Without Sarah, Provo has been crazy… We met so many amazing and interesting people and are fully into the swing of things once again! This is a huge change from lovely relaxed Anguilla, and I have been doing interviews with loads of watersport operators and sport-fishers, learned a lot about Marlin and bonefish (I had never even heard of them before), and met a whole lot of people who are out there diving.

This week we also did a community meeting in each of the two communities we are studying here in Provo, which were both great, but very very different from each other.

Friday I managed to get a trip on one of the snorkel boats to their snorkel site!!! Buff, the mate on the boat, wanted to show us the TCI version of “Fish and Chips”: Throw a pack of dorito chips (crisp) into the water, and the triggerfish get mental!!! I wonder why people have to use other bait 😉 (Not so sure how healthy that is for the fish though).

The reef around there was pretty, but sadly not that many fish…Next stop was on the great flat to find the conch… all passengers were dispatched into the water to find their own conch in about 60 cm of water! Once we had enough conch of the right size we went to a little island and Captain Pop made an amazing conch ceviche… yummy yummy, while I explored the island and visited the iguanas. Just before we were about to leave we had a young lemon shark coming straight to the beach, and as well an eagle ray and a manta ray- that must have been the absolute highlight of my day. And guess what, in the evening Sarah called me to report all the species I had seen- I had recognized them all (go Pia!!!)

So far so good, should try to upload some pictures that I took with Georgies underwater-camera 🙂

Myself and Clare have been visiting the Cayman Islands for the last week and I thought I would share some photos… especially of the sea turtle farm which is the only one in the world I believe… enjoy!

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!

Hello! My Name’s Georgie, I joined the FOR team in TCI last week. I’m an MSc student from Newcastle out here for two months to help with the social survey team and do research for my thesis project.

I don’t think I’ve seen a tropical island quite like Provo before, the first thing you notice when you fly in is the incredible bright turquoise sea and long white beaches, a proper postcard image. It’s a very interesting place, driving from the airport I could have been in America; wide roads, big air conditioned super markets and lots of luxurious resorts. We’re staying in Grace Bay, which has every convenience who’d need for a holiday without even leaving the resort village, but the communities outside the resorts are great. Although there are lots of people living in small, quite rundown houses and there is a lot of litter around, people are very welcoming and seem to have quite a strong sense of community.

We’ve spent the past few days mapping out the communities we would like to work with here, which meant a lot of cycling and driving around asking people to help us work out community boundaries, trying to count the number of houses in each and sweating a lot. Not an easy task, but everyone has been so helpful, going out their way to ask what we’re doing and if we need any help. I think we’ve got more smiles and waves in a week here than I have in the last year in the UK…no offense England but we’re generally less inclined to wave at random people nosing around our houses!

More news from Provo coming soon…

After the last few stressful weeks, packed with excitement and loads of work, three community meetings, writing reports and trying to finish off as many interviews as possible, we left Anguilla via Saint Martain and Miami – to arrive in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos!

And I decided to take a couchsurfing holiday for 3 days!!! I took the ferry to a little island called North Caicos, rented a bike at the ferry station, fastened all my luggage somehow on my bike and went off to the little village of Kew, where I was going to stay with Brian/Naqqi. I finally managed to find him, as he had told me his name as Naqqi, while everybody else on the Island knew him only as Brian 🙂

He is the proud owner of the last donkey on North Caicos, a very temperamental one called “Lady Liza”. And in his house he had a cage with tiny quail chicks, which were just too cute- when they are tired they lie down on the floor and stretch the feet away, it looks hilarious seeing a bird lie down, just like a little person 🙂

I went for excursions on my bike to the beach, to find some snorkelling spots and to generally have a relaxing time… and I found  a beach restaurant where they made the most amazing home made ice-cream!! I did a tour on one of the old cotton plantations, visited a big government farm and explored the mangrove areas.

Sadly those few days of relaxation went by far too quick, and now it is time to get back to work on Provo… for the second part of the project with extra help!!

Will report soon!

What a great day off I had -last Wednesday- I went out with Chinnicks for a spearshooting expedition, and he actually caught a fish! But that was not even the best, the snorkelling was fantastic, I saw lots and lots of fish, turtles, a barracuda (who took off when he saw us) and it was a great 2 hour swim, and afterwards I treated myself to a lovely Pizza (I have been waiting for this for weeks!!!)

At night I went to meet up for dinner with the only female fisherman we have met so far! And she gave me a whole lobster to take home 🙂

So there I was on Thursday, googeling how to cook a lobster! As it says, you have to cut them in half first, and then put them in the oven with butter and lemon! But how to cut a lobster with only rather bland knifes and little scissors? Sarah to the rescue!!! She actually managed (combined effort) and put it in the oven… we did not have any butter or lemon either, so we used olive oil and limes…and the lobster turned out fantastic (in the restaurant we would have paid 40 $US :-))

But, for my taste, I have to say lobsters are overrated! I really prefer crayfish, which we had yesterday in Island Harbour 🙂

Ok, I believe writing 3 posts in a day is more than enough babbling about… hope you enjoy- if not just stop reading!!!

I have been meaning to write this piece since quite a while, especially if we are normally just writing about the fun bits… so here comes the serious stuff!!! Get out your tissues, you might get really sad! (And it is I writing this, as new to the field) rather than either of the two experienced people….

Before coming out here I could not wait to get away from the desk,I had not much experience in Social Surveys, interviews other than that I was really interested in people. After all I have only started late with my love for Ecology, but have always been searching for more…

Anyways, here I was , Sarah as a personal trainer, myself and a whole load of questionnaires to ask people about 80 questions… the questionnaire was not really the scary thing, but when you start  to go to a random house, knock on the door (even though houses here have no bells and you are actually standing outside shouting “Hallo, Hallo”, and sometimes you hear from the inside “hallo” and again you shout “hallo” this could take quite some time! And you never know… who is it going to be, are they going to be nice and friendly, are they happy to see you, can you convince them to give you 30-40 minutes to talk to them? After having gone to 100 plus houses I still always feel slightly nervous when I shout the first “Hallo”.

I wonder if it will ever go, or whether it is like before you go on stage- the stagefright, and once you don’t feel it any more, your performance will change???

But once you have met someone, it only starts to get interesting! It is fantastic, the different people you meet, it is opening up your mind and just pure excitement! One day you might be talking to some fisherman, who goes out with his little boat to make a living, then you might meet a fantastic Reggae singer, who is one of the best on the islands, you meet people from all ways of life, and everyone has a story to tell: The Lady who drives the school bus and is accompanied by her talking parrot, the general manager of a large hotel, the owner of a restaurant who meets us at his private house with tennis court and infinity pool, fishermen who invite you out on trips on their boats (so far we had no time to do so)! But then you also hear very sad sad stories, from people who just love having someone to listen to them, stories about loneliness, loss, and stories about people being strong and making the best with the little they have or with what they had to endure with in the past, which is a very humbling experience.

And then there are all those marriage proposals ad declarations of love 🙂

And then there are the dangers for the social researcher- DOGS!!! We always thought they were the dangers top the postman, but social researchers seem to fall in the same category (maybe we will have to disguise ourselves better and our folders we are carrying look too much like postman Pat bags??)  But I have to say most of them are really lovely once they get to know you, but even I, as a dog person, have to say that at times I can get a bit scared…

But after all, the job never gets boring, it drains all the energy out of you and it is fantastic!

And I am just thinking about all the amazing things I could do with the data, once I am back… the sky is the limit! I thought Ecology was amazing and interesting… but compared to this, I should have discovered it much earlier.