Wednesday 31 December 2008
Tuesday 23 December 2008
Thursday 11 December 2008
Hi Children please find the answers below, Sally
Hi Alayna and EllaMay,
The island is very beautiful, it is the most amazing place I have ever been. The colours are fantastic, and the clear light really makes the whole place 3 dimensional. When we came back from the UK in October and walked on to the island it felt like someone was shinning a big spotlight on it, after very Britain to come here and was such a contrast. The island itself is very rugged and has lots of trees, when it rains at this time of year all the trees start to grow new leaves and so from the sea the island looks very green, with lots of different shades – lime, fresh new green, deep leathery bottle green, pale yellowy new green and lots and lots more. Then by contrast there is the beach and the sea, the beach is made up of silver sand so soft it feels like talcum powder between your toes and the sea is so blue it hurts your eyes – yes it certainly is beautiful.
Yep our buckets often get holes in, the bright sun and UV makes them very brittle.
Hi Danny and Byron
It really depend on the months as to how much rain we get, have a look at the graph below and you can see that our months of most rain are between November and March.
Comparison of the 2007 monthly rainfall figures from Aride with the averages for the previous 12 years.
Hi Gabby and Noy
Compared to the UK, it is very hot, we are very close to the Equator and at our hottest time in October, November it can be over 31˚C. Have a look at the table below which shows you the maximum and minimum temperatures, together with the total rainfall for last year.
Hi Emily and Bethany,
Aride Island is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, have a look on a map and see which countries are next to us. Aride is in the small group of islands called the Seychelles, which on your map will probably look tiny in the idle of a very big ocean.
The island is very beautiful, it is the most amazing place I have ever been. The colours are fantastic, and the clear light really makes the whole place 3 dimensional. When we came back from the UK in October and walked on to the island it felt like someone was shinning a big spotlight on it, after very Britain to come here and was such a contrast. The island itself is very rugged and has lots of trees, when it rains at this time of year all the trees start to grow new leaves and so from the sea the island looks very green, with lots of different shades – lime, fresh new green, deep leathery bottle green, pale yellowy new green and lots and lots more. Then by contrast there is the beach and the sea, the beach is made up of silver sand so soft it feels like talcum powder between your toes and the sea is so blue it hurts your eyes – yes it certainly is beautiful.
Yep our buckets often get holes in, the bright sun and UV makes them very brittle.
Hi Danny and Byron
It really depend on the months as to how much rain we get, have a look at the graph below and you can see that our months of most rain are between November and March.
Comparison of the 2007 monthly rainfall figures from Aride with the averages for the previous 12 years.
Hi Gabby and Noy
Compared to the UK, it is very hot, we are very close to the Equator and at our hottest time in October, November it can be over 31˚C. Have a look at the table below which shows you the maximum and minimum temperatures, together with the total rainfall for last year.
Hi Emily and Bethany,
Aride Island is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, have a look on a map and see which countries are next to us. Aride is in the small group of islands called the Seychelles, which on your map will probably look tiny in the idle of a very big ocean.
Thursday 4 December 2008
Hi Children, please see the answers below - Melvyn
Hello Jacob
All our washin
g water comes from the well, it’s not too far about 50m from the house, but the buckets are very heavy. Our drinking water is collected rain from the roof which we store in big barrels, this has to be filtered before we drink it because there are so many birds, and we all know how birds like to pooh on roofs. Think of us when you turn your tap on next.
Hello Grace and Lucy
We try not to catch really big fish like sharks because they are becoming rare and as there are only 8 of us living on the island we could never eat it all. We did catch a really big Barracuda once it was nearly 2m long but we let it go unharmed. The fish we try to catch are about 10kg and about 50cm long and called Red Snapper, great on the barbeque. Do you like fish?
Hello Mike and Sam
Floods are not at all rare in the tropics with 200mm of rain some days in the wet monsoon. We are a small island so the floods just run into the sea and cause us little problems. We rely on heavy rain to fill up the ground water for the well; light rain just evaporates because it’s so hot.
Hello Kai and Fraiser
We go to the toilet the same as you! Seriously, we have what’s called a long drop toilet, this is basically a hole in the ground with a shed built around it. It’s not smelly because we put dry leaves in it to give the correct carbon nitrogen balance (ask a teacher) .
Hello Charlie and Kieran
They hold 200lts each, that’s quite a lot of water and we have six of them, but we still ran out of drinking water in the last dry season. We had to fill up the barrels from the nearest bigger island 10 miles across the sea all in our little boat.
Hello Erica and Heidi
Only Sally’s snoring, not really. Aride is a very noisy island with all the nesting birds and the waves crashing on the reef, at first yes, it did keep us awake, but you soon get use to it. We came home for a holiday in Sept and couldn’t sleep at first because it was too quite!
All our washin
g water comes from the well, it’s not too far about 50m from the house, but the buckets are very heavy. Our drinking water is collected rain from the roof which we store in big barrels, this has to be filtered before we drink it because there are so many birds, and we all know how birds like to pooh on roofs. Think of us when you turn your tap on next. Hello Grace and LucyWe try not to catch really big fish like sharks because they are becoming rare and as there are only 8 of us living on the island we could never eat it all. We did catch a really big Barracuda once it was nearly 2m long but we let it go unharmed. The fish we try to catch are about 10kg and about 50cm long and called Red Snapper, great on the barbeque. Do you like fish?
Hello Mike and Sam
Floods are not at all rare in the tropics with 200mm of rain some days in the wet monsoon. We are a small island so the floods just run into the sea and cause us little problems. We rely on heavy rain to fill up the ground water for the well; light rain just evaporates because it’s so hot.
Hello Kai and Fraiser
We go to the toilet the same as you! Seriously, we have what’s called a long drop toilet, this is basically a hole in the ground with a shed built around it. It’s not smelly because we put dry leaves in it to give the correct carbon nitrogen balance (ask a teacher) .
Hello Kylan and George
We don’t have a shower because we have no running water in the houses, we are trying to get the houses plumbed with running water, but this is difficult in the Seychelles because there are no shops that sell plumbing equipment. We have to ship everything we need from the UK, may be a shower next year, we’ll be real stinky by then! Try showering like me and Sal you two, first get a bucket, fill it from the river Brue and then tip it over your head, perhaps not a good idea in the UK winter though.
We don’t have a shower because we have no running water in the houses, we are trying to get the houses plumbed with running water, but this is difficult in the Seychelles because there are no shops that sell plumbing equipment. We have to ship everything we need from the UK, may be a shower next year, we’ll be real stinky by then! Try showering like me and Sal you two, first get a bucket, fill it from the river Brue and then tip it over your head, perhaps not a good idea in the UK winter though.
Hello Byron and Danny 
Very difficult to say how much water we use per day. For washing up, clothes and ourselves about 10lts each. For drinking and cooking about 5lts each, but if we are working outside because it so hot in the sun I’ll drink 5lts in a morning, it depends on what we are doing. How much do you two use in a day? I think you would find it surprising how much you use, do you think you could manage without water in your taps, could you collect your own water?
Very difficult to say how much water we use per day. For washing up, clothes and ourselves about 10lts each. For drinking and cooking about 5lts each, but if we are working outside because it so hot in the sun I’ll drink 5lts in a morning, it depends on what we are doing. How much do you two use in a day? I think you would find it surprising how much you use, do you think you could manage without water in your taps, could you collect your own water?
Hello Lewis
and Jack
Our nearest shop for food is 10 miles across the sea, there not like the shops in the UK they are very small and quite often no food in them, we can normally buy rice, lentils, eggs, flour and sugar. We make bread, cakes and biscuits, catch fish which we eat most days and grow our own fruit and veg, some of which you’ll never of heard of. The food we eat is good, it’s fresh and very healthy but it is very samey. We miss things like a roast dinner, cheese, crisps and snacky things, I made veggie pasties yesterday as an experiment and they were great, even our Seychellois staff who never heard of pasties liked them. You have to be imaginative with food here!
and JackOur nearest shop for food is 10 miles across the sea, there not like the shops in the UK they are very small and quite often no food in them, we can normally buy rice, lentils, eggs, flour and sugar. We make bread, cakes and biscuits, catch fish which we eat most days and grow our own fruit and veg, some of which you’ll never of heard of. The food we eat is good, it’s fresh and very healthy but it is very samey. We miss things like a roast dinner, cheese, crisps and snacky things, I made veggie pasties yesterday as an experiment and they were great, even our Seychellois staff who never heard of pasties liked them. You have to be imaginative with food here!
Hello Grace and Niamh
Because we live in the tropics we don’t get seasons like the UK, with you, in summer, the sun is high in the sky making it nice and warm and in winter low down and cold burrr. Liv
ing on the equator the sun is high all the time and always very very hot. The weather here is governed by two monsoons (winds). The North West monsoon which we are in now brings hot humid air and lots of rain, the South East monsoon from May to Oct is cooler and less rain. So we have no winter or summer, it did seemed strange to us at first being able to grow veg like tomatoes outside all year round. Another strange thing, the sun comes up at 6am and sets at 6pm every day, so no long lazy summer’s evenings and no horrible dark winter mornings.
Because we live in the tropics we don’t get seasons like the UK, with you, in summer, the sun is high in the sky making it nice and warm and in winter low down and cold burrr. Liv
ing on the equator the sun is high all the time and always very very hot. The weather here is governed by two monsoons (winds). The North West monsoon which we are in now brings hot humid air and lots of rain, the South East monsoon from May to Oct is cooler and less rain. So we have no winter or summer, it did seemed strange to us at first being able to grow veg like tomatoes outside all year round. Another strange thing, the sun comes up at 6am and sets at 6pm every day, so no long lazy summer’s evenings and no horrible dark winter mornings.Hello Aaron and Aiden
We have to many
fish on the reef and surrounding sea to name them all, over 400 different ones, but I’ll tell you about some of my favourites. All of the rays are fantastic and easy to watch from the beach; sometimes they leap out of the water and make such a splash it’s like a dinner table being dropped into the sea from a great height. For colour the Powdered Blue Surgeon for me is the best on the reef, look it up on the internet.
We have to many
fish on the reef and surrounding sea to name them all, over 400 different ones, but I’ll tell you about some of my favourites. All of the rays are fantastic and easy to watch from the beach; sometimes they leap out of the water and make such a splash it’s like a dinner table being dropped into the sea from a great height. For colour the Powdered Blue Surgeon for me is the best on the reef, look it up on the internet.Hello Charlie and KieranThey hold 200lts each, that’s quite a lot of water and we have six of them, but we still ran out of drinking water in the last dry season. We had to fill up the barrels from the nearest bigger island 10 miles across the sea all in our little boat.
Hello Bethany and Lucy
We do catch some big fish, me and Sal use rods but our rangers use hand lines, you can’t buy fishing rods in the Seychelles but they wouldn’t use them if you could, they are very skilful fishermen.
We do catch some big fish, me and Sal use rods but our rangers use hand lines, you can’t buy fishing rods in the Seychelles but they wouldn’t use them if you could, they are very skilful fishermen.
Hello Niamh and Grace
We eat Bonito( like our Mackerel) Job Fish, Red Snapper, Grouper, Emperors and many others.
All the creatures that live here come into the house, all the birds all the insects an
d mice. Our favourite is our tame Skink, Hector (lizard) we feed him cockroaches which we collect in old peanut tins, when we rattle the tin Hector comes running for his lunch, he is very tame. Aride has the highest density of lizards anywhere in the world, one per square meter, how many would that be in your classroom? Our unwanted guests are mosquitoes, the nasty and painful if it bites you Giant Centipede, they grow to 150mm long and like to hide under bed sheets, mice because they eat and spoil our food and crabs only because you tend to step on them in the dark and without shoes they squidge between your toes.
We eat Bonito( like our Mackerel) Job Fish, Red Snapper, Grouper, Emperors and many others.
All the creatures that live here come into the house, all the birds all the insects an
d mice. Our favourite is our tame Skink, Hector (lizard) we feed him cockroaches which we collect in old peanut tins, when we rattle the tin Hector comes running for his lunch, he is very tame. Aride has the highest density of lizards anywhere in the world, one per square meter, how many would that be in your classroom? Our unwanted guests are mosquitoes, the nasty and painful if it bites you Giant Centipede, they grow to 150mm long and like to hide under bed sheets, mice because they eat and spoil our food and crabs only because you tend to step on them in the dark and without shoes they squidge between your toes.
Hello Erica and Heidi
Only Sally’s snoring, not really. Aride is a very noisy island with all the nesting birds and the waves crashing on the reef, at first yes, it did keep us awake, but you soon get use to it. We came home for a holiday in Sept and couldn’t sleep at first because it was too quite!
Hello George and Charlie
If our water supplies are low we would try and fill up all our barrels, 600lts. As I said to Byron and Danny what we use does vary so much, we never waste water because we sometimes we run out. We are hoping to get a filter so we can clean the well water for drinking, then we wouldn’t have to rely on the rain.
If our water supplies are low we would try and fill up all our barrels, 600lts. As I said to Byron and Danny what we use does vary so much, we never waste water because we sometimes we run out. We are hoping to get a filter so we can clean the well water for drinking, then we wouldn’t have to rely on the rain.
Tuesday 2 December 2008
Hi Children
Thanks so much for all your questions - keep watching the blog and I will get the answers on as soon as I can.
Best wishes
Sally
Best wishes
Sally
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