The Diaries
 

November 10th, 2006

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- Conferences and meetings -

Meeting the students of the Reunion, who followed the adventure
Credit : Sébastien Berthaut-Clarac

We arrived at The Reunion Island about mid-afternoon yesterday, after a successful flight. Isolation was over, the press and the air base authorities were expecting our arrival!

Joe Guesnon and a group of students
Credit : Max Guérout

We had left early in the morning because at that moment, rocks were frequently falling on the road to the shore and the repair works slowed the traffic down. We had an appointment with the Saint Leu classes and Catherine Decelle at the Stella Matutina Museum. The students and their teachers gradually arrived and then we were in front of an amphitheatre full of attentive children ready to spend one hour asking us thousands of questions.

The students are very attentive
Credit : Cyril d'Andrea

All students had written their questions down and tens of hands were raised during the session. The smaller ones were sitting in the front row, they were a bit shy but didn’t hesitate ask their questions. We projected photographs and short films on a screen. Of course, the turtles emerging from the eggs were the favourite ones.

Hunting for signatures
Credit : Cyril d'Andrea

It was a refreshing moment and at the end of the session, everyone came with their book in their hands to get a signature of their “heroes” of the day. We tried to calm down the children who were afraid of not getting the signature they wanted.

Michel Champon and Max Guérout at the conference in the TAAF head office.
Credit : Sébastien Berthaut-Clarac

Then we went to Saint-Pierre, where Mr. Champon, the TAAF prefect, had organised a press conference. Some of the objects brought back from Tromelin were exhibited, and we presented the results of our research in front of an attentive assembly. We multiplied the interviews and we realized that our findings aroused a lot of interest. This was followed by a buffet in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Some members of the team decided to stay in Saint-Pierre to go up and see the volcano the following day. As far as I was concerned, I went back to Saint-Denis because one of the local channels had to talk about our research in the evening tv news.

Rédacteur : M. Guérout

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