SeaDana

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

My Top 5 Picks for Giving Tuesday

My top 5 non-profit picks for #GivingTuesday:

5. Want to help PEOPLE? Consider supporting the East African Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children - Give the gift of education to a child in rural Kenya and join me by sponsoring a student!

4. Love wild ANIMALS? The California Wildlife Center is a small non-profit with a pure mission: to rescue, rehabilitate, and release native wildlife. Help offset the negative human impacts to hawks poisoned by rodenticides, sea lions entangled in fishing line, and orphaned baby animals.

3. Support COMMUNITY BUILDING by giving to TreePeople or dedicating a tree planting. TreePeople brings people from all different walks of life together to make their neighborhoods and communities healthier, greener, and happier. They've planted over a million trees in L.A.!

2. Invest in SCIENCE and RESEARCH by supporting the work of the Reef Check Foundation. Through dedicated citizen scientist divers, Reef Check is monitoring kelp forests and coral reefs around the world- in over 90 countries!

1. Protect the ENVIRONMENT you love by donating to Heal the Bay. Be a part of our work by becoming a member, and you will help us protect our oceans and environment, educate the public, and create a sustainable future.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Update from Washington D.C.

Update.... I’ve been living in Washington D.C. since early June and will be here for 3 months, until early September working as an intern with the international conservation organization, World Wildlife Fund (WWF). After working for smaller non-profit organizations for the past six
years, working for WWF (with a staff of over 350 people!) is a new experience. The infrastructure here is solid, and the exposure to different aspects of international conservation work is inspiring. I’ve found that WWF has projects around the world ranging from creating a recycling and solid waste program in the Galapagos Islands, to working with governments on climate change policies, to initiatives in Africa where communities are given the opportunity to reduce poverty while becoming environmental stewards. My internship is with the Conservation Science department of WWF, where I’m working on a Social Science project on a team with two staff members, and two other grad-student interns where we are assessing protected areas in developing countries. As part of a global study, I’m specifically researching protected areas in Africa. All this research is really making me want to go back and explore more of the continent, and I’ve found that my previous time in Eastern and Southern Africa is helping me understand many of the cases I have been researching. I could go on about the research, but I’m trying to keep this relatively short. http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/projects/sciencecorner.html

The toughest part of this summer is that Bryan is completing his own internship in Houston, TX. We were both offered positions and opportunities we couldn’t pass up, so we are making our relationship work long-distance for 12 weeks. We fly out to visit one another every 3 weeks and talk all the time, and it’s been working out pretty well so far. Bryan recently flew out to D.C. for the 4th of July (our first Independence Day in the US in years), which we spent at the Capitol
building dancing to a free concert by Aretha Franklin and watching fireworks over Washington Monument. For Bryan’s internship, he is analyzing sedimentary basins for petroleum potential in Nevada for the Hess Corporation. We’re both impressed with how Hess strives to be more environmentally and socially conscious (even though they are an oil company) – they are constructing a new office building which will be a LEED gold certified (green) building! Although
the heat in Houston is intense (109 degrees last week), Bryan is beating the heat by joining a local SCUBA diving club, and has been diving in lakes around Texas. Also this summer he’s written and submitted his research in the Andes from Bolivia into a journal for publication (he had to wait to publish until some Argon-Argon dates came back from the lab, which can take years).

Although it is an adjustment living in DC for the summer without my husband, I’ve been taking the opportunity to explore the city and surrounding landscape whenever I can. I’ve spent quite a bit of time exploring in the Smithsonian museums, walking around the monuments, biking along the verdant trails around Maryland and Virginia, and kayaking on the Potomac River. I’ve also been able to spend a couple days at the Outer Banks in Cape Hatteras National Seashore camping with friends, and gone on some hikes around D.C. The Outer Banks are a really beautiful area I would definitely recommend to visit! I’m already planning another excursion
to North Carolina when Bryan visits in August. My living situation in DC is going well, I found an apartment in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood with my friend Wendy from UCSB (she’s interning with the EPA), and I’m within walking distance of WWF (and a Trader Joe’s). A very convenient location - and not too far from the National Mall or White House either. When my mom visited in June, as we were walking home one evening we saw the Obama family on the White House porch!

After our internships end in September, Bryan and I are planning to take a trip before we return to grad school in Santa Barbara. I have one year left to finish my masters and Bryan is planning to finish his PhD in two more years. Since this is the first summer Bryan and I aren’t abroad in years, and we were both feeling the travel bug, when airline ticket prices dropped in June, we decided to buy tickets and are planning to go to Australia from September 8-22 before grad school starts up September 24. While in Australia, we’re looking forward to SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef and taking in some of the unique geology and wildlife, while exploring the eastern coast of the country. I’ll try to post about OZ and share photos afterward.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Corn Islands

We´re on Little Corn Island and the weather has been pretty good - I got two dives in today, two more tomorrow (to blowing rock - the best dive site here) and I think I´ll do two more on Sunday also. The diving here is AWESOME - great visibility, healthy fish, colorful reef! I want Aimee to at least try out diving through their Discover SCUBA program, where she can get out and do one dive with minimal training. But, her cold is keeping her from doing much activity right now. I went snorkeling yesterday while I was waiting for my congestion to go away. I´m still a little sick, but I was able to dive today and clear my ears - only a little pain in my sinuses and teeth, so I´m OK to dive I think. I know I´m pushing it, but it is so beautiful here, Í don´t want to waste a minute! When I went snorkeling yesterday (with a friend, Marinka, I made from Holland) I found a big octopus! Then we swam around the island (a corner of it) for an hour. Aimee didn´t want to go and just relaxed and read in a hammock. I´m trying to get her active (she´s still a little sick) but I think she just wants to relax. To each their own. Once it´s Sunday or Monday I´m going to get pushy with her though and make her go diving or at the least, snorkeling!

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

The rooms/cabanas here are really cheap - only $15-25 dollars for the cheap ones. We´re sharing one for $25 with Marinka until Sunday when she leaves. Marinka dove with me today and is going tomorrow too. We´re going to split the cost to rent an underwater camera to take pics tomorrow - the vis is perfect here and the fish and coral are so healthy!!

There are no roads, cars, or motorcycles here - only walking paths. It´s so cool- Creole culture and food, but everyone speaks Spanish too. I asked a local woman to make a bunch of us Coconut Rundun tomorrow eve (like in Jamaica, it´s a specialty here they need all day to prepare).

The internet is really expensive here, so I need to go.

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

Travel to El Rama-Bluefields-Corn Islands:

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Laguna Apoyo, Nica

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

Masaya:

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

Friday, August 15, 2008

Granada, Nicaragua

We had dinner at our new friend Mario's house on the outskirts of Granada, which was great! Mario lives in a very humble area, none of the houses were made of cinderblock or concrete - all wood, zinc, etc. No running water, it was from buckets and drums. Mario's fiance and her family were embarrassed and kept hiding from us - it was so sad! We were only about 15 minutes away from Granada, up the mountain of Mombacho (old volcano), but apparently we were the first foreigners to ever come to their neighborhood! That's why everyone was acting so funny. But of course, I talk a lot, and tried to get people to come out and eventually they did. So, by the end I was friendly with everyone and they were having me taking pictures of their family! Mario wasn't embarrassed and ate dinner with us (his fiance finally joined us halfway through) so we had a good time the whole time. The fish was really really good - fresh tilapia from the lake - Marisela's father is a fisherman. Of course it was served whole, but I did a good job and picked it clean! Aimee was even surprised I picked it so clean and said she was impressed! They gave us so much food!! Also, they mainly eat with their hands. At first they gave us utensils, and Mario had them too, but then he said, "It's a lot easier if you just use your hands" so we did! His fiance, Marisela, was too shy to eat with her hands though (Mario said she was embarassed). I think Aimee had a good time, she said it was the best food we'd had so far, and I agree. She was a little shy and uncomfortable that they were uncomfortable (except for Mario who was just happy to have us there). She ate all her food too. This was her first time in real poverty, and I'm going to talk with her tomorrow about her impressions. Even though it was such a poor area, we felt safe the whole time. After dinner, Mario took us to his mother's house a few houses down the block to meet his family (he lives with his fiance's family) and they were just as sweet! Not as shy though. The little kids do a similar greeting as in Takaungu Village, where they come up to you with their hands together and you put one hand over theirs. So cute!

From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008

OK, I guess I should try to get back to bed... we're going to Masaya tomorrow and meeting up with Francisco. Then we're coming back here to Granada on Saturday for the big festival here. We're planning to leave for the Corn Islands Monday night (overnight bus from Managua to El Rama), take the river panga to the coast at Bluefields Tues AM, stay in Bluefields for a night, then take the weekly ferry to Corn Islands from Bluefields Wednesday AM. (it'll be quite an adventurous journey, but save money!) We're going to buy one-way plane tickets back from the Corn Islands for next Sunday or Monday, which should give us about 4-5 days at the islands.

Pictures from Kayaking in Lake Nicargua with Mario: