Iain, Austin, Vlad, and Dusty putting up the storm windows

Thursday night we were told that Hurricane Gene would be passing near the school Friday afternoon and told the plan for the weekend, and we prayed it wouldn’t interfere with our home stays. The next day instead of morning exercise we had hurricane prep, which included putting up shutters on the boys’ dorm and library, carrying the plants into the wet-lab for protection and bicycles and kayaks were taken to the presentation room. Then classes went on as normal with a heavy breeze throughout the day. By study hour all the boys were moved into Boys South dorm and the girls had moved into Boys North dorm. The breeze had picked up quite a bit as the night went on. Packed together, we slept with the sound of the breeze going through the shutters in our sleeping bags or beds. The next day the breeze had quieted down and we woke about 8:30 for breakfast. Saturday was free time until 12:15, which was lunch. Then we went to our individual Research teams. 

Maggie and Kathryn with their homestay family

Saturday was our day of rest, which most of us spent working, writing letters, and going for a run or a swim.  Hanging out didn’t seem to be a big hit because of the stress and workload we have, but all of us seemed to manage (some better than others).  Though we were stressed most of us ended up watching “Super Troopers” in the dining hall, and the boys surprised everyone in their toga outfits with a few accessories to match.

Stuart and Sam with their families

On Sunday we had our first home-stay visit. We were paired up and taken to different families from Green Castle, Whymss Bite, and Deep Creek, all settlements in South Eleuthera. We spent the day learning about Bahamian Culture first hand from our families. Everyone was nervous, but very excited about meeting the new families. Most of the families we visited had children, which provided much amusement to our days. Other families owned the only store or restaurant in the settlement. Many of us started off our visits by attending a Baptist, Anglican, Methodist, or Catholic Church. It was a completely new experience for most of us and many expressed interest in returning to church for a Sunday morning activity. After we returned from church we were free to spend the rest of the day getting to know our families. All the families were very generous and cooked for us a delicious lunch and dinner. We are all excited to go back in a few weeks for our two day homestay and get to know our surrogate families even better. One of the many perks of the day was the much needed trip to the general store to buy ourselves and our “brothers and sisters” some ice cream.

On Tuesday morning we woke up to either a fierce, yet friendly, water polo game or yoga (to get rid of all the stress of the first week of classes). It was a nice break from the long swim on Monday, which gave everyone a taste of the “super swim” that they could choose to do instead of the half marathon (13.1 miles).

Wednesday morning, some of the students woke up at 5:15 AM in order to head down to the Marina by 5:30 for a free dive, while the rest of the students slept in until 7:30. All 16 students, groggy but excited, hopped in the boats. But one of the boats would not start. They switched to the last resort, the sailboat, which, much to their dismay did not have a working engine either. So the group split up, half went to High Rock to snorkel and dive, while the other half got on the working boat and motored out to find Tunnel Rock. Some of the students began to believe that the dive wasn’t meant to be, as they searched and searched for the buoy marking where the reef was.  After going down the entire end of the island, we turned around, ready to make our way back to the docks, when we spotted a small white buoy. Everyone’s face lit up as they quickly slipped on their fins, masks, and snorkels, and they were given a quick briefing about free diving. The dive turned out to be everything that it was made up to be (minus a few problems with ear equalization), and we arrived back at school at 7:30 sharp for morning circle in good spirits.

Ally and Denoro colouring

Then we split up into work groups, or SCUBA. Some of the work groups were building a fence down to the water, repairing and organizing the bike system,  planting flowers and being “generally awesome.”-Austin. Much improvement was made towards the well being of the campus, and there is much more to come (when the other work groups work on Saturday.) The other half of the group did their first open water dive  and most of them came back to the surface saying, “Oh my God, I love SCUBA diving. (Dennis the Dive instructor’s hypothesis on what people will say after their first dive.) We all arrived back on campus for a quick lunch and then headed to Deep Creek for our first Community Outreach working with grades 3,4,5,6, and 8. Everyone met their partners for the first time, who they will be working with one on one for the rest of the semester. The general consensus is that everyone’s first day with their class went very smoothly.

Iain: Hi Mum, Aunty Ros, everyone in Governor’s Harbour. Having fun here see you all on Parents weekend!!!

Kay: HI Mom, Dad, Monty. hope everything is peachy keen on the home front! I miss everyone, Em, Sar, Dais, and Poll..give everyone my love…This is such a cool place and I know my time is going to be over too soon!! (p.s. Mom and Dad I’m calling on Thursday this week at 8:45, instead of Sunday)  LOVE Kay

Kelley:  Momo, Kevina, Ammy, along with the rest of the Boyce/Gates/O’Neill clan, I miss you all way too much. Momo, please send some shirts (t-shirts and regular shirts) could you please send me the magazine “cosmopolitan” if you are in the grocery store or some other magazine that has nothing to do with saving the earth or getting in shape. To all my friends: I can’t wait to see you in December. Please send me pictures when it comes time for the Halloween party, Allegra and anything that will keep me in touch with you guys and B-more. I LOVE YOU ALL, PLEASE WRITE!

Maggie: Hi Mom, Dad, Molly, Sarah, Thomas, Ali, and the rest of the sactown gang! I’m having a great time here and can’t wait to here from you all! Say hi to everyone for me! Miss you lots! See you in December!