Internship Explained pt 1

Homo sapiens contemplating life while living in a fantastic environment but receiving no pay

Hey so I decide to share a blog post about what I am doing at my internship to stay in touch with my older friends and family ;). Since most of you don't talk to me via snap chat and I can't say anything PG over facebook I'd love to explain whats been happening in this space!

I'm currently in Marathon, Florida on an internship with Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters. Marathon is in the Florida Keys almost exactly halfway between Mainland and Key West. The population here is a around 10,000 people in a city about 9.6 square miles big. Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters is an interactive aquarium which offers many activities for guest to participate in which involve very close contact with our animals.

I am currently living with the other intern and my kitties in a vacation rental condo about 1 mile from a beautiful beach. My roommate and I get along wonderfully and we enjoy going to the beach, reading, drawing, watching movies, harry potter and talking about animals in our spare time :). The kitties are adjusting well. My roommate and I have opposite work schedules so someone is almost always home to spend time with them and they have a lot of new creatures to look at outside the window.

The Aquarium consists of a lagoon, sting ray cove,  nursery touch tank, tide pool touch tank, nurse shark and grouper exhibit, turtle and tortoise exhibit, coral reef exhibit and predator reef exhibit. All animals in the facility are native to Florida except the tortoises (african spurred, red footed and yellow footed) which were donated to the facility due to need and may be relocated in the future to a more appropriate home when proper replacements are found.

The lagoon uses water from the Vaca cut that pours in to a canal which was dug in a horse shoe shape in the 1950's and houses nurse shark, goliath grouper, parrotfish, barracuda, tarpon, jack, permit and more. Guests can purchase food at any time to throw out to feed the parrot fish and other smaller fish. A feeding of the tarpon and goliath grouper is performed by a biologist at certain times of the day while explaining and answering questions. Guests can purchase an encounter for the lagoon which includes donning wet suits and snorkeling throughout the lagoon for the duration of an hour or so.

Cownose Ray

Sting ray cove holds many cownosed rays, 1 spotted eagle ray, 3 southern ray which guests can pet as much as they desire or purchase food (raw capelin) to feed using a stick or can purchase an encounter which the guest(s) don wet suits and actually get in the water with the rays and feed them by hand with the guidance of a biologist. I have learned that cownosed rays are much like puppies and recognize those wearing work shirts and will smother them with attention in hopes of food. The largest of the southern rays who is nick named big mama is known for propelling herself up the side of the tank to the point of exposing a lot of her body to unsuspecting guests and consequently startling many children, which I find amusing.

The nursery holds smaller southern ray, atlantic ray and yellow ray. Any guest can touch the animals in this tank as well and also purchase an encounter in which the participant feeds the smaller rays with a spear. Currently a couple of the yellow rays and one atlantic ray is pregnant. Rays give live birth and I'm hoping desperately some are born while I am working. Baby rays are adorable, and the yellow rays are spotted and look like cute little cookies.

Spotted Burrfish

Big shark bay holds 3 nurse shark, 2 black grouper, a goliath grouper, a cubera snapper and a spotted burrfish. Feedings for the snapper, burrfish and grouper are performed in front of guests by a biologist while the biologist also explains what they're doing and answer any questions guests may have while watching. Nurse shark encounter is a popular offer which can be purchased. In this encounter the guests get to personally feed a nurse shark which is target trained to hold still on a target while the guest feeds it and pets it. This encounter is fun because you get to touch a nurse shark and see the efforts the biologists have put in to training sharks (I didn't know sharks could be trained like this!).

The tide pool touch tank holds horseshoe crab, sea stars, urchins, shrimp, crab and gastropods such as queen conch. The pool is shallow and guests are encouraged to touch all the animals underwater. I enjoy this exhibit because it holds more of the "gross" animals many are inclined to avoid in daily outdoor activities.

The turtle exhibit holds a variety of freshwater turtles that are not normally found in the Keys but are common throughout florida's rivers, lakes and everglades. Guests cannot touch any of our reptiles but are encouraged to feed them during a public tortoise feeding guided by a biologist or purchase turtle food for the freshwater turtles.

Bonnet Head Shark

Predator Reef holds black nose sharks, black tip sharks, sand bar shark, bonnet head shark, goliath grouper, moray eel, pufferfish, jack, and other predatory reef fish. Guests cannot swim in this tank but can feed the larger predators through holes during a coral reef encounter.

A Mobula Ray also called Devil Ray or Devil Fish

Coral Reef tank holds over 50 species of tropical and lagoon fish such as angel fish, grunts, snappers, hogfish, tang, snook, carribean spiny lobster, and our main attraction: Mobula rays. Guests can purchase an encounter for this tank and snorkel with the fish, swim on the bottom if they're certified for scuba, feed the predators in the next tank as mentioned, and feed the eagle ray and other fish while swimming with them. Guests also can witness a Mobula Ray feeding in which a biologist feeds the rays a cloud of krill from a squirt bottle as they line up one by one to swim through it to feed. Mobula rays are only found in 3 aquariums in the United States, so it's pretty cool to be working at a place which houses them.

So that's just a general overview of the features of the Aquarium! I will be sure to post again with what exactly I am doing while I work, I just had to explain the place for any of my duties to make sense. I definitely also need to post pictures of my favorite animals so far so thanks for reading this much and I'll update eventually!

Speaking with Children

MarieYolane is the daughter of one of the Haitian nurses who worked at mission of Hope who greeted us every morning while we gathered supplies to load up to take to the mobile med clinic. She took a special liking to me once she figured out I could speak french with her.

Mobile Med Clinic

This is a school girl with her prescription and free tooth brush after seeing one of our 3 nurses or 2 doctors that had volunteered for the week.

Our day started at about 5:45 or 6:00 a.m every morning. Breakfast was at 6:15 and we tried to be on the cater and down the hill to go to the clinic at Mission of Hope to pick up supplies by 6:45. One day our interpreters were late because there was a riot and the roads were blocked. The next day our driver was late because there was a motorcycle crash which left one person dead on the side of the street, and traffic was backed up. Every day it seemed like such a risk for our Haitian staff to even get to our campus to go help others.

Sun setting on Mission of Hope main Campus

What you see here are some of the orphan's housing, a young garden, and the sunset we saw every night.

Mission of Hope South Campus

This had to be my favorite place in Haiti. I loved the colors of the housing, all painted by volunteers but it really captures the island spirit and liveliness they truly have. At this campus, over a hill, in a way detached from the other housing, was the deaf village.
The deaf are tormented in Haiti. If a deaf person was caught signing in public places, such as lines to receive food or aid after the earthquake, they would be beat up and kicked out of line. The deaf people of Haiti had to come together to survive, joining together is the only way they can possibly survive in the deep part of the slums they have been pushed into. Rape among deaf women is much more likely than in another village due to the fact that if she screams in the night no one else can hear her. Knowing that much is enough to make one's heart heavy for life. Mission of Hope is currently working with the Haitians to relocate every deaf person out of the slums and into the safe campus. Kyle, a worker at Mission of Hope who I met, learned Creole and Creole Sign language in his first 8 months of living in Haiti to become a fundamental force in helping these people. The deaf community calls him "Haitian black brother" and he is the leader of the relocating project. He thinks of ideas, but sits back and lets the Haitians carry them out the way they feel best. He brought them the idea of relocating about 20 people at a time, but it was up to the Haitian to decided who went first. They decided the families with children who aren't in school should go first so they can attend the school and those without a job can go after that since there are job opportunities at the campus. That is one of the values that I admire the most about Mission of Hope. Mission of Hope knows they're not Haitian, and they don't try to make Haitians be Americans, because "Haiti is not America" as they always say. And I find that so beautiful. Mission of Hope is truly such a pure organization.
The residents who have been relocated are some of the happiest people I have ever seen. One lady stood outside her house and called people to come and look in her house, she pulled back the curtain to her bedroom and stood there with the biggest and most proud smile on her face. She was so excited and proud and happy of her tiny house just because she could get a great night's sleep without fear and had a loving community around her. After I looked around her house, I signed "thank you" to her and she almost burst with happiness that I signed at her and quickly and excitedly signed back "You're welcome" & "I love you" with again a huge smile on her face and grunts of happiness. That was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

Learn more about future plans of the south campus here and about their current housing actions here

Haiti. March 2012.

Where do I even begin?
Well, I figured I can't explain this trip in one post, so I decided that I'm going to upload one picture at a time and explain it and go off with stories and tid bit that are sparked by the picture I post!
But first off, I just want to say thank you again to everyone who helped to contribute to help me go on my trip. I will remember my time there forever, and I am forever impacted by the trip and by your generosity. I cannot express to you enough how grateful I am and how much your support meant to me, thank you.

Here is the welcome sign to the Mission of Hope that I stayed at for a one week. (You can visit their website here). I am bragging and telling everyone about them because they are seriously the best organization I have ever seen that is helping Haiti (yes, I did just put them above Red Cross and Unicef). They are working along side the Haitian people to rebuild their country from the inside out, not just throwing temporary bandaids on the current problem and not looking forward to the future. They have a 5, 10, 15, even 20 year plan. It is so amazing. They have a school, a day care, a orphanage, church, workshop that manufactures daily meals to be distributed, a shop for women with physical handicaps to make accessories (since they can't find jobs anywhere else),a clinic, in the process of building a hospital...at one campus. They have 2 other campuses that are newer but have many other facilities such as another school and a deaf community. There are over 200 haitian people on staff and only a handful of North Americans. Their primary goal is to send all the north american workers home and have Haiti build up Haiti! It is truly amazing, I have never seen something more inspiring in my life.

Hey Y'all

So I dont know how many of you read this at alll...sometimes i feel like I'm talking to a wall, but i talk to no one all the time so i guess its okay.
I'm training for a half marathon in May, and I'm so excited about it.
But i added this new widget that you can view on the side in case you want to see how my training is going! haha, this is pretty much for my dad to see but i guess I'll just share it with everyone.
Oh, and you can "send motivation" i dont really know what you have to do but it looks like it would make me smile :)