Alpha 6 on Cabo Blanco

Our project communications officers Alexandra Braun & Ottalie Westerink on Cabo Blanco and their environmental project:

Get up stand up we need to go back to work. With Nachos wakeup call Alpha 6 plucks up the courage to begin a brand new day. Everyone jumps out of bed towards jungle camp to attack the beloved porridge. After greeting the sun and the speech of the motivator of the day, it is time to go to work. Everyday Alpha 6 tries to make work as enjoyable as possible by personalising the rocks or by singing Disney songs during our rock change. We even ended up by having our own creation of the Moulin song.

After a hard working day we often take advantage of the fact that our jungle camp is near the rocky beach, and run into the endless shallow pools. One day after a nice bath in the Pacific Ocean we saw something that looked like Jimbo’s (James Taylor) sandals floating in the water. But Jimbo was not in the water, it appeared to be a harmless nurse shark that somehow ended up in our shallow pools.

On one of our free days we went to Cabo Blanco beach, it was a beautiful trip through the jungle. After a long walk we arrived on the amazing white beach, it seems like our own private beach which we shared with a massive group of Pelicans. After a nice lunch, swim and some tan time we walked back. ‘Back home’ we discovered that the mini medic did not fulfil her role because everyone’s back was bright red; Dom even ended up with white hand marks on his red back.

On Valentine’s Day we organised a dress up with your date party. Everyone made crazy costumes out of jungle materials. The best made costume was Nacho’s and Alex’s who were Pocahontas and the Talking Tree.

Alpha 6 strongly believes in the need of the path and as a team we manage to reach our goals. Proud and satisfied we are ready to leave the incredible Cabo Blanco experience in the hope that the next group will finish what we started.

Cabo Blanco and Social Justice

We, Alpha 6, think that protecting the environment has a positive impact on social justice.  First of all, because we totally rely on nature.  Without all the resources that nature provides us we could not live in the society in which we live today.  Over-exploitation of resources which are not sustainable, such as logging wood lead to the destruction of a world in which social justice is possible.  It’s a result of destroying the environment that will result in us not having a future at all. This in turn will disable everyone from growing up with equal chances.  As a consequence, the population will struggle with competition over resources meaning that the wealthy can afford but the developing world will not be able too, destroying the concept of social justice. 

Alpha 6 concluded that protecting the environment is an action that must be undertaken by more and more young people to maintain social justice. The group strongly believes that educating people has a positive impact on creating a socially just world. Through education, people will understand that they have a right, a voice, and can choose their own political direction instead of being disempowered.  Because you do not have knowledge about your surroundings or society you will have limited power and little can change for you.  If you educate people they will have more skills, so it becomes easier to take part in their society and find employment.

Making people more conscious about the problems in the world and how small changes can make big differences. Making them aware of health care and how to take care of nature will have a long term positive effect on our global community.