76 Miles South

What a weekend! Where should I begin? I suppose, with where I left off.

Our lessons Friday afternoon went very well! We went over everything we had learned during the week, played some games, and then had the kids color fish that Ana and I made for them out of construction paper. They really seemed to enjoy that! Then, we had our 'adult' lesson (she's really only 16) which was also very productive!

After washing off the salt and sand that had caked on during the day, Ana and I went out to eat with Rick and Barbara. They treated us out to dinner at the Seven Seas Restaurant in Bogue. I tried the conch and it was good! Bohemian food consists mainly of fried food and macaroni and cheese; I'm not a fan of fried food, but I figured while I'm here, I should try some of the local favorites. After dinner, Ana and I went to Elvina's for an hour or so before calling it a night.

We had planned on hitchhiking to Wemyss Bight on Saturday morning, but as luck would have it, Pam (who owns the Island Made Gift Shop) was driving to one of her shops in Rock Sound (which is relatively close to where we were going) and offered to give us a ride. We made a few stops along the way in Governor's Harbor, which is the capital of Eleuthera. We went to the bakery and I had an amazing cheese danish that was still warm! Once arriving at Rock Sound, Ana and I headed out to hitch the rest of the way. Sadly, we waited in the sun for about an hour before Pam and her daughters drove by and offered to drive us the rest of the way. Hitchhiking supposedly isn't that hard here! Could we be doing it wrong? Is that possible?

We arrived, 76 miles south, at the Ship to Shore Hotel and Restaurant around 1:30pm and finally met the other instructors! We met the boys and went to meet the girls down at the beach. There are less businesses in Wemyss Bight and everything is very spread out. The other instructors have to bike to their lessons everyday and change locations weekly. It's hard enough walking around in the heat; nevermind biking eight miles to lessons! They half- jokingly call their experience on the island "Survivor Eleuthera." They have had a much harder time getting water and fresh produce than we have (and it hasn't been a piece of cake for us either)! Anyways... once getting to the beach we met the girls- they were all so nice! In summary of the afternoon, we went for a swim (I forgot my suit back at the room, so jumped in with my clothes on..), went back to the room, had a meeting with the Sail Caribbean coordinators (the program in the south is going to do a few days with them), and had dinner at the restaurant. I tried grouper fingers and a ginger beer (Both, very yummy).

After dinner and digesting for a while, we all took a late night stroll down to the beach and did some stargazing. Originally we were going to go crabbing, which would have been fun (or a little scary.. I haven't decided yet!). The other instructors seemed to get along so well and were all really down-to-earth. It's really cool to see how everyone heard about Swim to Empower and the diverse paths our lives are heading down; even though they are currently overlapping.

We realized that coming back on a Sunday would probably be near impossible considering that everything on Sunday is closed and that everyone would be at church! Ana and I were told that there would be a bus for the Haitians to come up north to go to church, but that it would be leaving at 7am. Thankfully, the couple that own and run the restaurant knew someone that was driving up north early this afternoon. So, Ana and I avoided hitchhiking- we were dreading the 76 miles especially after our failure the day before!

After arriving home, we relaxed on the beach for a while and read our books and swam before having our 4pm adult lesson.

My computer battery is dying so I will end this post!