Birthday cake made by the boys

Last week, we opened our first "tea-house," our version of a performance coffee house. Our English teacher Molly decided we should go back in time to the Beatniks era of the 1920s and 1930s. Loud chattering, laughing and high-pitched squeals erupted from the girl's dorm as we prepared for this mystifying event. Music pulsated throughout the dorm and thick black eyeliner traced all eyes of the eager girls. Dressed in black garments that personified the era, the entire student body flocked to the beautified Dining Hall. Miniature candles clumped in the center of the disguised tables lit the high ceiling of the transformed space. The performances began with Jackie as she filled Dining Hall with the resonance of her outstanding voice. The night continued with many more exceptional presentations. Jolanda belted out an astonishing rendition of "Wing Beneath My Wings" and Terrance and Ross took to the dance floor, 20s style. The talent demonstrated Wednesday was unreal. We are all waiting anxiously for the next teahouse.

Everton, Dr. Gail Saunders, and Allie

We had a very special guest on Thursday. Dr. Gail Saunders, who has written nine books on Bahamian history and is regarded as the foremost Bahamian historian, came to the Island School to deliver a lecture and meet with us in seminars. She spoke on the Loyalist period in Bahamian history, which we are writing research papers on now. After her lecture, Dr. Saunders took time to answer our questions about the thesis topics of our papers. It was neat to not only meet a famous historian, but also the author of our textbook! How often does that happen?

Catching dinner

On Saturday night, we traveled to Wemyss Bight for the settlement's homecoming. The homecoming is not the type of homecoming that we normally associate with our high schools back home. In the Bahamas, homecoming is a chance for former residents to return home to see their friends and families. The Wemyss Bight homecoming featured fashion shows, music, and performances of singing and dancing. At the various food booths, we tried a variety of local dishes, such as conch fritters, conch salad, guava-duff, and jerk pork. There was some American fare as well and we ate pizza, fried chicken, French fries, and soda. We went booth to booth, eating as much as we could. Some of us saw our community outreach buddies from Deep Creek. It was great to share in a Bahamian tradition!

Kathryn on Conch Day

This Tuesday was Conch Day. We had a discussion session with a local farmer, Farmer Brown, and fished for our own conch for dinner. Farmer Brown taught us many things about conch and the lifestyle here on the island of Eleuthera. We quickly found conch fishing is harder than we had ever imagined, although we ended up catching about 20 conchs. It was very exciting! Each person got the opportunity to clean a conch. Yum! After lunch, Andy gave us a presentation on everything you would ever need to know about conch. Finally, we split up into two groups again with one group learned about the Fibonacci numbers while the other counted and measured all of the conch middens (piles of old conch shells). For dinner, we ate the conch that we had caught that morning. It was sooo good! We all had a great time during conch day!!

What a face, Jenna!

Michael-Hey Mom, Dad, Chris, Haley, Lindsey, Lauren and the rest of my family, I miss you! Hey to all my friends, I miss all of you! Keep in touch. Everything is going good

Kathryn- Hi Mom, Dad, & Erin! I miss you so much & I love you all! Happy Birthday mommy! Hi little Al, I love you, I'll call you soon! Hi Coli, Lu and Morgs, I miss ya'll!

Jenna-Hey mom&dad. I'm having fun in the Bahamas! Alex- I hope you like your new school. Hey Scott and my L'ville friends. Everyone please write me. Love and miss ya!

Horatio- Hi mom, Scott, all my friends from work, please write!!! Miss and love u all.