The senior trip was a new experience which i am so happy to have had. We traveled to Watamu beach first splitting our class into different service groups. Environment, Service, Creativity 1 and Creativity 2. As part of the Environment strand we were able to to go the Turtle watch, Create beach art with recycled material and learnt about the projects going on to preserve the Watamu beach.
The first thing we did was a beach clean up as an entire grade, all 80 of us were let lose onto the beach with plastic bags and picked up all the trash found on the beach. This trash was then used for the Creativity strand, which worked with Andrew McNaughton Creating art pieces out of garbage found up and down the beach.
As part of the Environment strand we first learnt of the different projects in effect to clean up the beach and preserve the natural beauty of Watamu. The main one we focused on was the project of beach recycling implemented by Steve. We took the left over garbage that we had picked up in our first activity, and took it to the work shop, where we learnt about what they do to the material found on the beaches. It turns out they have a machine that grinds the pieces into little pellets which can be sold for a profit. This is how the whole operation works. After seeing the inner workings of the operation we went onto the beach and started to create our beach art.
We were put into different groups, and set out to create our own art. My group decided to make me into a Mermaid, this took us about an hour, to dig the shape our of the sand, put me into the whole piece and then decorate it with bottle caps found along of the beach. The art we created is going to be used on the website of the Watamu conservation project, showing students engagement with local community projects.
The next thing we were able to see as the environment group was the Turtle watch institution, we were exposed to what they do on the beach. Which is rehabilitate injured turtles and release the turtles they find after they are well enough. We were able to meet two turtles one suffering from a growth disorder and the other one whose shell was disfigured due to an accident with a fishing boats propeller. Once we were able to learn about the way they were able to help turtles were also able to see them release a turtle. It was a wonderful experience, the turtle had be caught in local fishing net and was brought to the Turtle watch.
The entire trip was a huge learning experience and i was so glad to have been able to learn to much about environment conservation. On top of the activities mentioned above we went snorkeling to see the preserved part of the ocean. It was a wonderful experience and we got to see tons of fish which were very peaceful and beautiful. The trip had one more additional activity of choice which of me was Swahili cooking this was a very interesting experience as we got to see the methods of cooking which we do not use within our individual cultures.
All in all this trip was the greatest learning experience and has even inspired me to go back to Watamu during my Easter break. I want to go back and work with the turtle watch, and learn more about the Watamu conservation programs.
I learnt so much during this trip, and was a great way to end my senior year!
All the cas projects we were able to join and help with really opened up my eyes to my community and really made we want to help with further projects.
