Amir & Victoria are ready to paddle

Hi everyone from Danny's advisee group! This past week has flown by as we marked the start of a new month and our four-week anniversary of being down here! Kayaks Two and Three headed out this week, navigating their way around south Eleuthera for three days each. Academic One ended the week with one final push and handed in an English paper Sunday night while those in Scuba rotations One and Two became certified open water divers!

Kayak 4 on the water

Kayak Two excitedly returned home to the Island School on Saturday from their three day kayaking trip. Yeah! Snow Peas! (Kayak Two's group name.) We all had a wonderful time getting to know each other and laughing the whole trip. On Sunday, Kayak One and Two took their scuba tests from the previous week of scuba instruction.

Kayak 4

Kayak Three, also known as the "Sea Donkeys" headed out on Wednesday with strong winds and sunny skies. After "smooth sailing" the whole first day, we embarked on a somewhat eventful second day. We got to hang out for two hours and snorkel a blue hole! We then saw another blue hole and once again got out and snorkeled. This time, however, our rafted boats drifted further and further away with the current, causing us to chase after them and get back in! No problem there, we kept going and set up camp for the night in a beautiful spot between the ocean and a mangrove creek. For our third day, the water was calm, the sky was blue and the group was pumped. We all made it back to campus safe and sound!

Nina, Jess and company

This week, Kayaks Three and Four made the transition over to SCUBA from a hard week of academics. Many of the students were relieved to have the next three days to work on their diving skills. From what we hear, the certification test seems to be tough, but many of the students have been certified after only three days of study and exercises. So far we have been spending the mornings in the air-conditioned library to discuss the basic techniques and procedures involved in the dives. Brian has been teaching us on how to use the Recreational Dive Planner to figure out what our different pressure groups are after certain diver scenarios. After lunch we head out on our bikes to meet up at the dive locker to get suited up. Once we reach the bottom, Morgan and Brian help us on different skills that are necessary for passing the course. Some of these include swimming underwater without a mask, having our air cut off, and buddy breathing. It's been fun so far and we are looking forward to passing the test that is coming up on Sunday.

Friends forever!

On Tuesday, the students on academics took an early morning bike-run to Palm Island, a historical Lucayan site. We had a hearty helping of Heritage Flakes on the beach (since it was only 7am!), and then began to scour the beach for Lucayan pottery shards. At first, we thought they were rarities, lucky finds, but we were soon proven wrong as we stumbled upon cluster after cluster of broken remnants of this extinct culture. After about an hour of searching, we replaced our shards to where we found them, and made our way back to school. This was a really interesting experience, because we had an opportunity to experience and understand a small portion of these lost people's history instead of simply hearing about it from a teacher in a classroom.

Wednesday morning we added on to our previous class of learning about coral reefs and took a field trip to Tunnel Rock. Tunnel Rock is a large coral reef starting at about 15ft to Three5ft in depth. It was amazing! We saw many of the corals that we have been learning about right there. Science class has never been better!

Jackie and a community friend

This Wednesday, we had our second meeting with our buddies from the Deep Creek Primary and Middle Schools for the Community Outreach segment of our semester. The kids range in grades from grades 3-8 and each grade meets with a group of Island School students to learn about a certain topic for the duration of the semester. For example, the fifth graders are being taught about the importance of marine fishery laws, while the fourth graders spend their time snorkeling as a more hands-on approach to marine creature identification. Though we are still new to each other, we are becoming good friends and learning much from one another. The Deep Creek students are enthusiastic and eager to learn, and we all look forward to our future encounters.

Jess: Hey Mom, Dad, Becky, Sarah, Morgan, Andrew, Bailey, and all of my great friends at L'Ville and Hopewell! I love and miss you all! I'll be home soon. Write me letters!

Em: Hi to everyone at home! Mom, Dad, Kendall, Carey, Hayley, miss you and love you! Tafties, Reid, Britt, Huckins, Miss you all like crazy!Write me!Can't wait to see you all…

Sara ready to hit the town!

Ashton: Aloha Sayla, Dude Mom, Mike, Dad, Logan, and Milkshake!Wassabe Mav!Hey to friends and family at home!I miss and love you guys very much!Everyting's Iry Mon!

Oliver: Hey Mom, Dad, Cate, Owen, sorry I missed phone time this week. Friends - write letters and I'll write back, I just don't know your addy's. Blaise send Cumbybump.