GVI.2014.2  

 

Achievement  report  June  2014    

 Report  Title  Camp  Improvements  for  Curieuse    Objective  Improve  living  conditions  for  GVI  staff  and  volunteers  through  the  continued  development  of  the  Curieuse  Island  expedition  base    Summary  Along with the scientific work on the flora and fauna of Curieuse, the GVI Curieuse pro-gramme has seen the completion of ambitious construction projects performed on base in the month of June. For three weeks in June, the programme had two construction volunteers: Rickesh and Sofia. Staff had basic ideas for various projects, and Rickesh and Sofia were able to go above and beyond what was expected due to their creativity and hard work.  The GVI Curieuse programme was developed to aid in terrestrial conservation with the Sey-chelles National Park Authority on Curieuse. Volunteers join this expedition to join surveys involving tortoises, sea turtles, Coco de Mers, mangroves, birds, etc. Although Curieuse is a stones-throw from Praslin, it is an uninhibited island, and therefore camp is quite basic. All food and water has to be brought by boat each week, along with any other essentials. The ex-isting buildings on camp (i.e. the dorms, staff house, and kitchen) are remnants from when Curieuse was occupied by a leper colony, and provided a good start for building a camp. The kitchen is large and although organized, had plenty of room for improvement. With help from Science Officer Alan and Base Manager Dan, the two construction volunteers were able to revamp the space that wasn’t being utilized. They used old bed frames, which were being stored in a tent, and created a new bread-making space. Bread is made everyday on base,

sometimes multiple times a day. It is made in the same workspace that is used for chopping and meal preparation. When there are a lot of people on camp, and a lot of people to cook for on camp, the cooking space was always cramped. The new bread making station will allow unused space to be utilized and also relieve space for designated meal preparation. Not only is it much more convenient, but the new station is sturdier, specifically for bread kneading.

In conjunction with the building of the kitchen work-station the volunteers have been busy rat-proofing the kitchen. The bulk of this has been completed with pur-chased chicken wire, but was put to a halt due to the lack of chicken wire for pur-chase on Praslin. Once it is available, staff or other volunteers will complete Rickesh and Sofia’s project. To aide in sanitation, bars for hanging utensils, along with shelves were built in the kitchen.

Bread-making and utensil hanging station

New kitchen shelving

 

GVI.2014.2  

Not only did they make massive improvements to the kitchen, they also had a couple of small projects in mind. They created shelving for the two volunteer dorms along with hanging bars, for volunteers to hang clothes on. Previously, volunteers were living out of their bags, which isn’t ideal when staying for a month or two. Another improvement for the volunteers was implemented near their bath-room, which is now deemed the “Urination Destination.” As re-quested by previous volunteers, Rickesh built a hand-washing table near the bathrooms, making many volunteers very happy.

Sofia was interested in gardening and took on continuing the development of the garden with Dan. They re-mulched the ground, added extra poles to stabilize the mesh on the roof, and re-soiled the area. Previous planting of seeds in the garden did not produce results. Thinking out of the box, Dan and Sofia obtained old plastic bottles, cut them to form cups, and cut holes for drainage. Sofia then planted different herbs and vege-tables (i.e. thyme, tomatoes) in the cups, hoping that this sys-tem would retain water for a little longer and allow the seeds to grow. They also collected shells from chicken eggs and spread them around the garden, in order to deter snails. Recent visits to the garden have shown much hope, in that some of the seeds have sprouted. One day we are hoping to have our own herbs and vegetables to eat. The work of the construction volunteers has inspired staff members. Scholars Julia and Sonja have built shelves and clothes-hanging bars for their room. Alan has completed rewiring the kit room, in order to have light, and is working on electrical wiring in the kitchen and science room. We are a conservation project, and while the science is extremely important, improvements in camp are keeping our impact on the surrounding environment as low as possible, while main-taining a high level of safety, health and happiness.  

Volunteer hand-washing station

Parsley sprouting in the garden