The Halfway Point of the First Five Weeks

We’ve into our third week as GVI volunteers. We were told the first two weeks are busy, and that was no lie for those of us who just passed our Advanced Open Water course, passed our Emergency First Responder course. We’ve also been studying our fish (or corals) in our spare time for our “PowerPoint” and underwater exams this week. (And, of course, we can’t let up, because after we pass these exams, we have to do the same thing for “inverts”.)

The days have become more routine. We’re divided into work groups—boat, tanks, kitchen and grounds. You can probably figure out what those tasks might be. Some duties keep you on your feet all day. Others allow you to sit and study/read/relax (like when you’re on radio or filling tanks). Once or twice a week a group gets together to play a game of footie.

We dive four days a week. So far, much of this has been for our advanced open water course. Now we’re getting into fish spotting. Some fish look just like their pictures, others are a bit harder to identify. There’s no denying an Emperor Angelfish, a Humphead Wrasse or Bumphead Parrotfish, but some of those Emperors and Snappers can be difficult to decipher. Wednesdays are reserved for plankton collection and turtle snorkels. We take turns snorkelling in the morning or afternoon in different patterns to count turtles (and other mega-fauna that happens by). Sometimes we get treated with a fun dive on Saturday mornings, as always, with a 6:15 a.m. porridge brekkie.

There are other roles one can take on as well in our spare time. One is to get involved in community work. Three of the five Fridays we are here GVI volunteers host a workshop at Port Launay with kids from the International School in Victoria. This is to teach them anything about what we do. Themes have included: marine parks, marine ecosystems, food chains, and marine pollution.

While there’s always work to be done, life is good here. As we converse with each other about our day’s dive after a cool shower, we also enjoy the palm trees swaying in the breeze, bananas ripening just outside our windows, fruit bats flying overhead each night, and sometimes the music and antics of the several hundred school kids who periodically visit the camp just down the hill. We also enjoy that occasional game of cards, a few drinks at the end of a week, even a disco party in the transformed kitchen on the weekend thanks to the creativity of the volunteers!