Ten days after Irene tore through Eleuthera there was still much to clean up in the North.  Communities like Governor’s Harbour, Hatchet Bay, Gregory Town, and James Cistern still face mountains of seaweed, sand, and other debris left by the storm.  On Saturday, September 3, a small group of individuals from the Rotaract Club of Eleuthera, Rotary Club of Eleuthera, South Eleuthera Emergency Partners (SEEP), and the Cape Eleuthera Island School gathered in Governor’s Harbour to help with the cleanup effort.

Following a meeting with local government officials, the volunteers set out for James Cistern where they helped remove piles of seaweed from the Primary School yard and from the homes of residents.  Organizations like Rotary, SEEP, and The Island School have worked together in the past to help the community, but never before in response to a natural disaster.  By coming together to assist others the organizations are showing their commitment to the communities of Eleuthera.

“We brought a dump truck, some tools and a few good men to help out with the effort,” remarked Josh Shultz, who works at the Cape Eleuthera Institute. “Hopefully we’ve made a difference by helping to remove some of this debris, and more importantly we want to send a message that we care about the community in which we live.”

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Almost every morning we circle around our flagpole at 6:30am and sing the Bahamian National Anthem:  “Lift up your head, to the rising sun Bahamaland. . .” Going into my 7^th year at The Island School, those words we sing as a community are just as poignant as ever.

Take this morning for instance.  I’ve been playing around with my GoPro Hero camera lately, having discovered how to make time lapse video out of still photos.  So on my way out the door around 6:00am, I pointed the camera towards the east and set it to take a photo every two seconds.  When I returned around 8:15, I had a series of over 3200 still shots that Adobe Premiere stitched together into a 36 second video of the sunrise.

Those two hours are a great example of what our lives are like during the semester—non-stop action.  For example, while that footage was being shot, K1 and K2 were filling dromedaries with water, packing their boats, and putting on sunscreen in preparation for their kayak trips; meanwhile, K3 and K4 went for a light 4.25 mile run, cleaned the campus, showered, and ate breakfast.  Even as I write this blog entry, the kayakers are paddling off towards Broad Creek, where they’ll spend the next three days snorkeling in Mangrove wetlands, stargazing and telling stories around a campfire, or searching the beach for artifacts of the Lucayan TaÍno who once inhabited these coastlines.  And the fledgling SCUBA divers are learning how to blow bubbles under the curious gaze of barracudas, Nassau groupers and spiny lobsters.

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As you’ve probably grasped by now, the Fall 2011 semester is off and running.  With another 95 days yet to go, we can only begin to imagine what adventures lay ahead.  The only thing that is certain is that when the sun sets on the Fall 2011 semester, our 101 days together will have felt like 101 years that went by in 101 seconds.

“Breathtaking Oceans, Cramped Dorms and Incredible Heat”

by Griffin Hunt, Ihna Mangundayao, Jamie Perritt, Benjamin Beardsley, Katie Tapper

Over the past two days, 31 students have arrived from all over the world to meet breathtaking oceans, cramped dorms and incredible heat. Even though we all experienced the same oceans and similar views, no person’s experience of the past few days has been remotely comparable. Even as a small group of five, we were unable to come up with one single experience in which we all shared the same complex emotions– from jumping into the water for the first time and seeing a nurse shark on our casual 7am snorkel to the feeding frenzy in the pig pen to pretending to know the Bahamian national anthem as we joined around the flag pole as the sun rose.  Even though we were partaking in the same activities, each one meant something different to each of us.  Spending our first night in the dorm, shared with 6 or more other people, caused thoughts from home, fears of the weeks that lie ahead, and excitement for the unknown to race through our heads. Each of our fleeting thoughts faded into another, leaving us wide-awake in the middle of a pitch-black dorm room. Continue reading →

Hello Parents, Teachers, and Friends!

This is our second full day in the Bahamas, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are having one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. It is difficult to describe in words the time we are having, but it is unlike anything that we have ever experienced before. It is not what I would describe as a vacation- it is much more like an expedition. Continue reading →

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When you smile with a snorkel mask on your face water trickles in through the wrinkles next to your nose and slowly fills up the mask with water. If you are SCUBA diving this means you have to look up towards the surface and breathe out through your nose to clear the mask of water. The more you smile or laugh the more you clear your mask until, if you are playing underwater backgammon against your friend Benny Urmston, you are stuck in a downwards spiral of dice rolling, hand signals (not always polite), laughing, and mask clearing.

Last week, three Island School teachers and a friend sailed from Eleuthera to the Exumas to explore the Land and Sea Park and enjoy a few days off before semester prep. Continue reading →