swimming were the ones who got the most
out of the experience. Accomplishing things
independently in my spare time was the most
rewarding part of it all.
We had a lot of interaction with the local
population through the English and nature les-
sons, the fisherman’s-catch and fishing-obser-
vation surveys. We were also encouraged to go
into the village to buy drinks and chocolate and
to socialise and, like much of the experience,
we could interact as little or as much as we
liked. There were also several local Blue Ven-
tures staff. I felt that interaction with the locals
immensely enhanced my experience; there
are some real characters in the village, and the
locals are the people I remember most fondly.
After my trip, I travelled around the north of
the country for a week independently. I would
highly recommend seeing more of the area as
the Blue Ventures project only involved a tiny
part of a very diverse country.
I returned from Madagascar over two years
ago, but I often think about my time there. I
had an amazing experience when I was out
there, which I’ll never forget. It has changed the
way I look at the world. It’s not something that
I would recommend to someone who wants
a relaxing diving holiday. There are difficulties
and problems, and it’s not for everyone, but if
you are willing to get involved and don’t expect
to be handed the experience on a plate then
you will find it very rewarding. The beaches are
beautiful, the work is fulfilling and the locals are
captivating!
Katie YewdallHaving gained a degree in zoology, Katie Yewdall
packed her bags for a volunteering placement
with Blue Ventures (p174) in Madagascar. She
found herself doing everything from underwater
marine surveys to teaching English and biology
and even scrubbing down the decks. She loved it
enough to extend the usual six-week placement to
12 weeks. Her experience highlights the freedom
possible through structured placements, as well as
the motivation and initiative required to turn these
sorts of placements into fulfilling adventures.My main reason for choosing Blue Ventures
was that I wanted to take part in a research
and conservation project, not just to travel for
its own sake. I wanted to contribute to a project
that was set up to really benefit the local com-
munity and research in the area and not solely
to recruit gap-year volunteers, which many rival
organisations appeared to be doing. The coun-
try appealed to me as a place I didn’t know
much about and because few tourists venture
there – I liked the sense of adventure. Other at-
tractions were the small size of the organisation
and the fact that volunteers seemed to range
from gap-year students to career-breakers.
Part of being a volunteer... means that you
are expected to ‘muck in’ with the less pleasant
tasks, such as scrubbing algae off the bottom
of the dive boat, and live a less-than-luxurious
lifestyle, including showering from bottles of
water which were stored up during the rare
occasions when the water was running! But
these are small hardships compared to those
suffered by the villagers just along the beach,
and I found it a humbling experience. You
are also expected to motivate yourself, work
independently and take on sometimes difficult
tasks. The main benefit is a sense of achieve-
ment when these challenges are overcome,such as standing up in front of a group of non-
English-speaking children and teaching English,
or passing the tests enabling you to contribute
to the projects’ research.
I was very happy with my experience and I
tried to approach it with few expectations, as
projects such as these can often be a let-down.
I did feel that the research we were doing was
worthwhile but I was disappointed, being a
zoology graduate, that the level of scientific
knowledge and of the work was not as high
as I had hoped. However, this is a common
problem with volunteer-based research.
It’s hard to select one standout experience- there were many. These included passing
research tests, meeting research targets and
socialising with the locals. The most challeng-
ing were also the most rewarding: such as
travelling by myself afterwards on local trans-
port and communicating in the little Malagasy
that I had learnt. Letting off steam with the rest
of the volunteers and staff at our weekly ‘party
night’ was also fun and the ‘snorkel challenge’ - drinking a bottle of beer through a snorkel as
quickly as possible – was indeed challenging!
One of the best parts of the trip was that we
were given plenty of freedom to shape our own
experience. We could take part in as little, or as
much, of the research and conservation work
as we liked and were encouraged to initiate
smaller short-term projects. Although a few
volunteers complained of being bored and not
getting enough diving, I found that you really
did get out what you put in. The volunteers who
got involved and explored the culture by going
on pirogue sailing lessons with the locals, go-
ing for walks into the baobab forests, hanging
out in the village bars or going snorkelling and
Katie helps out with measuring the girth of a Madagascan baobad tree Photo: Blue Ventures^17906: Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes:Way Down Deep...178
Way Down Deep...