Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Ejona Korcari, Week 9, Tirana Albania

This week was a bit different. We finished some short translations and social media work around the office during Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week we spent it in another city in the south coast of Albania called Vlora. There we had to work on a project organized from the National Coastal Agency of Albania and a French organization. In the port of Vlora was anchored a scientific boat called Tara expedition. Their current mission was to study the small fragments of plastic floating in the surface of the sea. On Wednesday we got to see a presentation and a seminar from the group of people that work in Tara and find out more about them. There were present students from University of Vlora and Tirana too. On Thursday and Friday we got to visit the boat and meet the equipage. The Coastal Agency had organized an event involving kids from the orphanages of 4 different Albanian cities. The kids were from 3-15 years old and they didn't speak english, so I got to translate for two groups of the older kids. It was really fun. I learned so much myself about research in a boat, the life of the equipage, the boat itself and the sailors shared so many stories with us. It was really exciting. The kids were really fascinated by all this. They kept asking questions and the scientists tried to answer them in their best abilities. Tara was an unique ship. As we were on a tour in the boat, I was looking at some posters and to my surprise, I saw that University of Michigan was one of their scientific partners. I felt so proud I go there. 
The Seminar we got to attend with Tirana and Vlora students

Tara Scientific boat

UM is under Scientific Partners

Me in the board of Tara

Waiting for the kids to arrive  
Me translating for the oldest group of kids
Treats in Vlora

Since I am a Biology (Neuroscience) major, and have taken a lot of science classes being in this boat was really exciting for me. After the our in the boat I started reading about the boat and their past and present expeditions. I also think that it would be really cool if I ever participated in an expedition like that and travel around the world. It was a really unique experience.

3 comments:

  1. Ejona,

    It sounds like your really enjoyed your experience on the boat! I'm wondering about the plastic. Why was it there? Where was it from? I don't know much about boats/sailing at all, so I would have learned a lot. I bet it is rewarding to not know learn about the boat but to also relay that knowledge to the children. You seem as though you work very well with children :)

    UM is everywhere!

    Best,
    Tammy

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  3. The boat is collecting the micro plastic from the surface of the sea. They are collecting small sea animals too. Later they are studying them. The plastic is there (mostly) from the garbage that people throw in the sea. From this they want to study what kind of plastic is this, which areas mare more polluted and what are the effects of this in the flora and fauna of the sea. This trip to the boat was really interesting. I learned a lot too. It was really nice I had to spend the day with children. I believe they learned a lot too. They were really interested and asked questions all the time.

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