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Casey's Journal |
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10/16/2009 8:45:16 PM
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10/16/09
So what is there to do on South Caicos?
Well other than snorkeling and diving (in one of the most beautiful places in the world) choices are pretty limited. Many typical American students days involve a great amount of time interacting with their cell phones and sitting in front of the television. Not on South Caicos, neither of these amenities are readily available. Even internet, which takes up hours of students days is somewhat unreliable here and when it is available it is much slower than what most in the states are accustomed to. As I am typing this onto my computer internet on the whole country is down!
So what do we do with our free time? While most of our time is pretty scheduled the time we have free can be spent on in the center itself where there is a ping-pong table and a sand volleyball court. Almost anytime when we dont have class or arent in the field you can find someone at the ping-pong table. Most every evening about an hour before dinner there will be a mass migration to the volleyball court, where games will be played till the dinner bell is rang.
There is also the chance to read when there is no work to be done. The tricky aspect to this is finding a spot cool enough to relax. Books are shared and passed around so there is plenty to read.
Then there is the downtown of South Caicos. This is not the typical downtown that comes to mind. There are no skyscrapers, no malls, and no taxicabs. What downtown, Cockburn Harbor, does consist of is very basic weathered and hurricane beaten homes, a few local bars, and several stores with the bare necessities. It is quite a different experience then downtown Chicago.
There are several small bars around town. Several serve food such as fried chicken and cracked conch. The majority of seating at these places is outside, which is preferable because non of them have air conditioning and its hot!!! The locals favorite game here is dominos and they are good! They invite us to play almost every night we are out and I think they like to laugh at how bad we are. : )
The island also has one dance club, Bayside Ballers. Ballers consists of one room with a bar on one side, a DJ in a corner, and the rest of the space is used as a dance floor. The walls are painted with eagle rays and other sea creatures along with baller phrases. The music is usually quite loud and can be heard down the street.
A typical Saturday night is generally started at one of the bars where several games of dominos will be played and we socialize with the locals. Usually later in the night some people will decide they want to dance and we will make our wy over to Bayside Ballers. Rumor is that when the students are in the club they play American music and as soon as we leave the local tunes come back. Personally I would prefer if they left the local music on while we were there. : )
comments (8)
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10/15/2009 2:06:50 PM
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10/15/09
SHARKS!!!
I have had my first shark experience ever while being in Turks and Caicos. The first time I saw them there were three nurse sharks that were all crowded around an abandoned lobster cage. Apparently there was a fish inside the cage and they were all waiting for it (even though there were many other fish around the reef). One of the sharks was pregnant and had wedged her head into the cage trying to get this fish. It was amazing! I was so excited; I could have stayed and watched those sharks all day.
Since then Ive seen sharks several other times. Once while I was on a dive there was a reef shark swimming around. It was quite an experience to be swimming underwater with them rather than while snorkeling and watching from above.
My most frightening experience with sharks occurred two nights ago on Tuesday. Yes, thats right, at night! We had decided to go on a night snorkel in an area called Shark Alley. Night snorkels and dives are very interesting because many different species and organisms come out at night. We saw a giant lobster and squid and some people even saw octopus. Another cool thing to see at night are parrotfish. They create this mucus bubble around them while they sleep that helps protect them from predation.
That night I was swimming along the reef looking around for things of interest and all of a sudden there is a large dark shadow that swims behind the coral. At first I thought it was a large fish or barracuda, but as it turned toward me I realized quickly this was not the case. It was a reef shark. I was fairly close already and froze in surprise. A giant pitch-black ocean with only my flashlight, I was not expecting to see a shark.
Of course my first thought was to keep my light on the shark so I would know where it was. This did not create a positive reaction form the shark. I found out later that the light makes the shark freak out. I experienced this first hand. This shark started swimming straight toward me while spazzing out. Not knowing that my light was causing this reaction and being frozen in fear, I didnt remove my light. This shark got so close to me that he was no less than a foot away. I thought that I was aging to be bit by a shark that night.
The rest of the night snorkel I was extremely paranoid. I refused to swim anywhere close to by myself. Lets just say I was very happy to get back on the boat.
Another neat thing about the night snorkel after I had calmed down from my shark experience was if you turned off all the flashlights and waved your hands around in the water phosphorescent organisms would fire and light up the water.
Overall (and especially since I didnt get eaten) it was a very neat (and somewhat terrifying) experience. :)
Oh and check out the photo album for pictures of some of the fish that we see daily here. All the pictures have been taken by students while here!
comments (8)
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09/22/2009 3:17:21 PM
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Greetings from paradise!!
So the deal is our internet is terrible. When we first got here all the students were given a wireless internet password but no one could connect. Most of us just thought that since we were all trying to get on at the same time that it was overwhelmed and would work later. After several days of trying at various times with no luck I found out that a new router had been overnighted. Overnight for South Caicos means up to ten days. In the meantime the staffs internet was working so they hooked up two of the student computers with internet so that we could let out parents know we were alive. Twenty-five students and two computers with internet is an interesting combination.
The router has arrived but we still do not seem to be able to get on the internet on our computers so sorry for the delay in information!
Other than that interesting situation life here is amazing. I am living on an island that is surrounded by the most beautiful water I have ever seen. And its hot!!!! If you do anything active expect to be dripping with sweat in seconds.
On a typical day I get up at 7:20 am and eat breakfast and then there is a morning meeting at 7:50 where announcements are made and the tides are read and we play a morning game. I suppose that is meant to wake us up. J After that we generally have class from about 8 am till around 12 pm. There are some breaks in between and we get to sit in one of the only air-conditioned rooms at the center. Right now we have three classes: environmental policy, marine ecology, and resource management. We eventually also do a directed research project.
Lunch is at 12:30 and then in the afternoon we are usually in the water! This is by far my favorite part of the day. Lots of times we will go snorkeling somewhere where there are reefs or mangroves. Since being here I have seen sooooooo many things in the water. Everything from coral to stingrays, eagle rays, moray eels, barracuda, lionfish, scorpion fish, porcupine fish, lobster, and conch. Its pretty amazing.
Dinner is at 6:30 pm and lots of days before that we play sand volleyball for a little bit or ping-pong. After dinner most nights are free and we will either do homework or go to town or just hang out.
We generally do community service twice a week also. Wednesdays we dont have class and we do a water front activity and help out in the community. This Wednesday I will be going to the local primary school and helping watch and play with the four and five year olds who get out earlier then the rest of the school and apparently run around like crazy and distract everyone. The week after I think I will be helping tutor the fourth graders.
Saturdays we have site clean up in the morning and then we usually have another waterfront activity and then service in the afternoon. Last Saturday we all went lionfish hunting because they are an invasive species and have no natural predators and they are expanding all across the Caribbean. So basically we snorkeled around and searched for lionfish and then would try and catch them if we found any. We saw three and successfully caught two.
Later that day we held swim lessons for the kids in the local community. A ton showed up and most seemed to just want to play so we ended up basically playing with all these kids in the water for two hours. It was a lot of fun. The students that didnt do swim lessons cleaned up a local beach& I definitely got the better deal. J
Alright all for now, but more to come hopefully sooner than last time!
Loooooove,
Casey
comments (14)
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