Captain Kapote to the rescue

Expedition 37 draws to a close and it's time to say goodbye to another crop of volunteers. One thing this job has allowed me is the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people from far-flung places (to Madagascar, but also to the UK!).
I think I have enjoyed this group socially a little more than others - maybe because there were a few of us 'oldies' in it. Am intrigued to see what the next set of vols is like as they're all between 20 and 24!
The final week of the expedition rolls round so quickly it seems. I can't believe I have just two more to go.
We had some nice dives in this last diving week - including one at a site which I think we will call "Emerald City" because it is full of green and purple Galaxea coral. It was exceedingly pretty. The final day is one where we send out dives purely for recreation. Before I came here, pretty much all my dives were recreational but now that diving has become 'work' it's rare that I get to dive purely for the love of it and the fun of it. Don't get me wrong - I do really enjoy guiding vols, helping to train them and showing them stuff. And I sort of enjoy the data gathering too. But there's nothing that beats just swimming round a new reef, exploring under water and doing so in calm conditions and good visibility.
So, I'm happy to report that's just what I got yesterday diving on a new reef (to me). The visibility was gorgeous and there were some shallow reef tops full of blue and green table corals populated by pretty pink baench damsels, chocolate dipped chromis's, masked banner fish and threadfin butterflies. I hung in mid-water enthralled by the picture postcard scene which would have simply been titled "coral reef" and took heaps of pictures - at least a few even came out! The dive was really gorgeous and there was more to explore than our 45 minute bottom time could allow sadly. I hope to return there another time. It really is the longest time since I've just chilled with an experienced buddy and marvelled at the beauty of the reef. An additional excitement was a bright yellow, blackspotted puffer fish which pouted at the camera, but refused to stay still long enough to stay in focus.
The other major highlight of this week was the play which the volunteers put on for the village. I'm not sure if it had a name, but if it did, it would have been 'captain kapote' (Captain Condom). The play was hastily written, and put together by our medic, whose mission here is to increase STD awareness in the village and condom use. I was sceptical, to say the least, that she could do something so ambitious in the three days that she'd given herself, but I'm happy to say that I was proved utterly wrong.
The volunteers all rallied together, including our Malagasy scholar, who helped write the script in Vezu and served as a narrator throughout. The play took place on the beach, behind the concrete Club Alo Alo building about forty minutes before a spectacular sunset lit up the sky behind it. It was watched by an audience of women and children (to my right), children and teenagers of both sexes (in front of me) and burly, vezu men fresh from playing football (to my left) as well as a few of the men from the village and a couple of drunk old guys too. Many of the Nahuda in the village (heads) weren't available as they were in an important meeting with our science staff to talk about octopus, turtles and sea cucumbers. But the main target audience was, and that was the important thing.
The play was all in Malagasy - the actors did a sterling job of remembering their lines - and the crowd took to the theatre like any village without television or live theatre would do. They were totally engrossed in the fates of the pregnant lady (played by the Dutch tourism researcher called Mikael), of the prostitute (played by a 19 year old loud American boy called Sam) and all the other characters too - laughing hysterically throughout.
The villains of the piece were the Chlamydia crab (played hilariously by our new dive manager Al), AIDS shark (Tori from the UK) and the syphillis sea cucumber (?!) played by the Canadian, ex-environmental lawyer called Mike whose efforts to kill and attack the characters, were thwarted by Captain Kapote, the hero, played by Philippe, our compressor operator. I think it will be a long time before he is known by any other title! I took more photos than was really necessary and hopefully BV will post them on the website as soon as they get them so you can get an idea of the production. It really was a great way to end the expedition and left everyone on a high about their contribution.