Updates from Down South!

(The Little Ray we got to swim with!)

(One of the many puppies that are wild on the island, I feed him peanut butter as often as I can!)

(The giant lobster at the fishery place!)

(BRUNSKIE! The center dog)

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! This morning I had to get up early to make breakfast. I am on kitchen duty today with two other students, and when that “duty” falls on a Sunday, we have to make breakfast and dinner, clean all the dishes, restock the food, etc. It takes up quite a lot of time, but it is fun because we were playing the Lion King while making pink pancakes, eggs, crispy bacon and sausage! It was great. Tonight we are planning on having a fun valentines dinner! We are going to make name place settings, have conch flower centerpieces, tea lights, and a student plays the guitar so he is going to play while the staff and students sit down. Then we are making chocolate cupcakes for desert with pink icing and sprinkles with iced X’s and O’s.

Other than that, this week has been amazing! The work load is very difficult, but I am starting to get on top of it which helps. I get to bed no later than midnight, and up by 6:30. I have started running with people around the island, and was shocked that I was leading the pack while running. I didn’t expect that swimming daily would have such an impact. I am getting stronger in the water as a swimmer, and am building up my lung as well. When I free dive I can stay down for a much longer time than I could when I first arrived. The other day we were flopping around in the water for fun and saw a little ray! He was so cute. He was just burrowing and eating and I got eye to eye with him. I was so close I could reach out and touch him. We didn’t disturb him though, we just swam with him. It is amazing the change that I have already seen. I used to go into the ocean and collect as many shells as possibly, stomp around, etc. Now, the moment I step in I want to go out into the deep and check out the sharks and barracuda. I still love checking out shells, but always make sure to put them right back! You never know what is a lil fishes home, and what they use these things for.

The salt water is treating me well, but I cannot say the same for my clothes. They are getting stiff, but the moment I get em on and walk around a bit, they loosen right up. I got some braids in my hair the other day at the Hispanic salon. My friend Katelyn is getting her whole head done!!! I am beginning to pick up on things that they say in Spanish, and can someone respond back. It is sad that in high school I always wondered when am I ever going to use this (Spanish)?! I wish now that I paid more attention.

I have been learning so much from the locals. We went to the fish processing plant on Thursday for a “field-trip.” It was a block from the center. Everything is so close! We met the guy in charge, his name is Blow. He showed us that the boats come right up, unload their stock, get it weighed, and then it is immediately wheeled up a steep hill to be picked apart by the workers. The fisherman gets paid per pound- Anything from conch to lobster. However, when we were there we noticed the fisherman was using illegal things; spear guns and hooks. You are only allowed to collect conch by hand. These guys look through something that looks like a giant mirror that reflects the bottom of the ocean floor, and they can see the animals. They find a conch, then from their boats without even getting wet, they place a hook into the water attached to a pole. They use the hook to scoop the conch right up, and off they go. I did get to hold an enormous lobster (I will try to get the picture up ASAP)

I was also talking to a local named Dwainie, and he said that earlier that morning people killed his dog. There are hundreds of dogs wondering the island, and apparently people trap them and immediately put them to sleep without asking if they belong to anyone. It is really upsetting, because you start to notice and remember faces and animals, and then all of a sudden their not there anymore. We have our center dog, Bruno, and he has a collar on him so they know he belongs to someone. In reality he is a stray just like the rest, but he is so sweet and kind the staff did that. My friend and I were walking the other day back to the center at night, and we started to hear growling, and Bruno came running at us out of nowhere! We seized up, but then heard a growling coming from behind. Apparently a dog (who was harmless) was following us to the center, and Bruno didn’t like that very much. So Brunskie scared him off and then came trotting back up to us wagging his tail, tongue out. It is nice to know that he will protect us if there was any real danger! Otherwise the dogs here are harmless. They are more scared of us than we are of them. The puppies are adorable though, they just immediately role on their backs and like their tummies rubbed. I always leave a few peanut butter sandwiches around the island, and of course one for Bruno at the center steps. Today he got the left over pancakes!

Alright, I still have 50 pages of socio economic reading to get through before I have to make dinner!!! Stay tuned. X0x0X

PS- aced my first ID exam; 97%