Friday 24/06/11

We had two lectures today; an introduction to biodiversity and endemicity. We were given a break before lunch and I used the mandi to wash – it wasn’t as bad as it looked, quite refreshing actually. At 10 Fifin Flamingo started us off with the name game where we all sat in a circle and repeated the names of 8 people to the right of us and our own name and a animal beginning with the first letter of your name (so I was Annalea Antelope). After that we did another team building exercise involving pairs getting tied together and escaping without breaking the string – I did not get it and had to be shown by Fifin how to get free. After this we were put into our groups for jungle training; my group was Jamie, Kelly, Steph and Tom. we were then split into two groups as a whole, our group was going on jungle training on Monday the other tomorrow. We then had a run through of whet to expect from jungle training and then what we had to pack. Fifin took us on a village tour which was really interesting, he showed us plants that were edible and medicinal, we walked through the village and down the hill towards the coconut plantations. Some people jokingly ask him to get them a coconut from the tree and he said that it might be too dangerous because of the rain and it making the trunk slippery, but as we got closer he went straight up to it and started to climb – he climbed to the top and cut down 6+ coconuts came back down and dished them up, it was fantastic! The day was a little boring (apart from Fifin’s village walk!), trying to remember everyone’s name was hard but everyone seemed really nice and friendly.

Saturday 25/06/11

The other group went off to Jungle training today which made our whole group shrink which was nice at meal times. More lectures today; birds, mammals and surveying techniques, with a break of rice for lunch! Got caught in a rain shower (which are nothing like the showers in England) got drench through in a matter of minutes. I was wearing my craghoppers shirt and trousers which dried off really quickly (once out of the rain) and I’ve noticed the shirt is a lot cooler than my cotton t-shirt, though my t-shirt is more comfortable. Went on a bird walk where we were driven down the road about 4 km and walked back looking for wildlife on the way; we saw lots of birds (can’t remember what they were called) and a cuscus! Which is a strange slough type animal. The walk back was nice. After dinner (of rice and various other things) we watched a film on the over head projector from Kevin’s laptop.

Sunday 26/06/11

Very hot today, went out habitat surveying. First time actually in the rainforest, it was so cool just how dense the vegetation is and the smell is amazing; like a mixture of warm compost and vegetation – it’s hard to explain. We had various types of surveying to do; counting seedlings and saplings, tree girth, touch pole and canopy cover. All the data was going to REDD to help protect this area of forest. It started raining and did not stop, got absolutely soaked! Used my raincoat but was wet underneath anyway and didn’t dry out at all. Had packed lunch in the forest which was cool. Cut our surveying short as all the data records were wet and could not be used. Finally got some washing done by Mama Nia – wasn’t sure how you asked but when we came in all soaked I think she knew we needed it done. Leaving for jungle training tomorrow! Got our supplies and sleeping equipment and packed everything up that I wasn’t taking to store in the office and then packed my bag.