The End of an Era

After over 6 years of intensive research and community development work in and around the Yachana Reserve, GVI Amazon is coming to a close. We have finished our final research project (look forward to our Road Effects paper, coming soon!) and are handing over the project to our partner, The Yachana Foundation. They will continue to maintain and monitor the reserve, using it as an hands-on science education center for students -- we're very excited to see what fabulous things this next generation of scientists find! For more detail on GVI Amazon's closure, and our accomplishments over the years, please read on...
GVI Amazon Closure Statement

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Camp Duty

Before I came out here I wasn’t really the cleanest person around, in terms of keeping my house clean that is. I was really amazed at how efficient the GVI Amazon base was run and how clean it was even with 24 people living on it. I’ve had a taste of what it would be like after I had to clean the toilets and the wash area twice, but yesterday was my first full day on camp duty and I was surprised at what hard work it is to run an eco-friendly camp.

They day started at 5:45 am for me as I had to get up to make good old porridge for the volunteers, after which all the dishes had to be done. From there the slops bin and compost bin had to be emptied and rinsed out. Next was the burnables, where all the used toilet paper and other packaging had to be burned, and the toilet and wash area had to be cleaned. After all this and quite a few things in between to clean and sweep, all efforts go into cooking lunch and dinner where you basically have a choice of cooking beans or lentils with which ever starch wasn’t used last. At the end of the day, it was really nice to be involved in another part of what goes on here at GVI Amazon and also quite rewarding to see the excitement on the volunteers’ faces when you ring the dinner bell.

Iggy Potgieter - GVI Amazon Conservation Intern, July to December 2009


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi GVI! What science projects are you currently running?

Anonymous said...

Hi there - if you left a contact I could email you and give you more details about the projects. Alternatively, please contact the GVI office and someone will be able to give you more details. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes peeled for other entries that focus on our projects. GVI Amazon.