Pieces falling into place

Hello everyone,

this time i really exaggerated... i haven't posted in ages! I'm sorry.. things have been pretty busy here lately.
The new batch of volunteers finally arrived: Ellen, Sandra and Caroline; our Project Scientist and Science Officer arrived as well: Jess and Marina... as you all know I've been waiting for them for a while, wanting to ask them loads of questions to understand the reasons behind certain choices.
In the past week they've been incredibly helpful... all my doubts have been cleared and we've been working together to get the Marine Internship Program up to date; all the new presentation are ready and we're gonna start teaching tomorrow.
Jess is really an endless pit of knowledge, and really fun too! She met Marina while working for Action Quest last year (an american summer-school like program in the Caribbean) and offered her a job at Shallow Waters for a semester. Too bad it wasn't me! :-P
The good news is that i looked into what Action Quest does and it seems really really really interesting. I'd love to go work there but i have to do my Scuba Instructor course first (IDC). I've been looking at scuba schools that offer some kind of internship program to pay off the fees for the course, but i haven't found anything appropriate yet. It seems like I'll have to paint another house to get the money to do the course... but I'm sure it will be completely worth the trouble.
Anyhow, no need to think too much ahead of myself... i still have 2 weeks here at Shallow Waters and 3 weeks of tourism around Cambodia. There's still loads of time.
I'm starting to feel really sad about leaving this place; I've only been here 3 months but if feels like it's exactly what i want my life to be, with some tiny adjustments here and there. Jess and I have been talking about the possibility of coming back as a staff member next year, once I've done my IDC. Half year here and half working for Action Quest sounds exactly like what i need. Fingers crossed.
Today i'll start organizing my trip around Cambodia. I think i'll spend the first 4 or 5 days in the Kampot reagion (suthern part of the country) and then work my way up to Siem Reap (where the temple city of Angkor is). From there Ill go to the eastern part of the country and then back to Phnom Penh to catch my flight on the 18th. It's a very generic plan for now, I'll look into it in more detail today and tomorrow. One thing is for sure: expect loads of photos. I haven't been taking any here but i'll make up for it, i promise. :-)

Rain, Rain... More Rain.

Hello everyone!

Its been a while...  and we've changed location since the last post...
We finally arrived on Koh Sdach, at Shallow Waters Headquarters! Yay!
The trip from Sihanoukville was pretty long... about 6-7 hours on a delivery boat, counting all the stops along the way... but it was enjoyable... and most importantly, dry.
This cannot be said about Koh Sdach instead. It's been raining practically non stop since we got here. Now i see why they call it the rainy season.
Anyhow, there's a lot of "office" work for us to do anyway, so we're not missing out on much. Sofia and Owen have been going through all the welcoming speeches for the new volunteers and updating the emergency action protocols, while i've been working on the ID presentations for almost 4 days now. Inverts down, fish and corals still to go. :-S

Its a very time consuming job, but its turning out to be quite interesting and the final product is like 1000 times better than how it was before. I should have studied to be a designer or something like that instead. :-P
The base itself is really nice... a whole different world compared to the dorms in Koh Rong Sanloem. It has a huge hall, big rooms and a really nice patio in the back that looks directly to the sea.
After getting used to the simple life on Koh Rong being in this "huge" (600 families) village feels like being in a metropolis. Shops at every corner (there are no corners, its just the usual loooong main straight road), people everywhere and foooood! Yes, food! Theres even a man who sells croissant ice cream sandwiches out of a cool box on the back of his bicycle! For 20 euro cents! He's definitely the most important man on the island... at least as far as i'm concerned.
Yesterday we started Khmer lessons with our new teacher... Owen is using a Phonetic-to-Khmer book which is making me way more interested in learning the phonetic alphabet rather than Khmer. Luckily we've got some spare time on our hands these next 2 weeks (before the next volunteers come in) so i guell ill be studying both.
Our cook is really nice... she's Sea's sister... doesn't speak a word of english but we manage to understand each other somehow... and she cooks really well! The portions are way smaller compared to Eco Sea though. :-(
I think i'm gonna meet the owners of the 2 guesthouses on the island this or next week...they both have an oven so i need to befriend them so i can cook something nice. Im thinking banana bread. Yum!
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Aaaaaand it started raining again. Pouring actually.
The roof of the base is made of metal so it gets reeeeeally loud sometimes. Good thing i'm not a light sleeper.
Not many photos to share with you this time around... just a couple of the base.
Gotta get back to looking up fish on the internet...

Cya all soon!