By Caciques Emily and Adam

Exactly one month ago, a group of friendly strangers sat on the thick wood benches of the boat house, their shoulders touching each other’s in an awkward fashion. The sky was almost black and the only sound was of a pen on paper. The sound of uncomfortable thoughts, pouring into an open book.

Once again, we met in the boathouse 4 weeks later, our pens moving slowly across the thin white paper of our place-books. But this time, we weren’t writing about how awkward we felt around each other. We were writing about why we were there.  We were writing about the new friends we’d made. The 4 and 1/2 mile runs we unwilling completed. The sense of place we were seeking to find. The people on the benches were the same, but their was one thing that was different. We had formed a community.

Not only a community within campus, but within the greater island.  Every Monday, we Island School scholars pile in a packed yellow bus and drive to the Deep Creek Middle School. Although we have only known the students for 2 weeks, we have made connections that will hopefully last us a life-time. We were split into 6 different groups to focus on 6 main projects. We are all making progress towards our goals of making Eleuthera a better place. One group scheduled movie nights where an inspirational speaker would come and talk about why kids should stay in school. Another group planned a gathering to empower girls in their community. Our Community Outreach time today was spent scheduling events, planning meetings and working towards dreams.

When we counted, under the hot Bahamian sun, the number of Community Outreach days we had left, we realized how little time we had left to build the strongest community we possibly could.