Happiness, we are going to go to Lombok again. i get to see if the effort put in last year made any difference. And i get to engage in manual labour , to build the tanks for Bolong. There were some changes to our team this year. Many did not want to go again because they were ill after coming back. We rather unwisely drank drinks with ice on our last day (last year) and many had upset tummy after returning. That we had upset stomachs was entirely our fault: we forgot that we were used to the high standards of home, and had weakened constitutions in comparison. The other reason why many did not want to return was because of the sandfly bites. However, with proper care, we could be safe, right? So four of us returned to the scene of our first oversea's community service and conservation effort - the sunny shores of Gili Meno. We brought five newbies with us, and i was determined that they would not get sick as we did the last time. i was NOT going to let them drink iced drinks. The first surprise for us when we arrived was our disembarkation point - the ferry sent us directly to Bolong's sanctuary, rather than the ferry jetty. it was an experience for us to get off a ferry directly to the beach. A good experience to challenge us to keep our feet dry. We made some changes to the way we did things this time. While the Australian scouts followed the schedule, we nine Singapore scouts engaged more directly with the local people this trip. We still did some activities with the Aussies, such as litter picking and fishing, but the four experienced scouts took turns to lead session on water quality and water collection for the Australian scouts. While they may be older and more used to drought than we were, we knew how to survive in the hot Asian climate. The other difference to this trip was that we engaged in a different method of turtle night patrol. we split ourselves into two groups, surveyed the beach for possible turtle egg laying sites, and sat there in the dark (up to 2am). We figured that walking around the island twice a night (the way we did it last year) may not be very effective, so we applied a trick i learned from an eagle scout professor to "be the turtle" (he taught me to understand a frog, i needed to be a frog). We sat. This challenged us as we needed to identify the possible spots, and also to know the fastest route back to get Bolong just in case we spotted a laying turtle. The most rewarding part of this trip was that we saw a cleaner island, and the locals were happy to see us. Some of them commented that we were better this time, as we actually could communicate with them. We integrated with them, played badminton and football with the locals during our free times. The children also smiled at us as we walked by to the water quality place - they asked when we would visit their school (did this mean they remembered us?). Mrs Bolong also shared with us that there were more locals bringing eggs in for them than before, many of them children. Perhaps we had made a difference the last time? Not only that, we also swam with the turtles and witnessed the transfer of three clutches of eggs to the sanctuary. I really wanted to come back to see them hatch. However, that would mean i have to skip school...