We headed out to the islands in the late morning. A bike ride, ferry and short walk later, we arrived at a beautiful open grassland overlooking the river. An ideal spot for a practice drone flight.

After a perfect afternoon of minty grass, nice wind and aerial photography, we headed back to the mainland; signing off the work day with big Thalis. That evening we attended a concert that gave us goosebumps and ended the night with pao and honey tea. The next day began at 5.30am for a beach survey in the hope of getting aerial imagery for our project with the PlasticTide (www.theplastictide.com). After a mid-afternoon break to recover from our early start, we headed for a meeting with the head of a Government Department. What we expected to be a 20 minute formal meeting turned into a 2 hour conversation which closed with some exciting prospects for work. We came back to base to discuss the meeting and then ended the day with another amazing performance at an Arts Festival.

I think these two days are a useful sample to describe how my first weeks in Goa with Technology for Wildlife have been. It’s been a wonderful mix of learning, work and making the most of this beautiful state. All 3 aspects have meshed together wonderfully to make it overwhelming in the best way possible.

Learning about Technology for Wildlife’s plans and clientele helped me better understand their impact model. Even in this short period, we were able to meet a variety of people, and I was introduced to a number of diverse and exciting projects. I learned a lot about the technical requirements of the work through both directed and exploratory reading as well as with hands-on practice. For example, understanding how to use a drone for mapping was completely new for me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve learnt how to operate the hardware and how to process the collected data using open source software.

Working with passionate conservationists is an amazing source of learning, ideas and hope. It was wonderful to feel genuinely heard and valued, and this only added to my excitement to create further opportunities and conservation impact with Technology for Wildlife.