9th March - Hugo

 Habari!

We started the day VERY early at 05:30 for a beach clean up!! It was an amazing experience, especially so early in the morning when it was so peaceful and cool. This specific clean up was for an organisation that specifically focuses on a “Trash for Cash” scheme which allows people to collect trash and convert it to cash when recycled! Within the group, the cash that is converted is put into a group fund in which allows members to use certain amounts of cash when required, and pay it back when able. From personal experience working to contribute to this group’s cause, it is an incredible organisation, and has some amazing values.

After the beach clean up, we came back to Bahari Hai (BH)  just in time for breakfast!! Very delicious. After breakfast, we quickly hopped back into the minibus to visit the Oceans Alive office, where we met Des and Tilda for a briefing on the values and the purpose of OA. One of the best parts of the briefing was the videos Des showed us of turtles and other fish when he had been snorkelling! Hopefully we will see some of those soon!

After the very interesting and informative briefing by Des and Tilda, we moved into a presentation room where the African Leadership University (ALU) students gave a short presentation about their plans to implement a “Marine Co-Management” strategy. A truly exciting system of organising the ownership and maintenance of the marine areas all the way up the coast.

Once we had received answers to all of our questions, we got back in the minibus and flew back to BH for some tea, and more importantly, a Swahili lesson with Juma!! We all ABSOLUTELY love the Swahili lessons with Juma, they are SO much fun, and contribute a great amount towards our ability to integrate as much as possible with the local community. Something that comes in handy VERY often!!

We then had a quick bite to eat for lunch, and then headed out to BH’s permaculture setup to learn about how the idea of implementing a better understanding of the process of growing food, greatly benefits the local community, and furthermore, how the permaculture organisation aims to assist people with physical resources and knowledge regarding the process.

We then organised all the plastic that we picked in the morning into colours, plastic types to assist with the recycling process. After completing that, we moved onto a quick quiz about the fish we may see when snorkelling!

To start the end of the day, we visited a market for about 30 mins where we managed to pick up all kind of things - including an Amazon t-shirt! *Check later blog posts for the evidence!!*

After the market, we had a talk about our safari options by Chris! The talk was held by a VERY nice communal pool with an incredible view of the sunset! Especially nice whilst having supper!

We then ventured home in the back of the minibus to BH and got some well-needed rest for the next day!

Speak soon!