Slow internet, harvesting, drinking water

A sincere apology for the lateness of this post. I must say that internet has been the most difficult thing about working here. It's made communicating with those outside the country very tough.

Yet there have been plenty of adventures and business over the past 2 weeks. We've been comparing the abundance and quality of oysters from various harvesting sites, one is known as a particularly high quality ground, yet is a perilous crossing for a small canoe through the River. From this, I've learned about the dangers of the occupation and the incidents that have occurred in the past. Often harvesters are caught in bad weather in a canoe loaded with 100kg of oysters, when the boat is pretty low in the water. In some villages only men are allowed to paddle canoes, which would outrage any feminist. Yet I later learned that this was a reaction to severe incidents in the past where women did not have the strength to reach the shore. Often such rules have good reason behind them.

Aside from work, the biggest adventure I had so far was  going for a full harvest with my neighbour. We reached the ground after about a 40 minute paddle, cut 90kg worth of oysters, and paddled back. Then spent up to 6 hours the next say steaming them I preparation for sale. What interested me was the fact that I went with a 17 year old school student who was going out to get some pocket money. He would earn about Le15,000 - about £2 for essentially 2 days work. Getting pocket money can be tough here in Bonthe. But I was glad to be able to do my favourite thing here - paddle into the pristine mangrove.

The next two weeks are going to be very busy, as I'm planning 3 days of field surveys in the next week, and my supervisor is coming the week after. So I hope to have some fun and cook some good food tomorrow.

In my last bit of news, we found a well with clean water - good enough to drink. One less problem.