June 13, 2005

Well, I am now starting out my second full week at the center and I must say, I have learned a lot in the amount of time I have been here.  I am now growing much more comfortable with the boats-although I have to say, it isn’t easy making sure you don’t take the propeller off of the engine on one of the many sunken cement blocks when parking the boat at the dock.  The students are excellent and I am really enjoying getting to know them and helping them learn their coral and fish ID’s.  They actually have to memorize the scientific names of ~200 organisms in the span of seven days (and so do I)!

We all went camping on Saturday night.  We stayed on a cay off of our small island on a beautiful white sand beach.  However, this picturesque vista included some hidden factors like millions of mosquitos and sand burs. All in all it was quite lovely and we grilled some bananas stuffed with chocolate chips. Yum!  Who would have thought?

I finally went for a dive on Sunday.  Up until then, I had only snorkeled (which is also quite magnificent, don’t get me wrong).  However, the dive was incomparable and it felt so good to get back in the water after my rather long hiatus from blue water diving. I saw some marvelous sting rays that were at least as big as I was. Also some nice sharks and big fish that followed me around as we dove.  The snorkeling here is really quite lovely as well.  Every single time I have been in the water, I have seen something amazing.  This ranges from a school of barracuda to a nine-foot nurse shark to a school of eagle rays to a young hammerhead shark.  Really, quite stunning.

For those of you who might be wondering, we have not been hit by a hurricane here on South Caicos.  However, we have had rather cool and cloudy weather accompanied by choppy water because of the tropical storms that have been hitting Florida and Cuba.  It could definitely be worse and I am very appreciative of the cooler weather.  It makes it possible to sleep at night.

I have also finally had a chance to go out on the town with the students.  As I suspected, dominos is a major bar pastime here- and people bet a good deal of money on rounds.  I watched a very intense game the other night and repeatedly declined to join in.  Perhaps I’ll become bolder in the future.

Well, I suppose that’s about it for now.  There will always be more to write next time.

Happy Summer!

Brooke