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Preparations
By Harmony | July 24, 2009 | 11:01 pm
Every year, my village entertains a group of volunteers from Earthwatch. These volunteers pay very good money to work on environmental projects, have a cultural experience, meet some cool people, and hopefully get a chance to travel on their days off to see the countryside. There are Earthwatch projects all year and in far-away places all over the world; in Gazi, the volunteers come each August, in groups of about ten, for ten days at a time, in three different shifts. I’m told that it is a very exciting time in the village, at least for the researchers, and I can feel the anticipation in the air as they prepare for the visitors’ arrival tomorrow.
I’ve noticed some big changes in Gazi over the past few days. The huge pits in the road have been filled with dirt. The narrow pathways that the villagers use, once grown over with vegetation, have been plowed, flattened, and widened. An area of about five meters has been cleared around the bathrooms down by the beach. Part of the hilly landscape has been razed to make way for more convenient pathways. It’s quite amazing.
I don’t know if these aesthetic changes are pure coincidence, part of an annual effort to keep Gazi nice, or if it’s done specifically with the arrival of these special guests in mind. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it is nice to see some effort being put into the beautification of the village. On the other hand, it’s sad to see these quaint little paths be bulldozed to create the equivalent of a walking freeway.
I am looking forward to meeting the Earthwatch volunteers. I wonder what kind of a person would spend $1800 plus airfare to do back-breaking work for 10 days. Are they old, young, middle-aged? What are their professions? Are they students, working professionals, retirees? What are their goals and their motives? I think that I would like to do an Earthwatch project someday, maybe under scholarship, during a summer while I am working on my graduate degree. I wonder if people even offer scholarships for things like that.
Here’s a link to the Earthwatch project in Gazi: Earthwatch: Tidal Forests of Kenya. Under the “Photos & Blogs” tab you’ll find some pictures of my village, the research lab in the office where I work, and the surrounding mangrove forest. One of the pictures shows sample accommodations for the volunteers…as it turns out, I inherited a couple of the exact pieces you see in that room! It’s cool viewing the village through the eyes of someone else’s camera. I feel a little bit of pride for this place that I now call home.
From the little bit information that I’ve gathered, the volunteers will be working to measure the biomass of several mangrove plantations in the area. This activity has been repeated every year since 2004. The researchers are trying to discover the ideal environment for mangrove growth. This is important because it can teach us the most efficient way to reforest the degraded areas of the mangrove forest. As part of the research, they have established several plots in various parts of the terrain, each plot with a different combination of species. They are measuring the growth of these plots over time, to see which flourish best, and to deduce why some perform better than others. There have been some interesting discoveries so far. But I shouldn’t try to explain the technical details here. I’m just a business advisor. What do I know about these things?
In other news, it looks like I will be heading to Nairobi next week. The new trainees will swear in as full-fledged volunteers on Thursday! I thought I’d be crashing the party on my own dime, but I just learned today that I will be helping with an auction. As a result, the Peace Corps will reimburse me for my travel expenses. Poa sana! I’ll be in town for about five days I think. It will be a nice retreat from site. I’ll write more about my trip when I return!
Topics: The Work |