A day on land!

Today we woke up before the crack of dawn and met at the flagpole at 6:30. We united around the flagpole and sang the Bahamian national anthem with minimal enthusiasm due to the distracting, light morning drizzle. After that, we made our way over to the water polo cut and spent the next forty-five minutes ruthlessly battling one another for the chance to bask in the glory of winning. It was close at first but then team “Our Team” pulled ahead in the last two minutes and won the game by two points, 6 to 4. Then we met over at the dining hall, where we ate hard boiled eggs, bacon and killer banana muffins!

After feasting on that, we went to the octagon on the Cape Eleuthera Institute side of campus to discuss consumerism and watched a documentary called “The Story of Stuff”. We discussed the film and came to the conclusion that we all could do a better job of conserving natural resources by not feeling the need to constantly keep up with trends, utilize things to their full capacity, and just all around think about how we treat the environment and how everything we do has a greater impact. We learned about the two types of consumers, perceived obsolescence and planned obsolescence. Most of the class realized that we fall prey to these manufacturing tricks and media pressures.  

We also watched a video about art made solely of natural resources that is only temporary as nature eventually takes it back. We then went into groups and had the opportunity to create our own artwork using materials that we found on the beach. The project ranged from sea turtles covered in shells to compasses to seaweed art.

After working hard in the hot noon sun, we went over to the dining hall to have lunch. Afterwards, we returned to the octagon and watched the interns present their fall term research projects. They ranged from lionfish to shark response on a long-line to fish behavior in warmer waters. They were interesting and a common piece of enjoyment was watching four sharks fight over another shark that had gotten caught on a hook.

After watching six fifteen-minute presentations, we were free to do whatever we wanted. A few people read and sketched, some explored the island, and many played jackpot on the beach. A very popular game we have started playing is “Mafia.”  It’s a very middle school game, but it is really fun to play as a group out in the common room. It involves a speaker who explains the story line of two mafia members “killing” someone and then an angel who can save anyone and then a detective who picks a suspect while everyone’s eyes are closed. Today was a dry day, but tomorrow we are going snorkeling and scuba diving.  We are all very excited.  Best of all we get to sleep in tomorrow morning-- 7:30AM wake up! 

More tomorrow,

Mary & Christina