Kayak Trip

This past Sunday, The last out of three groups arrived back at the Island School after embarking on a three day kayak trip down the windward coast of Eleuthera. We left Friday morning from Powell Point and paddled about 9 miles to Plum Creek where we spent the night. The next morning we again set out and paddled for about a mile (paddling into the wind) and came to Waterford Creek. Paddling into the wind was very tough, and it took us a while to finally reach our destination. Once we got there, we were rewarded with a great afternoon. First, we paddled around in the creek, which was beautiful. The water was perfectly calm and on either side of us bordered mangrove trees. We did not see much in the water, but we did see an eagle ray which was really cool. Then we came back to the mouth of the creek and set up camp. We relaxed for a while and then, before the sun went down, we each gave a presentation about our current English book, Derek Walcott’s Omeros. The next day we headed home. We paddled ten miles with the wind at our backs which was great relief compared to our previous morning. It was a great experience.

Chores Rock!

Here at Island School there are many different chores that need to get done. One of these chores is doing the dishes. As you can imagine with thirty-one students and eight faculty members we have many dirty dishes that need to be washed everyday. So in order to make sure that these dishes get done so that we have clean plates and bowls for every meal, each advisor group washes the dishes one-day a week and the very nice faculty also wash the dishes once a week. Also every morning we spend forty-five minutes cleaning the dorms and doing odd jobs around campus that need to get done. We spent one morning helping put in concrete steps, one morning we raked the beach to get rid of the big stones and rocks for our beach volley ball court, and one morning we picked up all the nails that were in the driveway and surrounding area. These are just a few of the basic chores that we do here at Island School, to maintain the beauty and splendor of our community that we call home. We like to make chores fun for ourselves.

Archaeological Field Trip

On March the first, my birthday, we were supposed to be visited by the seventh grade of one of the schools in Rock Sound for community outreach. Due to some extenuating circumstances, these rambunctious little kids did not make the long trip out to school. Instead, we went to an old Lucayan site at Palm Island. It was really fun because the possibility of finding a piece of ancient pottery was ever present. However, the gods were not smiling on us this day and the entire group managed to come away with was a couple of scrapes and bruises. Although we didn’t find anything it was still fun and we got out of the classroom.

The Great Pig Escape

On the way home from fishing in the marina this week, Louise, who had yet to meet our pigs Bacon and Dinner, decided to stop by the pen and see the pigs. Upon arriving at the pig pen, Louise noticed there was something wrong. There was only one pig in the pen. Confused, she shouted to Mary, Liz and Suzy, who were walking towards the dorm. The trio kept walking, unaware of Louise's plea for help. "Guys!" she shouted again, "Aren't there supposed to be two pigs? Well there's only one!" Liz, Mary and Suzy came running to find that indeed, Bacon was no longer in the pen. A brief search followed and sure enough, Bacon was found running frantically about in the woods behind the pen. The four girls managed to corner the pig closer to the pen, and then tried to figure out what to do. At this point, other students were returning from the marina, and joined their fellow classmates in the difficult task of getting the pig back into the cage. Jimmy, Mike, Louise, Suzy, Christie, Mary and Liz worked very hard chasing and running and chasing and cornering and chasing some more as they desperately tried to get Bacon back into his pen. Finally, after a few moments of brilliant planning, the group managed to corner Bacon into the small shipping crate he and Dinner had arrived in. They were able to put the crate inside the pen and coax Bacon out of the crate and back into his home. You can only imagine the horrifying consequences that may have been had it not been for the remarkable skills of the Pig Rescue Team.

Community Outreach Begins

Friday afternoon marked the first day of the Community Outreach program for the Spring semester of '00. Our Community Outreach program here at the Island School involves the Island School students acting as mentors to one or two seventh graders from the local high school in Rock Sound, and teaching them about various topics concerning our environment. Our central theme for Community Outreach is conservation of the environment. Rock Sound students will go through a four station cycle over the course of the next eight weeks, learning about Mangroves and overfishing, near shore, beach pollution, and computers. Our first experience as teachers was both challenging and exciting, and we all agree that teaching these 10 and 11 year olds is not going to be easy. However, the benefits of being able to contribute to a child's life is a reward that we are all looking forward to as the semester continues.