{"id":198,"date":"2007-12-07T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-07T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blueventures.org\/blog\/?p=198"},"modified":"2007-12-07T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-07T12:54:00","slug":"volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish into\u00a0insignificance. The here and now is what is so important &#8211; sitting on one&#8217;s\u00a0terrace after a busy day, watching pirogues drift past, silhouetted against the setting sun. Who would want to be anywhere else?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div>Though at least 25 years older than anyone else here, the welcome and the\u00a0sense of a team has been heartwarming. Delicious food, amazing setting and\u00a0Andavadoaka cheerful acceptance of strange visitors all add to the ambience.\u00a0Oh, and bring everything that is on the list because there&#8217;s no popping to\u00a0Sainsbury&#8217;s if you&#8217;ve forgotten it!\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_2sC8zyeHSQw\/R1lG_k6WfuI\/AAAAAAAAARE\/nXgfZTgYqzg\/s320\/Open+day+laughter+copy.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5141218507674255074\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div>I&#8217;m very glad that we did a few week&#8217;s homework before we came &#8211; the fish\u00a0don&#8217;t hang around waiting to be identified! The visibility has so far been\u00a0hampered by strong winds, but strangely, when you are hovering with your\u00a0nose 10cm above a tunicate (or is it a sponge?) you don&#8217;t really notice!\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div>Saturday is teaching afternoon and in 30 years of primary teaching, I\u00a0haven&#8217;t experienced anything quite like it. Forty clamouring enthusiastic 3\u00a0&#8211; 11 year olds in a dirt yard under a tree requires a little planning to\u00a0stay sane but is incredibly satisfying. Bring any visual aids you can &#8211; a\u00a0musical instrument (that can be sterilised after over-eager blowing) &#8211;\u00a0better still.<\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For us, the wildlife is an added bonus: The baobab forest on the 4X4 ride\u00a0from Toliara, the totally different spiny forest, iridescent bee-eaters,\u00a0numerous waders, huge bird-wing butterflies, scaly lizards, myriads of<\/div>\n<div>grasshoppers and the odd snake. And that&#8217;s before you dip your head under\u00a0the water to see the huge diversity of sea creatures that await you. Giant\u00a0centipedes in sea shoes and monstery cockroaches render one less lyrical<\/div>\n<div>perhaps!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div>Our Blue Ventures team here are professional, knowledgeable and FUN! Thank\u00a0you all so much &#8211; time is passing too quickly.\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish into\u00a0insignificance. The here and now is what is so important &#8211; sitting on one&#8217;s\u00a0terrace after a busy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":28415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Blue Ventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@blueventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@blueventures\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Blue Ventures\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Blue Ventures\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\"},\"headline\":\"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":339,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorised\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/\",\"name\":\"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\"},\"description\":\"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/media\\\/2022\\\/07\\\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1066},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog\",\"description\":\"Voices from the front line of marine conversation\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c\",\"name\":\"Blue Ventures\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Blue Ventures\"},\"description\":\"Blue Ventures is an award winning marine conservation charity. We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities. On our Beyond Conservation blog you can hear voices from the front line of marine conservation written by our staff and volunteers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blueventures.org\",\"http:\\\/\\\/instagram.com\\\/beyondconservation\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.blueventures.org\\\/en\\\/author\\\/bv\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","description":"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","og_description":"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/","og_site_name":"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","article_published_time":"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00","author":"Blue Ventures","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@blueventures","twitter_site":"@blueventures","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Blue Ventures","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/"},"author":{"name":"Blue Ventures","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c"},"headline":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman","datePublished":"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/"},"wordCount":339,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Uncategorised"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/","name":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman - Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2007-12-07T12:54:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c"},"description":"Madagascar will change the way you look at the world. Guaranteed. After\u00a0three weeks here, issues that I would fret about at home vanish","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/2022\/07\/DJI_0109-1-scaled.jpg","width":1600,"height":1066},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/volunteer-blog-by-jane-westerman\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Volunteer Blog by Jane Westerman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/","name":"Blue Ventures - Beyond Conservation blog","description":"Voices from the front line of marine conversation","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/37e0594a6815a165adb4ae8819d79d5c","name":"Blue Ventures","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99072653ed4e1f204616d77356585e0f411fa627415743152caeb90fceef3bf1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Blue Ventures"},"description":"Blue Ventures is an award winning marine conservation charity. We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities. On our Beyond Conservation blog you can hear voices from the front line of marine conservation written by our staff and volunteers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/blueventures.org","http:\/\/instagram.com\/beyondconservation"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/author\/bv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}