By Rut Roman | Program Coordinator
Elena just turned 15, she is a tall and slender beauty, she covers her shyness under a rough and disdainful teenage attitude. When she first joined the teenage group for aquatic sports, her interactions with the instructors and other adults were never easy, she would contemplate a distant horizon whenever you tried to talk to her. A year later, she is easy going, greets everybody as soon as she comes in and even though she still beats around the bush before settling down and doing her homework, she does all her school work and chores around the library so as to gain points for the next surf or scuba field trip.
After being certified as open water divers the group of teenagers had to sign up for coral maintenance and working trips in the Manta bay, a couple of hours by bus down the pacific coast. This meant that they would have to take a bus on their own, meet the instructors -a very trusted marine biologist, professors in Manta University/ live and work with them for a couple of days. Once the sporting challenge had been met and all were certified scuba divers, there was this new socialization hurdle to overcome. Most of these young persons have never left their village, let alone traveled on their own and stayed with a family that was not theirs. The social anxiety crept in and all were silent when the day arrived and we had to put the first marine coral diver in the calendar. We were all taken aback when Elena, the shyest of the group, signed up as first to go.
Elena’s mom took a picture of the bus plates and Evelyn -the Manta instructor- was in the bust station waiting for Elena. During her weekend in Manta, Elena kept sending pictures and messages of everything, the beach, the ocean, the house she was staying in, the city… all this was her first experience on her own.
A week later when all were gathered she offered a powerpoint presentation in the Library about the conservancy program her instructors had included her in. You could see a change in her demeanor: her tone was calm and assured when she talked about how to handle yourself not only in the water as a scuba diver, but as a person in the city, how to keep an eye on your things, how to cross a street, how to be polite and talkative to her hosts.
After Elena’s experience, each and every one of the youngsters in the program are signing up for the “on my own” experience in the marine conservancy project you help support.
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