Climbing the Banyan tree roots

It seems like yesterday that we were preparing for our two-day solo on our eight-day kayak trip. In fact, it was only last Wednesday that Kayak Two ended our solo. With only eight liters of water, some bread and fruit, a sleeping bag, bug net, and one luxury item, ten of us headed out along Lighthouse Beach to spend 48 hours by ourselves. As a group, everyone was anticipating the time alone to reflect on our semester at the Island School. Our adventure began Monday morning as, one by one, Mary and Jack silently said good-bye at our designated spots along the beach.

Dane and Mo practice for Junkanoo

It wasn't until 10:00 Wednesday morning that Mary came and gathered us together, once again, in silence. We walked back to our original campsite, climbed up on the cliffs over looking Lighthouse Beach and reminisced about our experience. To boost our energy from lack of food, Mary surprised us with homemade cookies and we spent the next thirty minutes explaining to the other group members what our experience meant to us.

Finally, we ate breakfast and paddled another nine miles to our last campsite. Most of Thursday was spent cleaning boats and unpacking. At the end of the day, we received a special surprise.

The academic week for Group Two began Saturday and thus far we have had a laid-back workload. On Monday morning, we ran eight miles in preparation for the half marathon. Even though it was really rewarding, we were all sore and exhausted throughout the entire day and into Tuesday. Tuesday night, after our morning dive to 90 feet, science and research classes, we had a "cookie dough" class, where we made four large batches of cookie dough and discussed Omeros.

Tree climbing Down Island

We had our first naturalist dive on Wednesday, where we went down to 30 feet in buddy pairs and observed the wildlife in coral reefs. The afternoon was filled with a hectic yet productive community outreach time. Community outreach is very rewarding for two reasons. First, it gives us an opportunity to offer our knowledge to younger students, and, secondly, we have the opportunity to interact with the wonderful people of the community and learn their culture. We are in charge of planning the lessons and presenting the material, which works out very well because we foster relationships with the children as well as teach them valuable lessons, and learn valuable lessons from them.

Jess, Ashton, Andy and cookie dough

Arshia-Hi Mom, Dad, Alyssa&Ash. I love you all. To all my HB gals-Felsh, Steph, Mich, Kenz, Obs Laurel, Brit, Kel &every1 else, I miss you & I'll see you soon.