Frankie and Nicolo
Arriving in Mozambique from Newcastle to bright sunshine and 30 degree heat was super exciting and a huge change from the British weather. There are just two of us on this two week program, a Geordie and an Italian from Newcastle University.
Our first week in Mozambique. A blast. It began with a tour of Guinjata and Paindane to check out the schools we will be working at in the following week. Pascal welcomed us into his home where we drank from fresh coconuts and enjoyed the local food – matapa, cassava and fish. Here, we tried and failed miserably at walking with a bucket of water on our heads.
Tuesday saw some big firsts, diving in the sea and in Mozambique. Coral gardens did not disappoint for our first fun dive (and snorkel). It’s named very appropriately because of it’s beautiful coral formations – a welcomed sight on our first dive in Africa!
Turtle patrol started at 3am, unfortunately we found no turtle nests but the sky made up for it – a cloudless night & very little light pollution meant the stars were amazing. Back to sleep for one hour and up for a refreshing walk to the fisheries site. A few fish were landed but no sharks or rays. The end of the week consisted of coral reef surveys followed by logging the data we collected – Nicolo got to show off his fish ID skills.
As part of LTO’s commitment to the local community, we helped out with swimming lessons offered to the local school children. This time round most of the children were happy to play in the pool but needed help on their swimming technique. It was awesome fun for both us and the children! Big smiles all round.
The first week of the March program in Mozambique has flown by! We’re excited to see what this next week brings and we’ll be sad to say goodbye to these awesome volunteers! This year we’ll be creating vlogs as well as blogs to summarise what has happened throughout the week. Enjoy!
