Friday morning started out with a boat trip to Long cay (pronounced key) where we hunted for Iguana's and Curly Tail Lizards to get an idea of their populations. They are being re-introduced to this cay after being hunted by feral cats on the island. We anchored the boat about 50 ft offshore and waded onto the land through the glassy turquoise water. Its times like this when I still have to remind myself that I am actually in CLASS. Any who...the Iguana's were so big and they were everywhere! After bushwhacking walking into countless (terrifyingly huge) spider webs we were off to take our last identification quiz on coral species.
After classes were over, we packed up and headed out for a camping trip at Bell Sound on the east side of the island. It was a clear night, perfect for some stargazing! I gave a little constellation tour around the fire...haha finally a use for my random knowledge of astronomy! For the rest of the night, we sat around the fire singing with an acoustic guitar, eating smores, and telling riddles all with the constant sound of waves crashing a few meters away.
We woke up to a beautiful beach sunrise at 6AM before driving back to the center...we have diving and snorkeling trips on Saturday morning. This Saturday, the swells were getting pretty high so we went to a place called "Admirals Aquarium". It is a more shallow area with tons of coral and hundreds of beautiful fish! I was looking at a school of fish when all of a sudden my snorkel buddy started yelling my name. I looked the other way and two *huge* spotted eagle rays were passing about 2-3 meters away! We see them a lot here but that was the closest I had gotten to one so far. I think they are probably the most beautiful animal I have ever seen.
Every Saturday afternoon we have community outreach at the center. Tons of local kids come to the school for games, crafts, and swimming lessons while aldults can come in for computer or English lessons. All of us sign up each week for a certain activity (there are also beach clean-up and invasive tree removal groups) to do during community outreach. Over the last few weeks, I have been teaching English to local Dominican and Hatian people. I never realized how confusing the English language is! Yesterday I taught the alphabet..."alright everyone, you now understand that it makes perfect sense for ph to sound like f, and the letter Y to sound like an E, I, or U...but is not considered a vowel." Yep, totally makes sense.
After our massive weekly Saturday clean-up of the center, we eat dinner and head out on the town! There is a great outside area at a place called Darells to play cards and order fries and cracked conch (well not the conch for me), or head over to Chicken bar where there will always be locals wanting to play dominoes in a gazebo with red and blue colored light bulbs. We usually finish the night dancing at the club called "Bay$ide Baller$". They try to lure us in by playing American music, including "Do you believe in life after love" or "the electric slide". We always ask them to play local music, but the DJ insists on playing Rhianna and Bruno mars on repeat...oh well!
Which brings us to today, Sunday. YESSS!!!! The only day we can sleep in (as if the rooster and church bells don't wake us up at 8 anyway) and make our own plans for the day. Mine usually include laying out in the sun and doing my laundry in an old tidy cats litter bucket...with salt water.
I think that is enough for now...yes? I need to get out and enjoy my day off!
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