Everyday, several times a day, I have moments where I am completely bewildered by my surroundings. Nina and I will look at each other at 3:45 in the morning as we are basically on top of our fourth sea turtle of the night, which is coated in wet sand and smelling like rotten fish, and give each other a half pained smile. We are both thinking, “what is life?” I’m in Turkey, living about 100 steps away from one of the world’s most beautiful beaches (Iztuzu Beach), handling/working with sea turtles everyday, and hanging out with some of the coolest kids anyone could meet. I’m also living on the world’s strangest sleep schedule (more on this later).
View from DEKAMER.
We get our water by filling up 20 L (5 gallon) jugs from the public water source, which comes from an underground spring, and appears as a hole in this random wall on the side of the road. We are brought fresh food (tomatoes, these long skinny peppers, oranges, apples, snap pea looking things, LOTS of eggplant, etc.) every few days from Turkish people who grow it in the Daylan area (where we are located). It’s the norm to shower (a rustic outdoor shower, consisting of a corrugated tin shack with a hose connected to a giant bucket full of water that is heated by the sun) once every three days, because of course swimming in the ocean counts as taking a bath. If you wear the same outfit a few days in a row, no one blinks an eye. The bathroom is a little bit of a walk (5 min) from where we sleep so its totally acceptable to pee in the woods.
Today, as I’m sitting here writing this blog, is the most work intensive day for Team 1, consisting of me, Nina, and Nick, now named Esra, Fatma, and Tunahan (our Turkish names that we all respond to). Our team also goes by other names: T-rex, Team 4, Team Hunna, Team Hunna-one. We like to change our team name every time we get in an argument…as a fresh start to life. The other two teams are Team 2 and Team 3, but obviously, our team is the best.
Team 1, plus Connie and Ahmet. Best team.
Today we woke up at 8am and helped Halime prepare breakfast, which starts at 9am for all the volunteers at the center (currently there are about 17 people here). We also take care of clean up and washing the dishes before starting our long day of tours from 10 am to 6 pm.
A pretty typical breakfast. We have bread, olives, cheese, tomatoes, and jam everyday, along with eggs or something else.
During the tours we escort visitors and show them the injured Loggerhead sea turtles that are currently here (currently 8), and answer their questions to the best of our ability. Around 6pm, we helped Halime prepare dinner, mostly by cutting up vegetables or other things, and set the table. These are really funny times with her because she speaks little English and we speak little Turkish, so we laugh and act out things with charades and crazy body movements. We have all learned some funny words and our Turkish conversations revolve around calling each other “crazy” or “the worst. At 7pm we all eat dinner, then we do the dishes.
Me and a turtle. Pretty unusual to see one nesting during the day!
Finally, around 9:30pm we go on night patrol, meaning we walk up and down the three-mile-long beach looking for sea turtles, tracks, or nests until about 5am the next day. I always chug about three cups of coffee first. While on patrol, we tag and measure the turtles that we see, cage in (to protect the eggs from foxes) and record the coordinates of all the nests, and measure all the false crawls. It sounds like a long night, and it is, but walking underneath the clear sky, where you can see millions of stars, the Milky Way, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, and at least 10 shooting stars a night is pretty cool.
Checking to see if the nesting turtle has a tag.
After patrol we all pass out, only waking up for breakfast at 9am, before sleeping again until about 1 or 2 pm. Luckily, after night patrol we then have the rest of the day off to do whatever we want. We often will take the bus (20 min ride through the mountains) to Dalyan. In town we get lunch, drink Turkish coffee, or just walk around and shop. Eventually we plan on going to the spa, getting henna, taking mud baths, renting row boats, visiting the Saturday market several more times, and hopefully traveling to other nearby cities as a group. If we don’t go to town we will spend the day at the beach, playing volleyball, swimming, snorkeling, or just hanging out. At night we hang out with the other team that is not on night patrol, playing cards, board games (Settlers of Catan – the only game we have that we now kinda hate), singing Disney songs, or watching movies. It’s pretty great. The 9 of us in the Engage program are all like one giant family at this point. Nina even told me she would date me if I was a boy.
Me and Nina: My teammate and best bud :’)
Nina: at the Saturday market.
(across) Nina, Alex, Jake, (down) Nick, Michael, and me.
The next day we have to wake up at 5am to go on morning patrol, meaning caging any nests from turtles that laid eggs after the night patrol team passed that section of the beach or recording any false crawls. We also will relocate any nests that were laid too close to the water or too close to the sun beds to minimize contact with humans. Morning patrol usually lasts about 5 hours, until 10 am. We then come back, eat a late breakfast, and nap for a few hours before waking up to hang out with last night’s night patrol team, who now has their day off, as we also have the rest of the day off.
Michael, Alex, and Jason lookin cute at our group meal in Dalyan.
Unfortunately, there are few hours of the day where all 9 of us are not working and can all hang out, but once a week we all go into town for a meal together or take advantage of the time after dinner and before night patrol to play games on the beach. Alex and Nick made up a game called S.O.S. (Stones of Steal) where we throw a rock at a soccer ball and someone has to catch it until there is only 1 person remaining (you have 3 lives). It’s a really silly game, but I really like it. It has all sorts of dumb rules. This game was made up after 3 days of no wifi so it’s pretty clear we were desperate for entertainment.
Abbi: the dog we rescued. We bought her dog food. She was named after the most adorable little tourist who came to DEKAMER.
So for now, our lives rotate by this three day schedule. Basically you work hard when you work, sleep when you can, and spend the rest of the time laughing, because our group is absolutely hilarious. Our personalities mesh well, no one is a COMPLETE jerk 😉 and everyone pulls their own weight. Though things are always changing around here, and new volunteers have started to come and join our group. Two new Turkish girls just arrived a few days back and have moved into our tiny cabin (about half the size of a typical dorm room at Duke), so there are now seven of us in there. We also share DEKAMER with two cats (both of which have given me pretty bad scratches), two kittens, lots of goats, and for a few days, a dog named Abbi that I rescued from the beach before she was taken to a shelter. Life is really good 🙂
Helping with a sea turtle necropsy.