Final treats!

 Dear parents,

Yesterday was such a full day that we didn't get the chance to post an update. As we are enjoying our last hours of fun in the sea at Forty Thieves, we would like to take the time to go back in time and tell you all about our fantastic last couple of days here.

Thursday was pretty much the reverse of Wednesday as half of us went diving while the other half helped the community. Both groups were extremely busy and made the most of their experience.

Still digging!

Collecting small fingerlins to transfer into a bigger pound

We said goodbye to the Baraka women's group. We truly hope that we have made some kind of a small difference to their lives by reinforcing their pond walls and planting a lot of mangrove trees. It would be nice to return soon to see the continued progress. Thank you for welcoming us so warmly into your community.

The second group got the chance to dive in a little paradise, the Kisite Marine Reserve, thanks to Yatin's skills at convincing the KWS. And it was absolutely beautiful!

Sailing out in our gear

A few arches and stacks for Miss H!

Coming back up from our first exhilarating dive

James easily made the 2 dives :-)

The coral structures were unbelievable and the amount of sea creatures we saw was pretty awesome: parrot fish, grouper, puffer fish, angel fish, octopus and turtle for the even luckier ones, it looked as if we were in the middle of tropical aquarium. We are all convinced we want to dive again.


Friday, we stayed around Diani after enjoying our morning chores: dishes and cleaning our rooms. On the programme today: the beach! Cleaning, recycling, fishing techniques, we learnt loads and loads.

We can now ask us to do the dishes at home!

 We loved being on the bus, especially we are allowed to "sing" aloud!

Meeting with the local fishermen

Beach cleaning and a half!

We never failed to give 100% of our energy out!

This is what we collected in one hour

Making flip-flop art with Ben and James

After all this hard work, Camp Kenya treated us to a barbecue on the grounds of the millenarian Congo Mosque. The baobabs provided us with the needed shade.

This was clearly a perfect spot to take a few group pics to take back home.

This is almost the end and we are clearly not wanting to leave. It's wave and camel time now to make the most of our last hours. And the teachers might even treat us to a small dinner as we have been so awesome.

Off we go!

A bit of a royal wave on the camel's back!

Tomorrow, we're on the road again for a good 10-12 hours in order to see you and tell you all about this week. Our heads are full of memories so you'd better be ready!

Enjoy your last quiet evening without us!

The Coast Crew x

Another great day!

 Dear Parents,

Today, we split into two groups to ease the diving. The first set of us went back to the mangrove to help the community. We worked our socks off!

More digging!

Can you believe they can hand-wash their clothes?

Prepare our potting bags

Puncture?

Mangrove swimming for the brave ones

They might bring back a few...

Meanwhile, 10 of us went out to Shimoni Marine Reserve for some awesome diving. It was absolutely beautiful :-)

Great scenery

Check out, you can see a dolphin!

Preparing to go down

Great jump Nelson!

 We all got back together for another great evening, with ice cream and brilliant swimming.

Tonight the waves were awesome!

 Tomorrow is certainly promising some more fun so we are off to bed.

Good night everyone.

The Diani crew

DIving with style!

Good evening parents,

We have trained to dive in the pool today and it was awesome :-) We all almost made it to the bottom and have tried our best for the theory. The first lucky ones are off to Shimoni Marine Reserve tomorrow.

Listening attentively to Yatin during the theory session

Making bubbles in the pool

We finished the day at Forty Thieves and we are once again very tired tonight so good night.

The Diani Crew x

 Good evening dearest parents,


After a long - very long! - journey down to the coast, we have settled well in our camp and enjoyed our first day here.

We were lucky enough not to have to wake up at school time this morning, although a lot of automatically did, and after a good breakfast we headed towards the mangrove to work with the Baraka women's group.  It had been a long time since we'd been digging that much!!!

The idea of this trip is for us to be helping a local group of women in the village of Makongeni. As we crossed the village this morning, we quickly realised their living conditions certainly did not match what we are lucky to have everyday. It gave us even more reasons to fully engage ourself with the project and share that experience with them.

We started by reinforcing one of the fish ponds, the only true income of the group being made by the sell of farmed fish once every 8 months. It was great to play in the mud and we came back to the camp for lunch completely filthy! We also planted small mangrove tree on the insides of the ponds to help prevent erosion and help with wildlife.

Dig it up!

Collecting mangrove pots for planting

Planting a mangrove tree

This afternoon, we went back to the mangrove to collect seedlings and pot them for future planting. We were followed by all the kids of the village who are not fortunate enough to go to the local school. It was good to share this moment with them.

Let's see the fish!

Collecting seedlings while the canals filled up slowly

Hop-scotching with the kids

Planting 100 seedlings

And FINALLY, we made it to the Indian ocean - literally for 2 of us! - to the sea. It was so cool to swim around, run on the beach and have a few games of pool at 40 Thieves.

And finally the Indian ocean entertained us!

It's pool time!

We are well tired tonight yet not quite in bed yet! Tomorrow, we are heading to Shimoni very early to start our diving training. How exciting!!!

Good night everyone.

The Coast crew x