Last Week of Work

Hard to believe that this past week was the final week of the actual internship! Good thing I have one more week here to relax :) This past Sunday we went to an island off the east coast of Mauritius called Ile Aux Cerfs.  Here you can do lots of fun water activities, and we went on a banana intertube thing that goes behind the boat. We also went parasailing! Once again I am amazed at the clarity of the water here in Mauritius. I just can't get enough!

We've worked a few times with a local NGO named Mission Verte who does most of the recycling in Mauritius.  They have bins set up around the country for people to come deposit their bottles, paper, and other recyclable goods.  We worked with them doing cleaning with locals this past Monday and Friday.  The woman who has been has been helping us from the NGO, Sofia, adopted a stray puppy on Monday! The dog was starving and a few people in our group found it and fed it.  There are tons of stray dogs everywhere in Mauritius.  A local we've been working with told us that there are around 200,000 stray dogs here. I asked why, and I was told that people adopt them and then realize they cannot take care of them.  Additionally, many people do not neuter their dogs which just exacerbates the problem.  The puppy that was saved on Monday was very close to starvation, and the vet wasn't sure he'd make it.  But he came to our cleaning campaign on Friday, and he was doing much better! He's very timid and not used to human affection, but he sat with me for a long time :) On Monday we also had a nice time with some of the neighborhood children who were very excited to meet people from other countries.  They were asking us if we would come back and visit them, and it's sad to think we may never get to see them again. However, it's so nice to be able to communicate with them in French, and it makes me really glad I chose this as my foreign language.  It'll be good for future travels in Africa.  At our cleaning campaign on Friday, a local little girl of about ten years old came and sat with me for a while.  Her whole family (she was 1 out of 7 children) lived in a small tin house under the overpass we were cleaning.  She was talking to me about how people purposefully bring their trash to this area to dump instead of putting it in a dumpster.  It's stories like this that really make it important to bring more awareness about the environment to the local people of Mauritius.  It's also so nice to be able to hear about the problems here from locals, especially children.

We had interesting workshop on Tuesday with the Red Cross of Mauritius.  They made a presentation about disaster preparation because of climate change.  It was very interesting because the guy really stressed the importance of getting the locals involved, which we have experienced first hand here in Mauritius.  If you can't get the local people on board, you won't be successful.  On Wednesday we planted mangrove trees in the north of the island.  These trees grow in the wetlands and provide a habitat for many marine animals.  We saw lots of little crabs in this area! I also spent a lot of my time this day playing with stray puppies....they were happy to get lots of food from us :) On Thursday we went back on our favorite catamaran trip (with free alcohol and food).  Last time we went we didn't make it to the island because the sea was too rough.  Luckily, we finally got there, and it was so worth it! 

Today we had our closing ceremony for the project with some members of the NGOs we have worked with and the members of the local AIESEC committee here.  We presented the projects we've been working on.  My group's project was about the coral reefs in Mauritius.  Almost the entire coast here is surrounded by coral reefs. In fact, Mauritius has the third largest reef system in the world! The waves break outside the reef, creating lagoons near the beach.  The tourism industry in Mauritius isn't good for the reefs because there's a lot of boating, scuba diving, and snorkeling that can be damaging.  It's a dilemma because tourism brings in so much money to Mauritius, and the coral reefs are a big draw. I've learned so much about this beautiful island throughout my time here. I wish I could stay longer!! Mauritius you are beaaaaautiful. 

Southern Road Trip & Awareness Campaigns

Last weekend we took a nice touristy road trip through the southern and south western part of the island. We first saw a crater lake in the heart of Mauritius that is a sacred Hindu place. As the legend goes, the water comes from the Ganges River in India.  There are statues different Hindu gods, a temple, and places for people to make their offerings.  It was awesome to see the Hindu relics and the like because we don't really have any of that in the US.  And their religious artifacts are so colorful!

We also went to one of the main tourist attractions in Mauritius called the Seven Colored Earths.  Here, the chemicals found in the soils transform it into different colors when it settles. I don't really know the scientific reasons for this, but it looks pretty awesome!

We've done some good helping the environment deeds this past week here in Mauritius.  One really big environmental problem here is that everyone just litters everywhere.  Everywhere you go there is trash on the ground.  We did a visit to a preprimary school to talk about recycling and throwing away your trash.  These children were very small, so we did fun activities for them such as making bracelets out of paper, throwing things into a pretty colored garbage, and a play about sea turtles getting stuck in plastic.  These children only spoke French, so those of us who know French had to take the lead in the activities.  The children seemed to really enjoy it, and when we gave them candy at the end, they all threw their wrappers away in the trash!

We also had a visit to a private elementary school to do a clean up and talk about the importance of recycling and not wasting things.  This was a very nice school, and the kids all spoke English.  They were also very educated about the environment and used terms like "biodegradable products".  One of their teachers told us they were doing a unit on the environment, and for good deeds they got "handprints" and for bad deeds they got "footprints" to signal a carbon footprint.  These children are much more fortunate than most of the children in Mauritius because they go to a very expensive private school and learn about protecting the environment.  This is not commonplace in Mauritius now, but hopefully in the next few years they will begin teaching the importance of environmental protection on this island nation.  

We also did a cleaning campaign at an old police station while some people from the local village.  The best part about this was that they took us in the back of a truck that collects sugar cane to the ocean.  We drove through the sugar cane fields on the dirt road to the seaside.  We saw many workers cutting down the sugar cane (or burning it in most cases). Truly great experience!

Catching Up

So we've had some internet issues here in Mauritius for a while, but now the internet is finally working on my computer yay! Life in Mauritius is amazing. I've been to the beach about four times in the last week :) In between lots of hard work of course...

We had two workshops this past week.  One was with a local NGO called EcoRaise where we discussed the environmental issues in Mauritius.  Many of these issues revolve around the hotel and tourism industries here.  The government wants to bring in the revenue, but many of the tourist activities are harmful to the marine environment.  Also, littering is a big problem in Mauritius, and even though there are fines in place, they are rarely enforced.  There's also a lack of trash cans around so people just throw their trash on the ground.  Also, it's very difficult to recycle here.  There's no recycling bins with your trash bin outside your house like there is in the US.  If you want to recycle, you have to take your cans and bottles to different centers around Mauritius, which can be very inconvenient.  We also brainstormed ideas from our respective countries that can be implemented here in Mauritius.  Another workshop we participated in was with an organization named Magic Fingers.  This is comprised of a group of women who mainly collect old fabric, especially those that textile mills do not want, to make various quilts, pillows, and other items.  They're stitching is amazing! They made us all phone cases, so I will always be able to remember them fondly.  They're dream is to get a fair trade label on their items and to be able to sell them in America and around the world.  We all wish these amazing women the best of luck.  

Today we took a catamaran trip with a bunch of the other interns.  We were supposed to go out to two islands off the northern coast of Mauritius, but the sea was too rough so we snorkeled and swam closer to shore.  The waves were huge on this boat, and we were all soaking wet by the time we were ready to go snorkel! But it was a beautiful day on the ocean, and we definitely want to take this trip again.  The northern part of Mauritius is where most of the tourists can be found.  It looks much different than the rest of the island, and there are very few local Mauritians in this area.  It's sad that tourists who only stay here and do not explore other parts of the island aren't really seeing the true Mauritius.  If you ever come here, make sure to actually immerse yourself in the local culture and not get stuck in the resort bubble!!

Lastly, thanks to everyone for all the birthday love!! With the time difference between here and California... it was like my birthday lasted for 2 days :) especially thanks to all my amazing friends here for making my birthday so special! XOXO

Black River Gorges & Ile Aux Aigrettes

On Tuesday, we went to a nature reserve called Black River Gorges.  It's a dense forest, and there are many hills in the park which we trekked up.  You can apparently see monkeys here, but we were not so lucky! However, we saw the very rare pink pigeon of Mauritius as well as some bats and foxes. There are raspberries and guava fruits growing on the bushes while you hike which we picked right off the branch to eat. Perfect for a snack! We had a very intense hike...the first part was almost straight vertical! We were all exhausted by the time we finally made it to the top. We hiked about 4 miles (7 km) up...We were greeted by a beautiful view of the ocean once we made it to the peak.  Such a grueling hike but worth it!

Today we went to an island off the coast of Mauritius called Ile Aux Aigrettes which is a nature preserve.  No one lives here, and you can only go to observe the wildlife.  The island is a coral island, unlike Mauritius which is a volcanic island.  It's much hotter on this island than on the mainland Mauritius because the coral traps in heat.  Here, they have different kinds of animals such as giant tortoises (and baby ones too!), fruit bats, different bird species only found on Mauritius, and fruit bats.  The giant tortoises just roam around the island, and you can see them while you are simply walking around! The tortoises live for about 150 to 200 years.  The fruit bats were showing off for us, spinning around and opening up their wings.  Fruit bats are awake in the day and night as we learned today.  Our guide was very informative, and we learned a lot about the unique animal species found on Mauritius. The island also is surrounded by crystal clear blue water, and it is truly gorgeous!

Global Village & Beach Cleaning

This past Saturday we took part in an awesome event put on by AIESEC Mauritius called the Global Village.  Here, all the interns here through AIESEC in Mauritius right now got together with their respective countries to present fun things about their native land.  There's about 130 of us interns here in Mauritius for the summer, and out of that about nine or ten Americans.  Each country had a different table where they presented food and other such knick knacks from their country.  We were represented by around thirty five different nations.  At our America table, we were grouped together with a girl from Puerto Rico, and we had lots of candy and coca cola to eat and drink.  We also had a bunch of sports jerseys and other American memorabilia, including a picture of the US men's swim team ;).

The best part about this was being able to taste all the different food from all over the world! I had food from Europe, Africa, and Asia all in one sitting.  Everything was so different and so good I couldn't get enough! Additionally, the different countries did traditional dances, songs, or other performances of their culture.  As America has no traditional dances...we did the cha cha slide :) Countries such as Pakistan and India had amaaazing traditional dances! The local Mauritian people came by, and it seemed that they really enjoyed being able to look into lots of different foreign cultures. 

Today, we went to a rock formation at the southern end of the island called La Roche Qui Pleure...which in French means the rock that cries.  It's named this because the waves are very strong and hit the rocks and splash up.  It's very steep here with cliffs in most of the area.  The waves and currents are really strong here, and swimming is not really a possibility.  There are sharks here from time to time, and today some people even saw a whale.  This is an extremely beautiful part of Mauritius where they want to build condos and block it off from the public.  The local Mauritian people are upset about this because then they will not have access to this part of the island.  This has been a common theme I've seen throughout my time in Mauritius.  Many of the local people are upset because they do not have access to their own beaches because they are blocked for private residences and hotels.  We did beach clean up at La Roche Qui Pleure today, and it was greatly needed! Many of the beaches here are filled with trash, and there are not very many trash bins around.  We picked up tons of broken glass and filled almost ten garbage bags with everything from chip bags to peanuts to plastic bottles.  It's great that we could help preserve this local landmark for the Mauritian community.