by Caciques Arben and Izza

This morning I made the mistake of expecting an average day at The Island School. However that kind of day doesn’t actually exist. What I expected to be an average day turned out to be one of my most successful, and influential days here. We had Human Ecology class this morning; I am part of the Foam Elective. Our project is to convince local restaurants and take-aways to stop using styrofoam and convert them to using a corn based product instead. The corn product is more expensive and we were expecting resistance when we made our pitches, however in both instances we were very successful and both owners agreed to contact a local distributor of the product. What I was expecting to be a long and stuffy three hours studying the make-up of poly styrene turned into one of the most powerful in the field learning experiences of my time here.

-Izza

Exploration time, where we explore the land around The Island School, is a special time where students have free time. Today though, was even more special because Matt, a math teacher, led a group of us in exploration.  We found an abandoned pool. First, we jumped off a ten foot bridge into Current Cut. It was exhilarating as we jumped off and landed into the chilled water below. After we got out of the water we searched for the pool. We found it! Plants were growing out of the deep end of the pool and there was junk all over the place. It was a sweet day, especially after we stopped by a tamarind tree to have a snack. Days like this make The Island School experience so much more incredible for all of us.

–Arbin