Our half-shelled friends

http://www.coldwaterimages.com/green_sea_turtle.html

On one of our first nights at Mwamba we received a phone call that sent us sprawling towards the beach. Watamu Turtle Watch called to tell us that there was a nest of turtle eggs due to hatch at any moment right in front of Mwamba. We scrambled for our camera and ran to the beach as fast as possible. This rapid assembly proved to be unnecessary as it was another 1.5 hours before they finally emerged from beneath the sand. However, by the time we had arrived at the site a small depression in the sand was visible. Depressions are created when sand fills up space created by turtles hatching from their eggs. This is a clear sign that the turtles are soon to come to the surface.

Patiently waiting for the baby turtles to appear.

This nest of eggs had been moved from where they had been laid to a safer spot further up the beach. A major threat to sea turtle population is changes to the beach through either 'natural' habitat disturbance or human developments encroaching on their breeding grounds. Watamu Turtle Watch has people walking up and down the beach every single night of the year to both protect female turtles from poachers as they come up to lay and to move nests to safety if required. The Watamu Turtle Watch centre is just down the road from us. Anna and I visited the centre with a group of students that were here for an ASSETS camp. They do a great job of educating the public about sea turtles. They also have a turtle rehab for sick and injured turtles. Most of these turtles come in as a result of fishing or consuming plastic. Over the years Watamu Turtle Watch has helped rescue and care for thousands of turtles.

Tour of the sea turtle rehabilitation centre at Watamu Turtle Watch with students from the ASSETS camp.

Back on the beach, just as it was getting dark about 8 turtle hatchlings burst forth from the sand and dashed towards the ocean. Normally at least 50 turtles would hatch at a time, so the remaining eggs were recovered with sand in case they might hatch later that evening. Our role was to slowly walk with them until they got to the water, protecting them from any tempted crab. We didn’t take photos until they were in the water, to avoid confusing them with the flash. My adopted turtle, Bob, was quick off the mark beating a few of his siblings to the water but struggled to make it through the surf. However his persistence paid off and away he went into the big wide ocean. If Bob survives to adulthood and if he is actually a she, Bob will return to this very spot in about 25 years to lay some eggs of her own.

Go, Bob go!

  Facts about sea turtles:

• they spend about 95% of their time under water
• they cannot retract their head or limbs into their shell
• it is estimated that only 1 in 1000 hatchlings reach reproducing age
• Leatherback turtles can grow to 3 meters in length and weigh almost a tonne
• sea turtles are born with magnetite in their brain so that they can relocate their birth place and lay eggs at exactly the same place

In Between Stays Part II

Anna and I have discovered a way to avoid jet lag from an overnight flight. When you arrive at your destination head straight to bed for 2-4 hrs making sure you are up for the next appropriate meal. Then be sure to stay up until a reasonable going-to-bed hour that night.  This simple procedure has been used to successfully avoid jet lag on four occasions!

We arrived at Heathrow Airport, London at 7 am. We disembarked and immediately found a seat to tuck into our in-flight breakfast snack (handed out at 4 am), which we had stashed away to provide sustenance at a more proper hour. After collecting our belongings and declaring the 30 mL half empty bottle of gin we sneaked off the plane, we caught a bus to Southall. As part of the unofficial 'A Rocha world tour' we decided to stay at A Rocha UK for the few days we were in London. Once we had arrived, we carried out our aforementioned, soon to be patented, jet lag avoidance procedure with great success.

I am starting to suspect that all A Rochas are very similar. No matter what country, it seems that if you stay with them for as a little as a day you begin to feel like you are right at home with some more of your extended family. It was great to meet volunteers from Czech Republic, Slovakia, France...as well as the excellent staff, especially Kailean and Kim Khongsia (centre coordinators originally from India) who were wonderful hosts making sure we felt at home at the centre. We also were able to catch up with Sarah Leedham whom we had meet back in Canada on a trip to Manning Park. Southall is a lively place with over 55% of the population being Indian/Pakistani and only 10% being white British. We went out for a curry, walked through Minet Country Park (the park that A Rocha UK transformed) and ate a cup of corn from a street vendor. Unfortunately we stayed at A Rocha UK over the weekend, when everything was quiet and just missed out on the big volunteer BBQ by one night.

One of the highlights of our stay was going to church with Kailean and Kim and being invited around with them to Elizabeth's place for lunch. Not only did we get a tasty Sunday roast, we were treated to the hilarious banter of Eileen, a retired missionary to India.  

The Rosetta Stone and standing like an Egyptian

During our stay, we checked out a lot of the museums and galleries in the London (they're free!!!). The British Museum was a highlight yet again, with all the ancient artifacts (including the Rosetta Stone) that were pilfered whilst Britain was still an empire. We splashed out on visiting the Tower of London (with a 2For1 voucher) and both volunteered to help fire the catapult. Somehow the girls were the only team to get one of the water balloons going forward. So I guess the girls won because we had too much power!?

Big Ben

From London we headed due west to Bristol to visit my former PhD labmate Emma (and Brendan) who is postdocing at the University of Bath. Emma took us for a walking tour of Bristol that included a visit of John Wesley's first chapel. The chapel was a treasure trove of Wesleyan relics (including a lock of his hair) alongside interesting information about his life and the Methodists (initially a derogatory name - just like Christians). We also made jam from wild blackberriess growing in a bingo carpark.

Emma making blackberry jam

Northward we rode to Liverpool. Though the Beatles are the usual draw card to this slightly depressed city, we were here to visit with another labmate Ben and his girlfriend Kat. More museums were visited - including an excellent Shackleton exhibition and the International Slavery Museum, which was depressing and overwhelming to say the least. There are more slaves today than there ever were.

Ben is a football fanatic who choose to live in Liverpool for his team rather than the exciting work opportunities. Our visit coincided with the first round of the Europa league, so off we went to see Liverpool FC beat a Macedonian team 2-0 at Anfield. Watching football at Anfield is nothing, absolutely nothing like any rugby game I have ever been to. The crowd was charged with football fever. They cheered and clapped in deafening unison. They sung their hearts out and stood for the full second half as Liverpool were playing towards us.  

The long bus ride north to Edinburgh via Glasgow was delightfully interrupted by a stop at a farm store where we bought the best ever roasted-garlic-clove-and-rosemary leaves-covered focaccia bread. MMMM, mmmm. (Anna says it was the highlight of her UK visit.) Our stay in Edinburgh coincided with the beginning of the Edinburgh festival. The streets were packed with tourists and performers alike. To my great delight the baked potato store I enjoyed in 2006 was still there and even had the very same topping I was after. We had booked to see one event during the festival - a Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon) solo show. I had been a fan since 2003 and this was my first opportunity to see Neil live. And he didn't disappoint. We made sure we were right up the front with a good view of him banging on the keys and strumming away. The crowd was in great form, filling in for the orchestra in many songs. Great fun.

Neil Hannon - the Divine Comedy

The next morning I collected a rental car and we undertook a 3-day tour-de-Scotland. First we headed down to Hawick  to see the house that Anna's great grandmother was born in.

 16 Duke St, Hawick (pronounced hoick)

We turned around and headed for Inverallochy in the northeastern corner of Scotland. On the way we stopped to explore Dunnottar Castle. This ruined castle is nestled on a protruding cliff face surrounded by the sea and home to many seabirds. Back in the day, William Wallace torched the chapel when a regiment of English soldiers was hiding in it. We stayed with wee Sarah (a Scottish volunteer that spent 3 months with us at A Rocha Canada) and her family up in Inverallochy. It was so lovely to see someone from A Rocha Canada again. We relived so many stories and caught up with the goss. We went for a beach walk to the next village, passing a whole lot of concrete blocks that were placed along the coast to make life difficult for any German tanks that might have landed there.

That afternoon we departed for a B&B in Kilravock Castle, near Inverness. We were the only ones staying that night so we had the whole place to ourselves. We strolled around like king and queen, attempted to play squash and tennis before retreating to our room in a converted 13th century stables. A full cooked breakfast was enjoyed in the castle's dining hall before our early departure to Edinburgh via Loch Ness and Glencoe. This part of the journey had the most beautiful scenery, especially the rugged hills around Glencoe.

Paddling in Loch Ness and hiking the hills around Glencoe

The very next morning we embarked on an epic 20-hour trip from Edinburgh to London (train) to Cairo (plane) to Nairobi (plane) arriving at 4 am. Thankfully we had arranged to crash during the day at the parents of someone in A Rocha International. Driving through Nairobi in the dark is quite scary. At 4.30 am there are already people walking or cycling to work on the edges of the road. The taxi driver got lost a few times and only after two phone calls did we finally make it to the right address. Again we went straight to bed and awoke in the right time zone. The Owen's were excellent hosts who fed us and sorted out train tickets and arranged for us to get dropped off at the train station. When we were about to leave for the train, I realised that I was missing 70 USD and a 50 CAD travelers cheque. I had the 50 USD note that very morning in the  airport but I had no idea how I lost it or had it stolen. Thankfully we have travelers insurance to cover those sort of incidents and we still had enough money to buy our train tickets. We boarded the overnight train to Mombasa in 1st class style complete with a 2 person sleeper cabin, dinner and breakfast. In the early morning, I awoke at a standstill, realising that the train had broken down. On the positive side that meant we went right through Tsavo East National Park during the daylight and we could see elephants, zebras and monkeys whilst we enjoyed our breakfast. A fun way to travel.

Getting into Mombasa 3 hours late, in the rain and with loads of luggage caused to me to give in to the bargaining of a taxi driver to take us right to Mwamba instead of catching a couple of matatus. It turns out that we got an excellent deal for the 1.5 hour trip to Mwamba stopping at an ATM and supermarket for only 3000 Ksh (~$50 NZ) instead of the usual cost of at least 5000 Ksh. And thus the journey finally ended with us safe and sound at A Rocha Kenya on the coast of Kenya.

In Between Stays Part I

Last week Thursday we finally arrived at the Mwamba Field Study Centre in Watamu on the coast of Kenya after a marathon journey starting at Tuesday 6 am in Edinburgh and ending at 4 pm two days later.
 
Saying goodbye to the Surrey Field Study Centre was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. Anna and I went for a final tour around the property to farewell our 'home' for the final time. Almost everyone got up early to see us off before Matt, Roxy and Abigail drove us to the airport. I still get sad remembering that morning. But alas, it was time to go onto other adventures.

Our first destination was New York City to visit Melissa, an old flatmate of Anna's, and her growing family (their 3rd child was born just one week after we left). We flew into Toronto, headed straight into town and caught an overnight bus to New York. Sadly, in my confused semi-asleep state, I left my Hawaii cap behind on the bus :(.

We couldn't have hoped for a better way to recover from leaving the centre. We had heaps of time just relaxing around their house and looking after Natalie and Abel and talking church and theology. The timing of our visit could not have been better, with our hosts having been invited to dinner at Ben and Franci Hoyt's new pad in Brooklyn. We arrived at their place - it looked like we had entered the set of Seasame Street. I was wary of any lurking trash cans. It was great to catch up with some more friends from home and to have the rare opportunity to speak Kiwi. On Monday, Melissa's husband Nathan (the pastor of a Hispanic church plant) took us into the big apple to see the sites including: the Statue of Liberty (from a distance), the golden 'calf', Wall St, a huge book store and the highlight - Central Park. That apple is big indeed. Is it sad to say that my highlight of the New York trip was visiting Queens County Farm Museum with Abel and Natalie? It reminded me so much of home back in Canada.

 Dinner at the Hoyt's

Central Park

Miss Liberty

Natalie checking out the sunflowers at the farm museum

After 4 days we farewelled the Ketchen's and headed back to Toronto by bus to stay with Paul and Jenny Abell and their daughter Victoria, whom we met at the A Rocha team retreat. It was great to catch up with them and see some of the A Rocha work Paul is involved in. We helped at one of the weekly(!) stewardship events he leads at Warden Woods, pulling out invasive weeds that were beginning to smother recently planted trees. They were super great hosts, giving up their bed for us and then even lending us their car!

 Walking along Lake Ontario, pre-swim.

We cruised down to St Catherines for a few days, staying with the Stares. More chilling out ensued, punctuated with trips to the Niagara Falls, Fort George (with demonstration musket shows) and a walk up to Ball's Falls. The Stares are super tour guides. On the first night at St Catherine, we headed out to Lake Ontario to watch the sunset. Right on the lake front is a restored carousel (merry-go round) that was donated to the region on the condition they keep the price at 5c. This was my chance to finally ride the classic fair fare and ride we did.

Sunset on Lake Ontario with a silhouette of Toronto

Niagara Falls

Table rock on the way to Ball's Falls

 Al, Lydia, Rebecca and Anna at Ball's Fall

From St Catherines we headed back to Toronto via Hamilton, where we stopped to have lunch with Christina, a tutor from Anna's teaching college. We returned the car and farewell the Abells one last time.

It was really special to be able to spend so much time visiting with friends in the East and a fitting way to finish our time in North America.

A trip to the A Rocha Farm in Whiterock - blog post by West Coast Seeds

http://www.gardenwisdom.ca/index.php/field-trips/a-trip-to-the-a-rocha-farm-in-whiterock/comment-page-1/

The Halfway Holler

Greetings one and all!

So here we are, having just completed our 6 month stay at the A Rocha Canada's Surrey Field Study Centre and soon to begin our 6 month stay at the Mwamba Field Study Centre in Kenya. We thought now would be a good time to update you all on some of our work and adventures and a little of what we’ve been learning along the way.

We arrived in Vancouver on the 2nd of February just a few weeks before the Olympics kicked off. It was thrilling to finally begin our big OE year and it didn’t take long for us to feel totally at home at the centre in White Rock, Surrey; about a 45 minute drive from the city, and a 10 minute walk to the beach and US border. We quickly came to love the lifestyle at the centre – beautiful grounds with large vege gardens, free range chickens, ponds, a small forest and even resident Highland cows. We enjoyed the weekly rhythm of the place too – Tuesday to Saturday work week, daily prayers, shared meals, weekly bible studies and music times to keep working on the guitar skills.

The challenge of the first month or so was working out exactly how we would be involved. Volunteers usually choose one field to work on – conservation science, education or agriculture. The natural choice for Lynton was conservation science but we arrived in winter, at the quietest time of year for the centre, and had to wait for spring before any science projects could begin. Glad for the break from teaching, I was reluctant to become fully occupied with the education field so it took some time to work out where I could participate.

This period of uncertainty provided a good opportunity to reflect on the hectic time schedules we used to have back at home with work, commuting, youth work, committee meetings, and more work. It was so refreshing to be in a place where work did not define and absorb us completely, and to remember that our worth is not measured by how productive we can be.

And before long we both ended up with plenty to work on! As we waited for spring, Lynton got stuck into removing invasive weeds from the property. Then together (and with the help of another volunteer Stan) we began a frog survey. For the month of March we took one day a week to walk around 16 ponds on 7 different sites all found in the Little Campbell River watershed. We were repeating a survey conducted by a science intern the year before which involved slowly walking around each pond looking for egg masses from the threatened Northern Red Legged Frog and also recording sightings of some other salamander and frog species. Lynton completed the project by writing up a report of the findings as well as sending a letter to pond owners with information about how they can enhance the habitat on their land for Northern Red Legged Frogs.

For the remainder of our time, I was occupied with a number of projects. In April as the weather got warmer, school groups began to visit a couple times a week and I would help lead them. The programs were typically geared for hands on encounters with nature – pond dippings, collecting eggs, looking for bugs, birds and frogs etc. For many city children, going to the centre is a rare opportunity to get out into the outdoors and see creatures they might otherwise never see. It was great to see their excitement when seeing a rough skinned newt or bald eagle or Highland cow (or worm!) for the first time.

I also had the privilege of being able to spend a lot of time producing some art work for the centre. There are a couple dozen chickens onsite and when we came most of us could not identify the names of the different breeds. I painted a series of acrylic paintings of 7 different chickens. These paintings now hang at Brooksdale Farm (the new site that A Rocha Canada is moving to later this year) in rooms that will likely be used for guest accommodations. I also made some posters and flashcards for educational purposes so we could learn the names of the different breeds. The paintings have recently been used to make gift cards to be sold in the store on site as well. That project was quickly followed by another – painting about 40 signs for the vegetable garden.

Some of Lynton’s time was spent organising the creation of a preliminary biological inventory of Brooksdale Farm. He held a bioblitz at the farm with 15 volunteers identifying over 190 species during the course of 6 hours. The data collected will assist the development of a well-informed management plan that will enhance and nurture life at Brooksdale. Lynton also put his science skills to work in supervising the conservation science interns that arrived for the summer. Halfway through our stay, Lynton was given the opportunity to attend the 2010 Pastor's conference at Regent College on Science and Faith. Regent College graciously gave him a scholarship to help cover a lot of the conference fee and allowed me to attend one day of the conference for free. He thoroughly enjoyed the theological stimulation and excellent bookstore housed on campus (Anne-Marie’s short but action packed visit provided him with a way to get all his new books home).

It certainly wasn’t all work and no play for us though – in June we had the opportunity to hire a car and travel around BC for a week. We spent the first couple of days staying at a holiday home belonging to a family of the one of the staff at A Rocha. Then we headed east into a desert area called the Okanagan.  There we stayed with a former intern from the centre who now works in a Rattle Snake Recovery program. She took us out to hunt for the snakes with a quick safety briefing (look out for falling rocks, poison ivy, and hidden snakes.) Using a radio telemetry receiver, we managed to find a couple transmitter-tagged rattle
snakes hidden under piles of rocks.

The next day we headed north up to the Rockies. It was great being able to drive into campsites and pitch our tents in spots with stunning views of the mountains. We were keen to do a 2 night hike but it was pretty early in the season and most back country sites were still closed due to snow. But we managed to find a hike that was open in Banff National Park. A 5½ hour walk took us into a simple campsite next to a frozen lake. We had to spend a fair bit of time hanging out in the tent trying to keep dry, and we were very diligent to keep our campsite free of bear-attracting food scraps. All our food could be hung in bags high up in the trees that were hauled up by a pulley system. The views and wildlife we loved, Camping in Yoho National Park the threat of bears and lack of camping huts made me miss NZ hiking. Then we finished our holiday by heading to Banff, a tourist mecca just inside the state of Alberta. The hotel, the roof top spa, the specialty shops were all welcome luxuries after roughing it in a tent, so it was a good way to end the holiday before making the 10 hour drive back to the centre the following day.

 Camping at Yoho National Park

Over the 6 months we observed the field study centre being a place of learning about God's creation and His care for it - for school kids through to adults, a place of healing for broken people and a life giving place through good food, faith and fellowship.

We come away from our time at the centre greatly enriched. One area in particular is our relationship to food. Living on an organic, sustainable farm, watching documentaries and enjoying table fellowship have all challenged our view of food. We have come away with a greater appreciation of God's role as provider, greater respect for lives of the creatures that feed us and realisation that food is more than just nutrients. It holds the power to draw us to thankfulness, to create community and provide much joy and celebration rather than distancing us from creation and damaging ourselves and the earth as so much 'food' does today. Our experiences of living more simply and in community have also shaped us for how we want to live in the future.

We have a few weeks now on the other side of the continent visiting friends in Toronto and New York before heading to Kenya via the UK. We are very thankful to God for all that we experienced in Canada and look forward to moving to the whole new world that is Africa.

Because of Him,

Anna and Lynton Baird

PS. You can follow us at our blog and see photos of the trip on flickr:
http://www.lyntonandanna.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyntonandanna