Tuesday 16th January - Madison

 As our time in Kenya is still quite fresh, we’re doing activities that will give us a foundation of understanding in culture and environment to build upon in the next few weeks. 

To start out the day, we had a lovely breakfast and then headed out to a water appreciation activity. In Water Appreciation, we went to a local village and pumped groundwater, filled basins (aka mtungis), and delivered them to people’s homes. We filled 114 mtungis and struggled to comprehend how the village woman do it every morning (and sometimes afternoon too). 

Following Water Appreciation, the team took a quick nap or dunk in the pool before settling in for Swahili lessons with Juma. We stumbled through the previous day’s vocab and learned loads more today. The team did particularly well recalling the Swahili word for tea (chai). 

We took a break for lunch, and then reconvened for a lesson on fish. We focused on the identifying details of 25 of the 89 fish species that we’ll be discussing throughout the trip. I now know that Nemo is an Allard’s Anemonefish. 

Having finished all the day’s word, the team headed down to the beach for some makeshift cricket and chat. Dinner and evening games followed. It was a joyful and memorable day.

Oceans Alive says: 

Water appreciation is a great way for Leapers to get involved in the community and see how the other half lives. Running water is a rarity in our area and the Leapers see first hand hand how precious a commodity it is - especially when each bucket of water is pumped by hand at a central well and then carried home - usually on the head. Not so easy as the Leapers find out - often by getting a soaking ! 

Learning the different fish species is a great way of getting the most out of every snorkel while with us at Kuruwitu. There are so many different fish out there in the marine protected area. We still see new species from time to time.