I count the days in the title as weekdays of the course, if anyone was wondering!

Today I could finally dive again and it made me very happy. We learned more about artificial reefs in the morning and then I packed the equipment and off we went with the little boat bringing us to the larger dive boat (I don’t know if I mentioned it at some point, but the captain sleeps in that dive boat, and only leaves for hospital emergencies).

We got into water and the first task was to find coral fragments. The visibility wasn‘t the best but I was really happy. Our instructor checked the pieces we brought to the basket and at some point she showed us how to attached them to the artificial reef. Usually interns are not allowed to do this work but she got special permission for this transplantation. It was really hard to attach them. Among us 4 we attached 61 corals, but I think each of us students did maybe like 5-7 and the remaining ones were from our instructor.

Then we got a call of a turtle being entangled in rope somewhere. So we instantly went to that bay trying to find it. But it wasn‘t there. There were a few turtles, one under a rock, looking like it was a little stuck, but it was fine.

After the dive we had a bit of homework to do. In groups we were supposed to create an artificial structure and present it on friday. We builded the structure with wires and some playdough and leaves. We thought about creating an underwater botanical jungle. We made a fun powerpoint and then it was already 6pm.

I went to a dance class with Ale (one of the students, she did accounting for 10 years and is now doing this coral conservation programm for 3 months). The dance routine was fun, I didn‘t dance like this for a long time. I used to a lot during school and it remembered me of tat time.

Then we went to have some dinner, I ordered some chinese vegan dumplings and went to pick up the violin the lady from the jam session allowed me to borrow. We met at the same pub where the jam session was and they had a live art-music event. I invited my friend Natalie (the art teacher that I met in a café drawing) and we were just amazed. The artist painted 3 massive portrait with acrylic paint, very colourful, while his friend was playing music, singing, rapping, adding guitar impro and using a loop station. I‘ve never seen a performance like this. Within 20min the artist had this incredible painting. It was so interesting to watch and observe.

I also met my Qi Gong friend at the pub, it was her birthday so I painted a little card with a whale shark for her. She was really happy about it.