(Re)START ! welcome new volunteers

The sunrise of new M.A.R.E. project – 4th edition. Every year there’s something changing: the house, the activities, the van, and of course the volunteers!!

4th GENERATION VOLUNTEERS

This year we will host 4 new, young, European volunteers and of them are already here with us; we are waiting for the last one: Akrem from Tunisia who is late because of VISA requirements. Last year it took 12 days to obtain the document, while this year it is taking more than 1 month: terrorism had it’s results…very scary! No matter what, we will wait for the VISA and this will just increase our energy and excitment to work with him! Here is few info about them:

ELZA is a youg Latvian girl who was the first one that came here! She is a video maker who always walks with camera in her hand and seems to be a night animal. I think she’s not very involved in marine experiences so she will discover a world that is quite far from her life – more than other people – and she will help us to support our project with documentation.

RADEK is a photographer as well, musician and political science student. He appears to be a person interested in many things, and I hope we will concentrate on the MARE topic during our next months together. Radek is 190cm tall and is already able to say somethings in Italian; even if his never ending questions and funny stories are still in english.

NURIA is our marine biologist from Spain and has many experiences in the field of marine conservation. She’s coming to us from a marine mammals watch program in Mexico. When she entered in the new M.A.R.E. house, a group of dolphins came to welcome her just in the Marina della Lobra Bay! It was truly incredible!

FIRST WEEK

Soon we will publish the first impressions and emotions of our new volunteers that currently concentrate 80% of their activities on Italian language, with a full immersion course 20h per week. Following their Italian immersion, they will be discovering the territory and the Park activities which consists of meeting the local culture and genuine food. Below is a brief gallery of the first 2 activities we did:

1.       Naturalistic drawing of Ieranto Bay from the peak of San Costanzo mountain

2.       Lectures and Snorkeling about MPA Punta Campanella with 40 German students

Our first activities took place with much laughter, smiles and anticipation to begin on the project daily work. The group is very motivated and also works harmoniously together. The different personalities working together with many unique experiences that each one of them collected in their life will enrich and help our daily work.

Welcome guys ;)