Classroom

The Sandwatch West African Workshop Learn About Water Testing and a Little About Each Other

During the workshop, educators had the chance to not only learn Sandwatch methods on a local beach, but also how to test sea water for various contaminants, using simple tests contained within a US made kit. These kits were made available to all participants courtesy of UNESCO who had them delivered from the US especially for the workshop.

The workshop was quite a challenge for everyone involved as it was conducted in three (3) languages. First, instructions would be given in English, then translated into French by Sandwatch`s French Programme Coordinator, Mrs. Pascale Gabriel, which would be in turn translated into Portuguese by two local translators. This process had to be repeated innumerable times over the 4 day workshop, and of course the process had to be reversed every time a question was asked or an observation made.

But despite the language barriers, we managed to share quite a lot of new knowledge and skills, and also learned a great deal about each other countries and communities.