FOR: TCI group shot

So much has happened over the last month it is difficult to know where to begin!  We have two new team members…. Georgie who introduced herself wonderfully below, and Katharine Hart who joined us for the stamina-test that was the end of Anguilla… interviews, reports, community meetings, last minute KI’s – the last wonderful weeks were a complete blur!  It was incredibly sad to leave – we’ve made some amazing friends in Anguilla and I hope we can get back to see them soon.

Now we are decamped to Turks and Caicos, another beautiful tropical island chain.  After discussion with the Environment Department we are working in two places… The Bight and Turtle Cove which appears to be a rather rich tourism district (plenty of divers to interview) and Five Cays as our fishing community.  We have fish processing factories, conch farms, miles of shallow sandy coastline to explore.  The sand here is so fine it sticks to you like glue.  People wade out into the shallow with a rod and real to catch bone fish (almost like fly fishing).  The country seems a mix of extremely expensive Floridian style buildings glued together with small traditional houses and half built illegal concrete structures.  The people a heady combination of ex-pats, locals, immigrant Haitians and a hundred other nationalities.  I can’t wait to get to the bottom of this society!  Tonight is our first community meeting in the Bight so I am sure one of the ladies will post more soon…

In other news I managed to crack my forehead open on the bottom of the swimming pool while night swimming… and then had to walk around with a shameful bruise and slight concussion for a week.  I took one of the rescue dogs out for a walk… they are called ‘potcakes’…. but the tiny puppy tired out quickly and I ended up having to carry him around in my bag.  No diving yet but we did see a barracuda the same size as Pia while out snorkelling!