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It was 8:50 in the morning and the air was damp and chilled. Complemented by a slight drizzle, the weather was almost heavenly at the shores of Karachi.
But what was I doing at 8:50 in the morning, away from school and dangerously close to the thrashing and crashing waves of the wild Arabian Sea? ‘Collecting Trash Of course!’
On the 13th of August, WWF-Pakistan organized a beach clean up at the Turtle beach in Karachi. This was a very crucial time for a beach clean up since the turtle egg laying season had just begun. It lasts from August until January and is at its peak in September, October and November when loads of turtles are expected to pay a short visit to the beach. But unfortunately, if these turtles feed on any of the attractive pieces of plastic which are scattered all over the beach, they may end up dead.
Two friends of mine and I, my friends being Rumaisa Reem and Siraj Anwar, received e-mails informing us of the event and all three of us were ready as always to volunteer. We called up our class fellows and asked them to collect our homework for us and got ready ‘to do some real work’
It is very true that if you embark upon a virtuous path, God makes it easier than it already is. The likelihood of the sun showing up in Karachi is a good 87 – 89% and this is a city where the scorching sun leaves a lot of unwanted marks on your skin, but we went there, stayed there and came back, all the time the weather being fantastic.
A lot of the Junior School kids had also turned up and they were as much an inspiration to us as we were to them. We soon found out that we were the only mature, self-volunteers there. We took our gloves and our garbage collecting bags and started on a mission, collecting all sorts of stuff we came across that didn’t belong on the beach, let alone in the throats of helpless turtles. We spent around half an hour collecting trash with the rest of the party and then took off on our own to collect more garbage along the shore. We were walking gingerly on the damp shore, careful not to step on any blue bottles and trying not to miss any small piece of plastic. From a distance, I am sure we appeared like pecking flamingoes in multi colored attire. We even came across two sea horses, one of which was alive and my friend, on an impulse, threw it carefully back into the water. I honestly don’t know how much we traveled but I am certain we passed a good fifteen beach huts.
When we came back, we were smelly and drained of energy, our hair in one direction, clothes in another, but all was forgotten when we saw the refreshment stand awaiting us. We then had a long chat with the head organizer, Dr. Ejaz Ahmed, and asked him questions about the types of turtle that visit our shore and other WWF Projects we could be a part of. He was very hospitable and later on took us to the Wetland Center where we learned even more interesting facts about the Flora and Fauna our country possessed.
At the end of the day, although we were fatigued and mentally saturated with information, we still considered the day a success. It was a good break from the usual routine, and I learned a lot about turtles ie. turtles cannot put their heads inside their shells and once a female turtle lays eggs, she never comes back (lousy mother). And above all, I felt really good inside just thinking that if I picked up even one piece of plastic that might have made a difference in the life of a turtle, then I have done my job.
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Madeeha Saleem
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didine | Dec 2nd, 2002
hi... salut moi didin tu peus contacter moi sur didin3@hotmail.com
join me Mohammad Hassan Mashori Advocate | Feb 15th, 2004
kindly join me as volunteer
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