Daily Update April 9, 2012

Island School students have had an event filled passed two days. On Saturday night we went to the Rock Sound Homecoming. Homecoming is just a fancy way of saying the settlement wanted to have a festival. Cars lined the street as we pulled into the festivities, and Bahamian rake and scrape music filled the air. We headed towards the food booths, which were selling a multitude of items – conch fritters, crack conch, conch salad, and pizza. A few students tried to impersonate the large man singing, “Pineapple Wine.” We got to meet some of the locals, and had an extremely funny time trying to learn to . Overall, the night was a great adventure with some great entertainment.

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On Sunday, seven students headed to Tarpum Bay for a 3 year old’s birthday party. Our Settlement Day family invited us back for Jake’s birthday with promises of a bouncy castle and food. Over the course of the three Saturdays, we had come to know our family really well, and they were eager to have us back whenever we could make it. We drove to Tarpum Bay and spent the afternoon with the family and their friends. We had an easter egg hunt, ate grilled hotdogs, and finished it off with cake. Jake was overjoyed having us there, even though he was still “shree” and turning four the next day.

This morning was our 2nd timed run swim day. At 6:45 this morning, the north side dorms lined the waters edge. The airhorn blew and everyone dove into the water, and as always sprinted the first cut. The leaders were up and over the wall in less than six minutes. Coming into the cliff jump, we were still going strong. Sterling Wright finished 1st with an unbelievable time of 13:07. In 2nd was faculty member Rob Lloyd (14:05) and I was excited to come in 3rd (14:45). As Faculty member Rob said, “We started to slow down after the first half, but Sterling accelerated throughout the last half.” The old school record was 14:30, and Sterling shattered it. A few faculty of have “retired” from run-swims, are now contemplating making their return. Tomorrow South Side Dorms will run and swim.