Khanh Hoa - CCC

Monday May 22, 2006

The day arrived - World Biodiversity Day and the beginning of the Community Coastal Clean-ups that MCD had organised.

An early start with the strangest breakfast we got at the village while setting up. It was a baguette with a filling that looked like a mix between tan carpet and fairy-floss. It was actually dried pork, but it looked just like the ends of fraying carpet, and had the texture of fairy floss. Yum yum, a pork carpet roll for breakfast! It was quite dry in the mouth, and despite my initial reluctance to eat it, it ended up being quite tasty.

The launch was quite a large affair - people from villages all around the area came in their droves, all decked out in their t-shirts and hats (the team leaders had distributed them all to the selected participants), there were performances, speeches, certificate presentations. Quite a long launch really, but really lovely.

Here's a photodiary of the event:


Setting up - bringing the flowers


A little girl singing and dancing - what a groover!



A group dance performance by local kids


Local singers - singing all about the bay, ocean and reef



The crowd


More kids


The MCD team with the students
(Hoang Anh (centre front row), Hanh (second from left, back row), Thu (far right, back row)

Following the launch, it was straight to the clean up.



The clean-up


The clean beach - what a difference a day makes!

After the clean-up it was back to Mr Chims to head off on a field trip - visiting Trao Reef!