Saturday April 21st, 2007

Here we are, waiting for the results.This competition has been organised by the association Oulanga na Nyamba for the event "the 3 days on turtles". The nyamba means "turtle" in shimaoré and oulanga is "environment" We had to make a full-sized turtle Mrs Gabriel, our teacher is with us, as well as the Principal of the Collège, Mr Bernard Waymel. There are 24 turtles in competition and ours is number 20. For the moment, it is being looked at and we are trying to hear the comments. After all, it represents a lot of work : around 25 hours.

We first drew it from a picture, cut it in old cardboards, glued it and stapled it. It was then covered with green paper ( for the carapace under shell and the flippers) and yellow paper ( for the carapace under shell). We painted the shields with white paint, cut a lot of cans into small pieces ( we had asked everybody at school to keep the cans for us so we had hundreds of them!) and glued the small pieces on the carapace, creating a multicoloured mosaic ( that was the longest thing to do!).

Results are being announced now, they are starting from the last ones, Mrs Gabriel has said no need to be in a hurry for the results, the further they are going, the better for us! We are getting more and more excited....

Third one, second one so have a guess now : Who is the winner? TURTLE NUMBER 20 FROM THE SANDWATCH TEAM OF THE COLLEGE OF KOUNGOU ! We are so happy, we can't believe it!

Applause, jostling, greetings, we are on the stage now, Echati is jumping for joy, Moitsoumou is crying, Mrs Gabriel is laughing, Amina, Anfiati, Koudoussia, Zouriane and Zaianti have taken the turtle and are showing it to the public.

I can imagine how it feels like being a star at The Festival de Cannes! Mrs Gabriel is calling Mr Waymel on the stage. They are speaking on the mike and Mrs Gabriel is saying how proud and enthusiastic we are, she is explaining the project Sandwatch and what we've done this year. But we are getting more and more popular here, after all Mrs Gabriel was on television 2 days ago and she had already explained how important green turtles were to our lagoon and how , through Sandwatch, we could inform and educate young children to take care and respect our environment. There are photographers all around us and a lot of flashes too!

I think we'll always remember this moment! A big thank you to the association "Oulanga na Nyamba "