Back in the UK

It has been good to be back home in the UK, even though I had to scrape the ice off the car the first morning back. Have been enjoying being back with family and friends. The hope is to head back to Kenya in late April or May and I will update the blog when I know more about that trip.

Privilege

This morning I decided to take my coffee down to the beach and drink it with my feet in the water. Seabirds were flying across the view of the sun rising over Watamu Marine Park.I thought "What a privilege to be here and to sense that this is where God wants me to be and to get a glimpse of the possibilities." It is a small place, but in this place I can do something to take care of something that God cares about. These habitats and species have value because they are ultimately God's. How I feel about them or what they can do for me doesn't matter. They have intrinsic value because of who their Creator is, the same Creator that made me. And yet, the amazing thing is that it does have huge value for people. Not only the tourists that "like" that nature stuff, but the boat operators that earn a living taking them out to the reef and to see the dolphins. The people on the beach taking them to see the eels in the shallow holes near the shore. And as I learned in a recent symposium at the London Zoological Society on biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, marine parks are one of the few conservation measures that have been proven scientifically to benefit both biodiversity and the poor. The abundance of the park overflows into the surrounding area raising catch rates and providing baby fish that float into other areas to repopulate overfished places. And, as if it couldn't get better, the primary beneficiaries of the overflow of the park (the fishermen) and the boat workers are Muslim. So A Rocha, a Christian conservation organisation, is working to protect habitats to glorify God and whose primary human beneficiaries are Muslim. In this day and age, with all the conflict, this is a real area of hope that Christians are trying to bless Muslims.

There is still a long way to go, but I am looking forward to the next few years investing in this place where God has dropped me and we'll see what He has in store for this little corner of His creation.

Some more underwater pictures

Damage to coral, possibly from snorkelers
Note: all underwater photos taken by Benjamin Cowburn

a traditional fishing boat

Damage from a boat running into the coral head

measuring damage to the reefs - that's me :)

look for the scorpion fish in the coral head

Diving

Just returned from a great couple dives. Hard to believe it has been almost six years since my last dive. That was in Minicoy, Lakshadweep. So much has happened since then. Today went to a place within the park called Turtle Reef - didn't see any turtles on that dive, but did the next one. We are trying to map the biodiversity within the park and so I was keeping track of all the fish I saw. Eventually we will move on to all the other groups as well such as corals, snails and most excitingly worms. Second dive was very interesting. We went out into the area where fishing was allowed and seemed to me there was a noticeable lack of fish, but that is very subjective. Having said that, I saw a few favourite old friends like the coral grouper that I hadn't seen in a long time. Loads of soft coral.

Well, next dive probably in Miami in February.

Bushbaby!

Today was mostly sitting at my laptop writing. I have some problems with my screen that you can see below. Bit of a pain with about 2 inches of the screen on one edge missing and then just last week another 2 inches right in the middle has gone missing. About an inch near the other side is also about to go as it is a strange colour.Silly me. Just did a print screen and tried to paste the way my screen looks into the blog. But of course, the computer doesn't know the screen is wonky! So the image looked just fine.

Went for a swim about 5pm and watched the sun set from the water. Must be getting a bit acclimatised as the 80+ degree water seemed a bit cold at the end of the day.

After dinner we heard a strange sound. Henry said "Bushbaby." And we ran to get our torches (flashlights for the American readers) and went to find him. Henry spotted the eyes which reflect light. Then we got a descent look at that strange creature. Very cool, the first one I have seen, I think and only 30 metres from our dining room here at the centre.

Tomorrow we head to a city about an hour away for a meeting with Kenya Wildlife Service.

Guests

It has been an amazing week for guests. On Wednesday there was an unexpected visit from an old science friend who is also an eminent international scientists who is one of the world experts on the coral reefs here in Kenya. I've known him since my time in Maldives and read all his papers. So it was great to be in the water together.

Then in the course of sussing out a new couple who were here, I realized that we had lots of interaction together in England, but never met. I recently submitted a small book for publication on a Christian response to marine conservation and he was on the committee that approved it for publication. He is a Christian Ethics professor at Cambridge and so we had loads of great conversations and we are hoping to work together on a paper next year looking at an ocean and ethics related issue that we can submit to a theological journal.

Then I showed up at lunch yesterday and one of my A Rocha UK colleagues was standing in the queue for lunch! She had decided just a few weeks ago to come to Kenya and neither of us knew the other were here. We have done fun projects before like doing a moth trapping event at the church and then organising the church service the next morning using the verse about "where moth and rust destroy - where your treasure is there will your heart be also." We used the moths in the service and played bat calls. Fantastic to relate the scripture to God's creation. So we went out snorkeling.

Well off to a meeting and wondering who will show up next.

Community living

It has been good and at times challenging to live in a community of people from all walks of life and from many different cultures. We share the same general living space, eat together, pray together, and last night, released a recovered sea turtle together. While difficult at times, I do notice the difference in accountability. When you live your life in your own house with no one really to see what you are doing, it can be easy to think that what you do doesn't really matter since no one will see you. But when you have all these people around it does make you much more aware of how your actions affect other people. I like that about our village in England. I know that when the kids go out, people know them and watch out for them and that I will hear if they are doing something they shouldn't. I like it that people know me and especially as someone involved publicly with the church, that they are watching. Not that I want to do all these bad things, but just that it is much easier to live in the way I want to when I do that in community. I feel a much greater sense of responsibility. Of course, it should be enough that God is watching, so to speak. But sometimes that is too nebulous a concept. I think that is why God wants us to share our lives with others and why community is a gift.

more photos

collecting data on reef impacts

The road to Mwamba, A Rocha's field study centre

Henry the centre manager recycling an old toilet into a clipboard to take underwater!

Photos of the reef

Data

Had a great day yesterday and today collecting data on the state of the reef and fish biodiversity. One of the projects we are working on to serve Kenya Wildlife Service (who manage Watamu Marine Park) is to look at the potential impact of tourists on coral reef health. So we are looking at the coral cover and damage at sites where people snorkel and where they don't.

Last night a group of secondary school (High School) kids came and are camping at the centre. So its a bit more crowded than usual. But they went out snorkeling this morning and we accompanied them out on the boat. Was good to give them some information on the reef, why it is important and how to not damage it snorkeling. Then I went around and collected information on which fish were at the site. Tomorrow we are going out on a KWS boat to look at the different habitats in the park. Part of what we need to do is see what the various impacts are in the park and what can actually be done about it.

Mangrove report

Well, the mangrove forest was as I remembered. VERY hot, bit like planting trees in an oven. There were several community groups, primary school kids, women's groups, and local villagers. No churches though, so glad that our Christian environmental group was present. It seems that here, like so many places, the church is absent from these types of events. Had an interesting conversation with someone who explained that the elders of the village didn't really get planting the trees. They said trees were a gift from God, so no need. My response to this person was and if I could speak Swahili to the elders would be "you are exactly right, trees are a gift from God." But to me that implies exactly the opposite, that they are something that we need to steward and see as having value because the Creator made them. We can use them, of course, but to simply harvest them until they are gone is to dishonour God who gave the gift to us.

Well, enough preaching. Was exhausted, frankly, from the heat, so took a bit of a nap, did some reading, then went for a walk in a small village that was very reminiscent of where we lived in India. Lots of coconut palm trees and lots of poverty. There is a primary school that we hope to start working with.

Things fishy

I will tell a little more about the project in another post, but thought I'd tell a few highlights of being in the water. Saw several guitar fish, some big rays, a turtle, lots of coral, and three grouper species - but who's counting. It is nice to be back swimming in an area that I understand and that is warm!

Tomorrow we head out for a community event to plant mangrove seedlings. If you don't live near the tropics, you may not know that mangroves are plants/trees that live on the edge of the ocean and along estuaries. They can tolerate both salt and freshwater. They are very important for shoreline protection and the young of many fish start life there. It also makes good firewood and building material. So often there is unsustainable cutting of mangroves for various reasons, but it usually ends with shoreline erosion and decreased fish abundance.

Mosquitoes

I am writing this while trying to swat mosquitoes and remembering my sermon at church a few weeks ago where I introduced the advent appeal for mosquito nets for Malawi. Long-story, but basically now I am putting to use the information I was talking about then. Putting on insect repellent, sleeping under a mosquito net, and taking malaria tablets. Should be ok, of course, but all the buzzing around me right now doesn't inspire confidence.

Imagine if I didn't have the money to by the malaria tablets. Imagine if the centre didn't have the foresight to put up a mosquito net in each room. (oh, there is a big crab walking across the floor right now, nice visitor from the beach! Actually a few, I think there will be an interesting fight.) Imagine if I didn't have the money to buy insect repellent. Well, that is the situation for most people in this area of Africa and the reality is, many get malaria. In fact, over 1 million people each year die of malaria, most in sub-saharan Africa. Even if I get it, which is unlikely given the precautions, I have enough money and access to medical care that I most certainly won't die. Doesn't seem fair, and its not. Some good news before I left the UK about a malaria vaccine, but still a long way to go on that.

From Kenya

Well, finally arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Got to the airport on Sunday afternoon and eventually the flight was delayed because of fog. They sent us to a hotel. I would of gone home had I known what was coming, but it looked like we would get on the plane early in the morning. We eventually left at about 12:30pm on Monday, only to arrive in Nairobi at midnight. Of course, all the planes to the coast weren't leaving until the morning. Despite promising hotels, Kenya Airways didn't do anything for us when we got there. I probably would have stayed at the airport anyway. So I sat in a chair in the luggage pick up area from about 1:30 am until 5 am. Met a nice Muslim Tanzanian guy there. We sat and talked about all those taboo topics, religion, politics, etc. Made for a nice, but tiring night. Got to Kenya Airways domestic and they had no idea there was a problem Eventually most of us got to Mombasa on the 9:30 am flight, which also ended up being late. Thankfully my co-worker Benjo picked me up in Mombasa and we made the two hour drive up to Watamu.

Got stuck in snorkeling that afternoon. Water felt like a bath, but was still mentally refreshing, anyway. Been meeting folks, helping Benjo with moving ahead in the marine work, and getting the lay of the land. Was doing some training in coral reef research. Seeing some old fish friends has been nice.

There are so many opportunities here, just a matter of where to focus. More on that in another post. We don't have internet yet at the A Rocha centre, but hope to soon. So for now I am suffering again at the hotel on the beach from last year where I type to the sounds of waves crashing on the beach and sit with a glass of passion fruit juice at my side.

Off again

It is Saturday night. I, like usual before a trip, wish I wasn't going. I had a nice evening with the family and am already starting to miss them. Once I am there, I know I'll enjoy and I also know that what I am doing is important. I just want to make it worth the cost. Hopefully more to come from Kenya.