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I’m feeling a lot of gratitude right now so that is what I’d like to share. I knew we had a great team coming in to this, now I’m sure it’s an AMAZING group of people. Not only professional, productive, creative, as everyone showed today during our orientation/revving up, but friendly and hilarious. I am sore from laughing. We are all looking forward to diving in together (to the ocean, on free days!), and I am particularly looking forward to getting to know more people from the islands, including our essential Maldivian teammates.

Here is another thank you to Trudy, our student leaders, our sponsors (esp. Four Seasons) and the probably hundreds of people involved in this project for making it possible. It isn’t just about improving human and environmental health on the islands, but also fostering open sharing of ideas and teamwork between people from opposite sides of the world. The real ticket to improving lives everywhere.

Highlights are everywhere for me, but chasing Trudy around Kamadoo larvae hunting (we all try and emulate her bottomless enthusiasm), diving a reef in our backyard, and watching teammates act out mosquitos using aforementioned dive gear for props have all been great fun.

I’m stoked for the hard work to begin tomorrow! There’s no alternative with these guys around..

After 5 months of planning, I am finally at Landaa Giraavaru of the Four Seasons in the Maldives! The journey lasted about three days and stepping off the boat and onto the dock here was so surreal. I will be working with 6 other UCSC students, 5 Maldivian volunteers and our team leader Trudy on the Baa Atoll mosquito control project here. We will work in teams with local communities to start as well as maintain current mosquito control projects. With the control of mosquitoes also comes the control of Dengue fever, a disease vectored by mosquitoes here that can affect the lives of every citizen here. It will be a lot of work but I am excited to finally get started!
A HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped me get here whether it be with a donation to the group’s fundraiser, the borrowing of a camera or your words of encouragement. If you know me well you know that this trip is all I’ve talked about the past two months and I thank you for allowing me to hopefully educate you about the Maldives and mosquito control. I look forward to more learning soon and bringing back even more information about this beautiful place and its people. With more to come very soon, Jess.

It is awesome to finally be able to say that I am in the maldives. This place is incredible! I can definitely say this is the most humid place I have ever been. Walking of the plane was like walking in a wall of moisture. Spending the night in Male gave Chad and I some time to see the city early in the morning which was awesome. With 100,000 in only 1 square kilometer the island was very densely packed. It seemed that the number of motorbikes and scooters out numbered the people. After  a three hour boat ride we arrived at the four seasons on Landaa Giraavaru. This resort definitely has definitely created a community the supports the scientific and local island communities, as well as  the Maldivian people that work here. The team took our first trip to Kamahdoo, an island that syd and Trudy had worked with last year. After finding mosquito larvae within five minutes it proves the point that there is lots of work to be done, even with the islands that were visited last year. Glad to have the awesome Maldivian guys on our crew, they will no doubt play a key roll in inspiring the locals into taking action. Ended the day with my first scuba diving experience. I have to say it was scary at first, but after relaxing it was so cool to be gliding over the reefs, seeing lots of corals and fish (the parrot fish was especially cool). It was interesting to see the cages that marine biologist have set up for placing corals on.Scuba really is like flying under water! Projects start on sunday, and I’m sure our team will work great together and hopefully accomplish whatever we set our sites on!

 

Also just uploading pictures taken so far on the trip

Two days ago, we stepped off of an air conditioned plane from China into the hot and humid air of the tropics. We had finally arrived in the Maldives after two days of travel.

Yesterday we stepped off the boat onto the dock at the Four Seasons Resort at Landaa Giraavaru. Trudy, Syd, and Lira greeted us and our new Maldivian friends.

Today I spent more than 30 minutes beneath the surface of the ocean breathing air from a tank. I was scuba diving, swimming with fish and admiring coral.

Tomorrow we begin our training and the next day we will be on the ground in Eydhafushi starting our first project.

This journey has begun, and I am confident that it is going to be the most amazing one I have ever been on.

 

The team has assembled!

Their arrival to the resort created quite a stir. Now we all take up almost two long tables in the staff cantine!

 

After a round of mosquito control at a nearby island, we used the afternoon to other advantages. A group of about six UCSC students and one Maldivian began the open water dive course. IT WAS AMAZING. After all the time I have spent at this resort,  specifically at the docks coming to and from the island, I never realized what I beautiful world lay beneath the waves. At first the regulator set up felt cumbersome and submerging myself in the water was a scary proposition, but soon I realized that the weightlessness allowed underwater transformed our progress. WE were no longer like fish out of water, but humans seemingly transformed, gliding over the reefs with grace.