Author Archives: Maria

You know why I love St. Lucia?

Posted by Maria in Uncategorized

Because as I hiked through the forest down (yay!) to the beach (even more yay!) in Belvedere with my dear friend and fellow camp counselor, Menalick, I saw (and half the time, ate) fresh coconuts, cacao seeds, Jamaican plums, limes, golden apples, nutmeg, tamarinds, almonds, cashews, breadfruit, and dasheen. That’s just what I was able to identify! Plus there are tons of other local foods here that are SO tasty and really plentiful! It’s always interesting for me, no matter where I am, to go into grocery stores and see what everyone is eating, and I don’t know why but it surprises me when I see foods from other countries here. Why? Why import this trash food from thousands of miles away when there’s SOOOO much wonderful food here?
But then I realize that as an American, I am guilty of doing that for probably 99% of the meals that I eat. Sure, I may shop at whatever branch of Whole Foods is in my area, or try to eat at local restaurants, but let’s face it – it’s expensive! And how backwards is it that I have to pay more for something that HASN’T traveled over 100 miles from my stomach!?! Eating local foods is one of the most effective ways to live an ecofriendly lifestyle because it not only reduces gas use and carbon emissions, but if it is a native plant (or at least one suited for the environment), it requires less maintenance in terms of water or fertilizer resources!
Though I am excited about many many things about my time here in St. Lucia, being able to afford to eat locally (and actually not to much otherwise since imported food tends to be pricey) is one of my favorites!

 

I’m flying solo… but not really

Posted by Maria in Uncategorized

Day 1: Captain’s Log
Thanks to the wonderful growth of Caribbean SEA over the last couple of years, I am able to live and work in St. Lucia for a year! I’ve been there twice before for summer camps, but this is my first time here by myself.  And yes, part of me is nervous because I am leaving a great (great great great!) network of friends and coworkers behind and I absolutely love the city of Chattanooga, but at the same time, I am so excited! I’m so optimistic about this coming year and I think that there are plenty of opportunities to be had. And as nervous as I am about leaving my amazing Chattanooga support team, I am realizing how great of a support team I have here too! And although I never had too much of a shell to begin with, this is gonna make me break out of it for sure! It’s gonna be a fun year, St. Lucia!

Diving in the DR

Posted by Maria in Dominican Republic, HELP!, slideshow and tagged with

Come see what we’ve done in the DR!

Now now now, just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean that we haven’t been working!

One of the projects that we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks has been in the small town of Juancho in the Dominican Republic.  We have been working closely with E.G.E. Haina, which is an energy generating company in the DR.  For a little bit of history, E.G.E. Haina has built a windpark near Juancho, but since the windpark doesn’t create jobs, they’ve decided to help the community in other ways, which is where we come into the picture.  Mary Beth has taught several health and sanitation classes in the area and has worked with teachers there too.  There are other projects in the works too that include artificial wetlands, protected marine areas and ecotourism.

When I went down there in August with Mary Beth, we were getting certified for Reef Check, which creates a baseline assessment of the status of the reefs.  Let’s be honest though, as much as I would LOVE to keep going back and doing Reef Check, it’s not exactly feasible or ideal for a bunch of us to travel to Jauncho every year to dive, which is what a proper Reef Check site needs.  So, we have 2 of the local fishermen that have been selected from their local cooperative to be SCUBA certified!! These fishermen (whom I know and can personally vouch for – they are two great guys!) will be Reef Check trained and  have other diving related responsibilities too that will ultimately benefit the whole community.

However, as any diver knows, getting certified is not cheap even in the US, which doesn’t have the kinds of import fees that the DR has… we have to raise about $500 to get them through the classes… and believe it or not, I’m not asking you for money (though of course if you want to donate to this cause, it would be GREATLY appreciated), but ideas! How can we raise $500 relatively quickly?

boating in the bay at Juancho

Oh, the Luxury of having Potable Tap Water!!

Posted by Maria in Uncategorized

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made it back into the United States of America!

Due to some difficulties with flying standby and full flights out of Santo Domingo, I am very excited to say this! Not only because I am a very proud American, but also because, as much as I LOVE travelling to St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic (which I need to tell everyone about still…), I also love having safe drinking water at the turn of a faucet.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have this water insecurity thing – I can’t leave the house without one of my water bottles, and I always have a jug of water in my car in case I need to refill it out of reach of a water fountain/sink/hose (I’m not picky about source, I just need water!).   But in some other countries, you really can’t do this. Trust me, I tried and failed. You have to buy bottles/bagged/jugs of water. And ooooooh do I hate bottled water! But what’s more is that some people absolutely cannot afford to buy clean water. Nor do they have the means to keep their water clean (read: septic tanks or sewage lines). But hey, maybe this is why I’ve chosen this line of work… I want everyone to be able to have the same idiosyncrasies as me! And not have to pay the price of their health to do so!!

Staring in the face of a storm…

Posted by Maria in Dominican Republic, Rambling, Reef Check

Marybeth and I are in the Dominican Republic this week! (I know, it’s hard to keep track of where we are!) And you might have heard, we have another special visitor approaching from the southeast… Tropical Storm Emily. I’m not one to let a little bad weather bring me down but since we were supposed to be SCUBA diving the whole week to perform a Reef Check on some of the reefs that noone had really dived on much before, the timing is a little disappointing. The waves yesterday were already tortuous for me and my poor stomach, and our fate today has yet to be decided, but I just keep telling myself that science isn’t always pretty and glamourous, and sometime you have to roll with the punches. And the waves.

Storm or no storm though, all is not lost.  Our work here in the Dominican Republic is just beginning. I have already met some ammmaaaazzzzing people here who all are really excited about the ecotourism possibilities in the area (which not only brings an income in for the locals, but also pulls the economic focus of the area off of unsustainable fishing practices).  I think there are some awesome prospects here! Watch out Punta Cana!

Rainforest Camp!

Posted by Maria in Camp, Rainforest Camp, slideshow, st lucia and tagged with , , , ,

YAY! We survived!! Call me crazy, but I love Rainforest Camp!

 

This was my second time at the camp near the Des Cartier trail in St. Lucia (and Caribbean SEA’s 5th year of camp!) and even though by the end I was sleep deprived, covered in mosquito bites and extremely dirty, I would go back right now! You know, I am not a big fan of teenagers (and this year, camp was for 11-15 year olds) because they never really want to actually DO anything… They lose that enthusiasm that younger kids have. I think that they (think they) would much rather prefer just sitting around the camp talking to the other kids or better yet, eating, but once you get them to participate, it is amazing! For example, on Wednesday night, our favorite entomologist and counselor, Brendan, hooked up a light trap to attract bugs and I’m sure you can imagine the moans and groans we heard when the kids heard that they would have to look for bugs instead of planning their mushing attack plans, but once we gave them their containers and put them in front of that light, they didn’t want to stop! They wanted to know what every bug was and kept asking for bug containers during the rest of the camp so that they could look at the bugs they would find!
Our focus this year was Reforestation – the campsite was actually affected by multiple landslides after the hurricane and so it was a perfect area to plant trees that we gathered from another nearby trail. We also took the kids to snorkel at beautiful Anse Chastanet where we could show what a healthy reef looks like compared to those that have been smothered in sediment that flows from the rivers everytime it rains. And trust me, we had plenty of rain while we were there! The sad thing, although it made for a great teaching tool, the rivers surrounding our camp (and therefore our water, although our source is higher up on the mountain) were running orange because of all the sedimentation… but you know, that’s why we planted trees! and the Forestry Department of Saint Lucia has been preparing for a major islandwide reforestation day!
For even more fun, as part of our 5 year celebration, we got to go ziplining in Dennery! It was so much fun! We had some kids who were reluctant but once you got them on the line – WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I have pictures loaded and on Facebook, and as soon as I get to a steady enough internet signal I can add them on here… (We’ll talk about what MaryBeth and I are doing right now on another post I think!). Until then, ciao mis amigos!

 

 

Preparing for Rainforest Camp

Posted by Maria in Camp, Rainforest Camp, Rambling, st lucia

This coming Monday is the start of our 5th annual Rainforest Camp in St. Lucia! We will be camping overnight for a week in the rainforest area near Micoud, St. Lucia with about 50 kids, from 11 to 15 years of age! And on behalf of Mary Beth, our good friend Brendan and all the other counselors, can I just say… YIKES! Haha! Actually, we are all really really excited… There is something so amazingly fun about being out in nature without cell phone signal and electricity, under the stars and out with all the whistling frogs, tarantulas and oooohhh the beautiful St. Lucian parrots that fly over in the morning… We drink cocoa tea (like a spiced hot chocolate) and eat bakes (a kind of fried or grilled dough thing), salt fish, green figs and bread fruit, all so lovingly prepared by our head chef Mr. Mathurin and his team of whichever group of campers we’ve assigned to that particular meal. The camp is, of course, focused on a particular environmental topic – this year, due to the large impact of Hurricane Tomas in November, we will focus on reforestation and it’s role in water quality.  We went shopping for supplies today and even had a little pre-camp fun with some of our kids from the Marigot Bay community while planning, water testing, jumping off of rocks and snorkeling.

Although it’s not easy to say how well camp will go, I am so extremely excited and optimistic about our plans for the next week! But ask me how much I like Rainforest Camp next Saturday… my opinion may completely change!

Great Ocean Facts

Posted by Maria in conservation, Coral

Conservation International sent out an email today with these great facts on it! I just can’t help but share them with you!!

 

70 Percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans.

1 Percent of the Earth’s oceans are protected. 

1 billion People worldwide depend on the ocean as their main source of protein.

52 Percent of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited. Another 20 percent are moderately exploited, and 19 percent are over-exploited. 

3/4 Of tropical commercial fish depend on mangrove forests for food, habitat, breeding or nursery grounds.

Up to 35 Percent of the world’s mangrove forests have been destroyed in the last 30 years.

1,400 Pounds – potential weight of a northern bluefin tuna. Top predators like this one are vital to the ocean food chain.

90 Percent of large predatory fish populations—including cod, shark and bluefin tuna—have disappeared worldwide due to unsustainable fishing practices.

1 in 4 Of all marine species live in coral reef ecosystems. (It’s no wonder reefs are often called “the tropical rainforests of the ocean.”)

20 Percent of the world’s coral reefs have been lost to date. Another 20 percent are degraded.

70-80 Percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by the ocean. 

150,000+ Is the combined size in square miles of pollution-caused “dead zones”—marine habitats that no longer support oxygen-using species. That’s larger than the state of Montana. 

97 Percent of all water on earth is located in the planet’s oceans.

1 The number of “blue planets” called Earth.

 

In related news, Mary Beth and I will be doing Reef Check from the coast of the Dominican Republic during the first week of August! We will get to check the state of some reefs that are relatively untouched by other divers.  Hopefully this will mean that the reef is more pristine (though I hate blaming reef degradation on my fellow divers, we do have a large impact on the underwater environment), but even the most remote reefs have been showing stress.  Corals are extremely delicate animals (yes, they are animals!) and although they are also quite resilient, they can’t recover from the stress of pollution, disease, overfishing and heat if the stress never goes away! But that’s why we’re here! To show communities all around the Caribbean (including all of you in the US!!!) the importance of the reef systems and how to protect them!

How do you measure success?

Posted by Maria in Camp, Rainforest Camp, st lucia

This is my second summer in Saint Lucia and while it doesn’t actually surprise me that pretty much everyone can spot Mary Beth and me from a mile away, I always get a kick out of hearing the kids yell at us while we’re on the road – “MARYBETH! MARYBETH! When is camp!?!”

Our goal here is to work with the communities, especially the kids, and get them excited about their environment.  At Rainforest Camp, which is the last week in July, we take them to various place on the island (including the rainforest obviously, but also to see the reefs and mangroves) that they otherwise would probably not be able to visit.  We show them why they should appreciate and respect their environment, then teach them the means to do so. Since we have kids from communities from all over the island, we also have them meet with their community groups to come up with ideas to keep the kids active throughout the year.  And this year, I am actually moving to Saint Lucia to help them implement these ideas! (Although some of the groups have been doing a great job on their own!)

So we have excited kids, we have great community leaders, and hopefully I will be able to provide some extra resources for all of them in the next coming year.  It sounds to me like it’s gonna be a pretty successful year for Caribbean SEA!

Earth Day!

Posted by Maria in TenneSEA

This has been a busy week for us at Caribbean SEA – it’s Earth Week! We started off the week by visiting Calvin Donaldson Elementary School on Monday and Tuesday to show the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders how their everyday actions can affect everyone in Chattanooga, the United States, and the world!  They have a constructed wetland in their schoolyard that we used to talk to them about what makes it healthy and where the water comes from.  Then we showed them the tributary of Chattanooga Creek that runs behind the school – it has been concreted, is covered in algae and since it floods so easily, there was trash everywhere.  For each of the classes, we had the kids pick up (at least) one piece of trash (some got a little overzealous) and then they had to line up and pass each piece of trash down to the end person so they could see what would happen if everyone threw down one piece of trash.  That’s always the activity that hits them the hardest I think, and they have lots of fun with it! And we do too!! This program just amped us up even more for our “Kids 4 Clean Water” camps that we are having this summer!