Week 2 – Estoy emocionada por…

Oct 2, 2019

By Tessa

(I’m excited for…) was the prompt for our first class this week. We asked the students to finish that sentence and write their answer on an index card. For most, they were excited to get out on the water, and also to learn about marine biology (a new class in their school). They were also fearful of sharks, eels, crocodiles, and urchins. Half of the girls had been paddling before but few had swam in the ocean, and even fewer had experienced snorkeling. There were a lot of firsts this week.

The ability to explore the ocean changed my life, and I knew it was likely to have the same affect on the Mariposas. They looked on with curiosity at the reef guides we passed out (purchased with support of the Lariviere Family and North Coast DR Diving). I’m not sure that any of us knew what to expect, but watching them put their faces in the ocean was a dream come true.

If someone asked me what I was excited about, it would be hearing the sounds of 10-12 girls screaming through snorkel tubes, which was absolutely hysterical. There were fish and coral too diverse and numerous to identify, but of course they loved the butterfly fish (Pez Mariposa). We saw an octopus, squid, colorful worms, eels, crabs, anemones, sea stars, sea urchins, sea biscuits, sand dollars, conch, clams and more.

The other thing that I’m really excited about is the team that I have the fortune of working with everyday. It includes Diego, Tony, Ryan, and Alex. They are all excellent with water sports, know how to assemble and maintain all of the equipment, and are serving as lifeguards for the program. Diego is a school teacher, fluent in Spanish, and has loads of experience working in Latin America. He’s always got a game or activity to get the Mariposas motivated. Tony and Alex are locals, and famous in their respective worlds of professional water sports. They are multi-talented and bring loads of experience and knowledge to the program (especially the names of all of the creatures we see in the ocean). Then there is Ryan who cooks for all of us, helps prep and load gear for the field trips, is our safety instructor, builds anything we need, helps set up my classroom, drives the kids to their gymnastics lessons, and much much more.

I think I may be the one benefitting the most from this experience. What a week.