I'm going to try something a little different than my last few posts and see where it takes me! I want to introduce myself and then tell you a little about my journey where I spent about a year and 3 months abroad!
Hi there, this is me, my name is Sean.
I haven't done a lot of traveling throughout my life but I was blessed enough to have the opportunity to travel abroad for about seven months. During that seven months, I saw myself becoming the person I wanted to be and found that I have a desire to keep traveling. Not only do I want to keep traveling, I want to share my travels with others by taking photos and writing about my experiences in a way that inspires others.
Before I started my journey I was sort of a recluse that never really left the house, I played video games, I ordered the things I needed online, and I didn't really talk to a lot of people. I kept to myself because I felt like a burden to anyone that I decided to interact with, it got so bad that I even had a hard time buying things at a store because I felt like a burden to the cashier.
Moving forward to when I was told that I could do a six-month conservation internship where I would spend three months doing coral reef research and the other three getting my dive masters, I won't lie to you, I never thought I could do it. I was filled with dread that I'd let this opportunity pass by because of all the self-doubt I had about traveling, meeting people, working, studying, diving for the first time, being in a new place, what do I eat, will they like me, will I do well, burden, burden, burden. That's what my mind was dealing with and then I decided to just let go and accept the internship, once I accepted it there was no backing out and I had to go through these experiences burden or not.
The day arrived where it was time for me to go, I bought everything I thought I'd need for any situation and triple checked that it was all there and packed away. The total travel time I had ahead of me from Ohio in the United States to Mahé in the Seychelles was about thirty-five hours. I was really nervous about checking in and then getting onto my flight but it wasn't too bad as most people in airports tend to keep to themselves and I was able to read on my kindle or play on my 3DS without dealing with anyone. I was lucky enough to get a row to myself on my fifteen-hour flight over the Atlantic Ocean where I was able to easily fall asleep for most of the trip. After a few layovers and a few flights, I finally made it to Mahé, all I had left to do was pick up my luggage and look for the person that was meant to pick me up holding up my sign.
As it was part of a volunteer project there were others on the plane that were also getting picked up for the same project and even a few for other projects around the island. I was really nervous so I didn't really say much at the start as I didn't want to bother anyone but then someone suggested introducing ourselves and I found out that everyone was from all over the world and two people were also from the states, one of them even from the same state as me. So a conversation with the two of them was pretty easy to start and be active in, which then lead to being more comfortable to talk with the others. We had about a two-hour ride in a van through the rain where we were winding our way up massive hills and had several close calls with the crazy public bus drivers, they speed around those corners! Everyone was dropped off at their prebooked hotels for the night.
The view from my hotel!
I stayed at a place called Coral Strand because it was within walking distance of the pickup point. The hotel turned out to be really nice, the rooms were a little small but overall they were really clean, there were three restaurants attached, and the beachfront view was amazing. I spent all afternoon and night just walking the beach and going for a swim a few times. I was feeling really anxious so I couldn't work myself into going to one of the restaurants so I ended going to sleep pretty early. I was feeling better in the morning so I was able to go to the buffet breakfast, as I wasn't really sure what food I'd be eating while at base for the internship I decided to gourge myself on all the food I could get my hands on!
So I packed all of my stuff and started walking over to the pickup point filled with anxiety but determined to get over it. I was the first one at the point but within a half hour people started to trickle in and I met a few of them as the staff members showed up to pack us into vans and take us to base! This time the van ride wasn't so bad as I sat next to one of the people I previously met the day before and starting a conversation was pretty easy which made talking to the others easy. After making it to Cap Ternay (our new home for the next three months) we had lunch, introduced ourselves again, and then went over all the facilities at the camp.
The living quarters were three massive co-ed rooms that fit all the volunteers with two bathrooms, one for males and the other for females.
This would be my bed for the next three months, it's not much but I made it my own and I rather enjoyed coming back here at the end of each day of hard work!
After going over the camp the rest of the day was spent just relaxing, getting to know everyone, and taking everything in. There happened to be a massive hammock in the middle of the camp so I decided I'd spend a few hours there to take a nap as meeting everyone and going over everything was exhausting.
Oh and I can't forget the camp dog, Pringles!
The next few days we were to go over how to do our chores and how the diving would work. Each week we were put into teams that would do chores together for the whole week, we were allowed to ask others to help or offer help as long as everything got finished. Now to the chores that we had to do!
Kitchen duty was my least favorite as I never really enjoyed cooking large meals. The group would have to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the entire group including staff members. Sometimes you'd be unlucky and have a few of your team off on a dive for one or two of the meals but in the end, everyone made it work and everyone always got fed, well most of the time.
Tank duty is where you'd spend your time filling dive tanks which a lot of people really enjoyed as you got to spend an hour and a half alone while reading, studying, or whatever you like. For newbies like us though, we had to sit in on others filling tanks with the compressor so that we could learn how to do it before getting signed off to do it solo.
Boat group wasn't too bad but some days if you were unlucky you'd have to get up earlier than everyone else to take the boat out before low tide. The major duty for this one was to make sure the dunk tanks were full so that people could clean the gear after each dive group. After all the dives were finished for the day the life jackets would get cleaned and hung up along with cleaning the area of all sand, sometime after dinner the BCDs(Buoyancy Control Device) and life jackets would have to be taken into the kit room to be locked away for the night.
Lastly was the grounds duty which was to keep the camp clean by going over the yard, cleaning the dorms, and cleaning the bathrooms. Pretty straightforward duty and pretty easy to do and could be done really fast if everyone was helping.
Now how the diving works! This was the whole reason I wanted to do this internship, I have wanted to be in the ocean and helping it for as long as I can remember and I was lucky enough to have this as my workplace for the next three months, Baie Ternay Marine National Park!
The diving was a little hectic at first as we were put into very large groups to power out our advanced open water certification which was a lot of fun. After that, things started to slow down as we were put into smaller groups based on our subjects of study. I was in the coral group(the other group being fish) with three others and two mentors. Studying coral was challenging and a lot of hard work but I absolutely enjoyed it and would do it again. For the next three months we learned several species of corals and how to survey them. Before we were considered eligible to do a survey where our data was collected we had to take species tests for our assigned corals and do several mock surveys until we passed.
I quickly became obsessed with diving and how magical the underwater world is and I can't wait to continue sharing my story with you! Until part two!
