Okt
8
Written by:
frank zindel
08.10.2009
October 8, 2009 - Joana Hancock
October 3rd. The end of a season. Or nearly. In this day we conducted our last night patrols. Turtles have been coming to nest irregularly, with emergences decreasing notoriously. Volunteers and soldiers showed signs of tiredness, and motivation was running lower, since it was harder and harder to see turtles. Still, while volunteers spirits still stayed high, soldiers, unsatisfied with their sergeant (who had very little authority and interest in them), and accusing internal problems as a group, between themselves and their leader, decided to take matters in their own hands and boycott all the work, in protest against their sergeant. Although they admitted to Turtle Foundation that this was an internal issue, and had nothing to do with our team or our volunteers, or the turtles and the related work, the situation of chaos and anarchy among them led us to make the decision of finishing the season almost 2 weeks earlier, since there were no conditions to run the night patrols. This, added to the fact that we had to move our headquarters from the kindergarden to the local sports centre, which had no living conditions, led to even more tension, and this sad decision had to be made. These were the hardest 5 days in the season, when we could only watch events develop, as we had no authority over the soldiers, so it was very frustrating.
 |
|
Moving our headquaters from the kindergarden to the local sports
centre, Photo: Magdalena Swierkowska
|
We were all quite disturbed with these events. The previous group of soldiers had been truly inspiring and amazing, and we developed even friendships with them. Most had requested to stay with us until the end of the season, to give follow up to the great work they were doing. Unfortunately, internal military rules made a change of soldiers necessary, and everything changed from then. It was unbelievable how things could change so quickly, and have such a great impact. Our primary concern when we sent the last group of soldiers home, was the killing at the beaches, but we were relieved to see that there were no casualties in the days that followed. Locals showed their support, and welcomed us to set a meeting and discuss how they can help more in the next season. We are excited about sharing our ideas and hearing some of theirs!
On the other hand, we saw this as an opportunity to have more time to plan educational activities, and have since then, engaging in the preparation of several activities with local school kids, town people in Norte area, turtle releases and such. So there is still plenty of work to do, and it will be fun too!! So after the storm, bright sun again.
Tags: