Miles meets some new friends at the primary school

After a much-needed sleep-in on Wednesday morning, half of our group went to the local settlement of Deep Creek to visit the middle and primary schools where we will be mentoring Bahamian students for the remainder of the semester. In Deep Creek, we enjoyed playing football and with the middle school students during recess. While half of us were in Deep Creek the other half were learning how to kayak, in preparation for the next week’s three-day kayak trip.

Thursday started with Girls’ and Boys’ North playing water polo while Girls’ and Boys’ South got in touch with their Zen side with some relaxing yoga.  We also found out which research group we had been assigned to.  The five possible group were Aquaculture, Queen Conch, Sustainable Design, Bonefish, and Patch Reef.  Aquaculture will study the impact that the school’s cage has on its underwater environment.  Queen Conch is planning to study the reproductive rate of conch as compared to the rate in which they are collected by the fishermen of the island.  The goal this semester for Sustainable Design is to develop and create a model for a sustainable sewage system for the island.  Bonefish is studying the effects of the catch and release fishing industry.  The students in Patch Reef are studying the abundance of juvenile reef fish in the patch reef nurseries. In the afternoon, we each met with our group to get oriented with the tasks at hand. Aquaculture went down and looked at the cage, followed by some ice cream; Bonefish went down to the mangroves and walked across the flats; Sustainable Design went to the landfill, then to a blue hole, and lastly some deserved ice cream; Patch Reef snorkeled out to the reef and examined it; Queen Conch went out on the school boat, Panga, which the students actually helped to drive, and looked at conch specimens.

Jeremy and Travis: Island School's expert chefs

Friday came with the physical assessment looming overhead. The students had to swim to the end of Girls’ Dorm cut and back (roughly 200m) and then run to the marina and back (roughly 2 miles) while being timed.  The times serve as a starting point so that we will be able to see how much we have improved physically at the end of the term.  We had regular classes the rest of the day, in which most of us were exhausted from the morning exercise.  During Science, we had an experiment on the beach. In the afternoon, the boys were not able to sign out because they got into trouble for having candy in their dorm.  To entertain themselves, the Boys’ Dorm beach became a wrestling ring.  The contenders: Jeremy and Chris Maxey, director of The Island School.  We’ll let you decide who won.  Meanwhile, all of the girls went down  to the cut and swam.  Later that day we all went to Sunset Beach for a cookout and a friendly game of kick-ball. Jesse had to jump into the marina twice to retrieve the ball. Kayak groups K3 and K4 beat K1 and K2. Then we had dinner on the beach. Jeremy and Travis cooked the BBQ chicken. We then sat and ate around a wonderful bonfire.  After we filled our bellies, we came back to the campus and watched “Without A Paddle” in which over half of the students fell asleep.

Peter rocks out during science class

Saturday became our free-day this week.  People went to Palm Island and to the marina, to get some treats. A few of us laid relaxed on Boys’ Dorm beach. Saturday night all the students packed for their homestays the following morning.              

Everyone got up nice and early on Sunday morning for a 7:00 A.M. morning circle.  Then it was time for the Island School students to be spread throughout south Eleuthera for their day with a Bahamian family.  Students stayed with families from Deep Creek, Green Castle, Tarpum Bay, Rock Sound, and Waterford. The pairs of students spent the whole day with their families until 5:00, when the lovely Island School vans picked everyone up. During the day, some of us went to church with our families, others just relaxed and ate Sunday dinner and still more found pick-up games of basketball around our respective settlements. Everyone learned a lot about the Bahamian traditions, including tasty Bahamian recipes. We came back, for the most part, full and exhausted.

On Monday morning everyone woke up at 6:30 and circled up around the flag pole. Kayak groups K1 and K2 did not have to exercise as they were busy preparing for their departure, but K3 and K4 did a run/swim to the marina. It involved scrambling up some high sea walls and then scrambling down! Then K1 and K2 left to kayak to/from Rock Sound. K3 and K4 started on their SCUBA training – we had a morning class where we learned about safety procedures and pressure changes. Then, in the afternoon, we went down to the marina to get in the water! Even though the temperature outside was in the 80s, the temp below the water felt freezing for those who didn’t wear wetsuits!

Everyone who was left on campus Tuesday morning ran to High Rock for morning exercise (roughly 4 miles). SCUBA classes continued all morning and after lunch, students went to the Marina to complete their 2nd and 3rd confined water dives. Free time was spent eating ice cream at the marina, playing Apples to Apples (a great card game Kendra has introduced us to), and enjoying a much-needed break. At night, we had a SCUBA review and fell asleep early, excited to greet K1 and K2 the following day when they returned from their adventures.

Shout-outs:

All suited up for SCUBA at the marina

Alex-Mom, Dad, Garon, and the rest of the family: I love and miss you all. Stanley: SHOUSE for life. Lauren: hope you’re holding down the fort, learn the flute for me.  Ali and Hillary: thanks for all of your stories and advice.  The rest o the Lville gang: hope you all had awesome spring breaks, your letters are in your mailboxes, send me letters. Peddie/RFH friends: can’t wait for the summer. I miss everyone and I am having an amazing time, see you all in June.

Rachael-Dad, Mom, Natalie, Ricky, Sunny, and All Family Members: I love and miss you all so much. Kristen: Stay strong, summer’s gunna be just like last. Caitlyn: Keep eating.Never give up and keep shining. Pat and Sean: I can’t wait to here new and crazy adventures I missed. Seth: Thanks for sticking by me. Jon, Dan and Sam: You’re my boys. Drive safe. To all my other friends and fans: I miss you all and love you. Shovel those driveways good. My tans looking great, PEACE.

Katie-Hey to the White family_ Mom, Dad, Cary, Alex, I miss you all so much and am counting down the days until Parents’ Weekend. I can’t wait to show you how amazing it is down here_ And a few shoutouts (as promised): caito, I hope you have some cookies ready for me when I get back (if you know what I mean), to my xc ladies-keep workin it, to libster and lashonda-keep on trucking it, to rorororo-keep up the weekend flings, to annabanana-keep up the search, to jdogg-keep on fluting, to Molly-keep beating J, to Katie-keep up the good name, to Amy, Torie, and Charles-keep Hancock pride alive, to jesse and paul-you guys just rock, to all seniors-don’t leave before I get back, and to everyone else I love and miss you - SEND MAIL!!

Jeremy- Hey Mom, Dad, Krista, BJ, Seth D., Cameron, Grant, Seth L., Dustin, Brandon, Chelsie, Shelby, Chris K. Chris C., Krysten, Matthew, Keily, Holly, Susan, Christy, and Bush. I miss all of you guys, but I will be back this summer so y’all keep it crunk in Bremen until I get back. I am having a lot of fun down here; it would be better if all you guys were down here. I am surrounded by a bunch of Yankees, I am starting to sound like a Yankee, not good. Well I don’t want to make this to long, so y’all drop me a line and let me know what’s up. BJ has my address so you can write me if you want, which means y’all better write me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSIE, YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT!!!!! I miss all of you guys, can’t wait to be back in big Bremen this summer. By the way, none of you know how to answer your phones!