On Sunday The Island School welcomed students from Promise Academy and the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) to campus for a week-long experience. Twenty-three high school students and seven mentors made the trip from New York City to Cape Eleuthera to learn how to swim, SCUBA dive, and kayak.  The students will also learn about the various systems and research going at The Island School and CEI. Here is an update from Wednesday’s HCZ caciques Brandie and Tyriek.

Cacique Update- August 11, 2010

Today I overcame my fears and started swimming in the water. At first I was scared but then Bradley came and help me and encouraged me. By the way Bradley is a lifeguard. He was holding my hand through the water. We swam to the hole in the middle of the beach. It was 90 feet.

-Brandie Bacon

Today the students and I woke up at 5:00 in the morning to start activities. We first met up at the circle area and counted off everyone to see if they were present. After that we walked to the boy’s dorm beach to practice using our fins. We swam for a length of about 2 miles. Then we ate breakfast we had French toast and chocolate pancakes. I thought it was good.

After breakfast we had at least a 30-minute break and got ready for scuba diving for the first time. My group was first to be picked to scuba dive so I feel like I made history in the making with 3 other people to be the first Promise Academy kids to scuba dive. Some other kids went kayaking and after this activity we had lunch.  This time we had a BLT that was an excellent dish to me and everyone else.

After lunch we have something called research time because we all have presentations on Friday about how we can conserve energy and how we can bring it to the school. After research time my group went kayaking this time. It was fun and tough but Mr. Downing made it fun for us because he fell out of his boat like 4 times and lost his special Prada glasses.

After this we headed back to our dorm rooms and the boys side got responsible and cleaned the bathroom before we took showers. After we had the circle, Me and Brandie had to pick new caciques for tomorrow. I picked my best friend Gregory and Brandie picked Shanay. I hope these two can be great leaders tomorrow and have fun.

-Tyriek Hunter