back in Guinjata, the rest of Team Barcelona and I got back in the field doing transects and fisheries logging. Fisheries days are long, but we’ve learned to pass the time by talking about (and debating) everything under the sun. Fisheries conversations are always interesting, and past conversation topics have included a discussion of the best sea animal to live as, the attractiveness of Pedro Pascal, the possibility of our favorite skipper, Chico, to officiate Ark’s wedding, and wether blueberries (and dozens of other foods don’t fit into either category) should be classified as sweet or savory. I also got to get behind the wheel of the tractor we use to pull our boat and trailer (and subsequently dragged the rest of Team Barcelona along with me) and Jay taught us all how to drive it.
Transects are always fun, and while it’s easy to dread the long hours of logging and IDing, I realized this week just how far we’ve come from only a few weeks ago, and how much we’ve improved. Our video footage has gotten a lot smoother, our quadrats are clearer, and we’re absolutely aces at identifying fish. The hours may be long, but we’ve got a rhythm, and we’re a well-oiled machine.
As I’m writing this, we’ve just finished dinner, and I’m listening to the overlapping conversations of all my friends as they discuss our plans for the coming week and our favorite moments from this one. I’m going to miss this a lot once it’s over, and I hope that along with memories, I can also take these friendships home with me when I leave. We only have one week left, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we plan to make the absolute most of it.
