The One With The Seakrait

First of all, I would like to state that we’ve been out of peanut butter for about a week now. Things are getting ugly. Everybody’s turning on each other, the jams are being left uneaten and the people who have a personal jar of peanut (who were smart enough to buy it in Dili), are being held hostage until they give up their stash. To compensate all my negativity, here’s a picture of a clouded sunrise on the beach.

Lots of diving and other fun things this week! Let’s start with the diving and the science, since that’s the main reason I’m in Timor.

I did a total of 10 dives this week, most of which were science-related. The science has mostly been about coral and other invertebrates up ’till now. This means we’ve been getting lots of lectures about the different species of coral (it’s a living thing, you’d know this if you’d listened to the Coral Song as I told you to). On the dives either Jenny (our very own coral geek and field scientist), Mima or Amos point out corals and name them. As the week progressed, they would more and more ask us to name it, so we could practice for when we’re gonna be collecting data for real. It’s been a challenge, but we’re all learning a lot!

On Tuesday we played Benthic Bingo, a game Jenny invented. As always, things got way out of hand and we got super competitive. Whoever identified all 10 species of coral first, won. And the prize was a Beng Beng, a delicious chocolate covered Indonesian candybar. Knowing all of this, it won’t surprise you that I won. I just had to have the Beng Beng. Little disappointing when during the BBC Sharks documentary we watched that night, everybody else got a Beng Beng too. Like, why did I try so hard when everybody else got a consolation price?! Luckily, I got a second one so I could still celebrate a little. In yo face, suckers! Little did we know that while we were playing this awesome game, the other group saw a hammer head shark. Let me repeat: HA-MMER-HEAD-SHARK. Luckily I had two Beng Bengs to mend my broken heart. Not sure I would’ve gotten through it without them.

Next to Benthic, we’ve slowly been getting into fish identification as well. On the first fish-ID dive we accidentally got dropped in the wrong place, which had so much current there was no way to do a proper identification session. So we had a fundive in a completely new location, which we name Jenny’s Garden/House Reef. It was amazing! Can anyone ID the fish below? Hint: they’re all part of one of the greatest Disney movies ever.

Next to the science, we also did a buoyancy workshop to improve our skills for the data collection and a fundive. During the first dive, I was put on a seagrass snorkel, to practice our survey skills. It was also a practice snorkel for Nadia, who’s doing her Divemaster here, so Jenny and I ended up having all sorts of ‘problems’ during our snorkel, which Nadia had to solve. I suddenly forgot how to swim, and Jenny drank half the ocean. We also got a cramp and swam away from her really fast. Poor girl. For the second dive, we went to the same divesite we’ve been going to for weeks. I was so disappointed because the first group got to go to a new place. BUT, then, it happened. We saw a HUGE seakrait. HUGE, great, and the Mexicans probably paid for it too. No, for real, I think it was about 2 m long. The thing about seakraits is: they can’t breath under water. They can stay under water for up to an hour on a single breath, but eventually they have to go up to the surface to get some air. AND, that’s exactly what it did while we were watching it. It went straight for the second group of divers too, at least that’s what it looked like. Fun fact: a seakrait had enough venom to kill 12 people. Can you imagine the look on their faces? It was priceless.

Okay so next tot the diving, we had the honor of scrubbing the the dive boat, a weekly activity. YAY! Turns out I’m really bad at holding my breath. Thank god there’s tanks and air involved when you go diving. Next to scrubbing, we also did a beach clean. This is also part of our weekly activities, but we choose a different part of the peach every time. In 30 minutes of picking up things, we gathered 208 different food packages and 51 cigarette buds. On just 400 m of beach. And those are just the things I remember, there was so much more. Disgusting, I know.

Next to duties, we also did FUN stuff, that’s what we’re here for in the end, right? We went to have an ice cream before dinner, total bad-asses as we are. It was really nice, they make their own fresh ice cream every day. Of course it wasn’t as nice as Tom’s ice cream, but it’ll get me through the next couple of weeks. We also did a trip to Vila, a town on the island, where we visited Boneca. Boneca is a shop where local woman make dolls, stuffed animals and all sorts of fun stuff. Without Boneca they wouldn’t have jobs and hence wouldn’t have an income. The initiative is really cool and you can order a specific pattern if you want to. We went there in a Tuktuk, which is by far my favorite form of transportation ever. It’s basically a scooter with a big “bucket” in the back, where you can sit in. See pictures below. Those wondering why my mouth is open: we were having a sing-off. We totally won. And yes, everything is life IS a competition.

Yesterday evening a wild game of Cards Against Humanity was played. For those who don’t know the game, get it. It brings out the worst in people and it’s hilarious.

To end this blogpost, I’d like to state that not all these pictures were made by me. Gil, one of the vols, got super weird about the fact that I didn’t mention his name. So Gil, I hope that this, Gil, is enough for you, Gil. But in case it isn’t, Gil, crawl in a tree, Gil (#makethatthecatwise). Thanks for reading, Gil. Hope you enjoy it, Gil.

Alright folks, write you soon.

Lots of hugs and kisses

Fi