Thursday - 20th July - Charlie

We had permaculture, and coral cleaning in the morning, in our separate groups, which involved creating big sacks of soil filed with stones in the middle and plants poking out the outside for the permaculture team while the coral team scrubbed algae off the coral. 

We then had a few hours of downtime, in which some people sunbathed, and some others had a nice siesta! We then had a nice, well deserved lunch, with the intention of heading out to the local market. 

However, a leader surprised us by rushing us to the taxis to head over and see 100ish baby turtles hatch, which was everyone’s highlight of the day and was something we will all never forget. We then had an interesting chat from Roger about the project he runs, and how things work with the turtles. We then visited his amazing metalwork shop, where all pieces were made by him. 

We then all headed back, to have a chilled and relaxed evening, with a movie night in place for those who wanted to chill with a movie! Overall, the group had a fantastic day, and only positive words and thought were said from the day (in particular the turtles!)

Oceans Alive says:

Coral cleaning is an essential part of our coral restoration program. Leapers find out just how hard it is to keep the baby corals alive. They are fragile and very sensitive to algae growing on them which blocks out the sunlight necessary for growth. Gentle scrubbing with toothbrushes is done daily to keep the fledgling corals in our nurseries clean and healthy and as algae free as possible. Coral cleaning also means a bit of extra snorkelling time which is alway a bonus.

In charge of the coral maintenance team is Katana Ngala; a community elder and one of the founding members of Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association - the community based organisation which we helped start way back in 2003. Katana travelled to New York with us in 2017 to collect the UN Equator Prize for Sustainable Development. He’s also one of our media stars and is often on television!

The turtles at Jumba is run by a close family friend - Roger Jessop. He is a retired dive instructor who has been responsible for over 69,000 baby turtle releases in the ten years he’s been looking after turtles in nearby Mtwapa. He makes amazing metal work birds, flowers and animals too. Roger is assisted by neighbour Yvonne and a flock of dachshunds, but entirely self-funded. Amazing work which we are privileged to be invited to participate in.