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Showing posts from April, 2022

Final blog by Roman and Olivia

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 Day 12 (4/7) -- By Roman and Olivia ­­­­­­­­­ “Be where your feet are”  Throughout our time here we’ve picked up little bits of community lingo. “Be where your feet are”, is a phrase, introduced to us by Liz, that we often throw around to each other. The sentiment that this phrase is supposed to convey is along the lines of ‘Live in the moment’, ‘Be present’, and ‘Carpe Diem’. In our last days here, I’ve found myself hearing this phrase from myself and from my classmates exponentially more than before. The first few days of our trip felt like they lasted a few weeks, but once April 3 rd came around my perception of time changed radically; suddenly I was desperate for time to move slower. Today provided many opportunities to meditate on that phrase, “Be where your feet are”. At Lakeside we are always thinking about what’s happening next, whether it’s a meeting to attend or assignment to turn in; we are always trying to plan ahead. However, here we never quite know what will happen i

Day 11 by Tanvi and Aiden

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 Day 11 (4/6) -- by Tanvi and Aiden  This morning started with a sleep-in, although most of us didn’t sleep in. Some students went back to Triangle cut to snorkel and some went birding with Mr. de Grys. After breakfast we grudgingly said our goodbyes to Mr. de Grys, proceeding to our beach clean-up soon thereafter. Earlier this week, we had gone to Kemps Creek and seen juvenile lemon sharks, and now we were returning to pick up trash on the beach. For over two hours, we picked up 1000+ pieces of plastic and other trash. Unfortunately, the site where we had enjoyed lunch earlier this week had been a dumping ground where we found many aluminum and glass bottles. Later, after lunch, we went to the store and were finally able to wear the swag we’ve been seeing modeled by the local students all week! This afternoon we came together to synthesize our two week experience. Filling up four full whiteboards, we compiled things we've seen, learned, and done, pondering what tangible and in

Day 10 by Ezana and Meredith

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 Day 10 (4/5) -- By Ezana and Meredith  Today we woke up and had an early breakfast at 7 in order to maximize our time at Half Sound. On our journey to Half Sound, we ran into an obstacle, a flat tire. One of the vans we took caught a flat tire and after about thirty minutes we were able to get the spare tire on and get back on the road. We started off our day at Half Sound with a 3-mile hike that led to an amazing view of the ocean pouring into the mouth of the sound. We were also able to see hound fish and many sea turtles. After our hike, we were very hot and needed to cool off so we jumped into the ocean before eating our field lunches. After we ate lunch, we began our most intense and exciting snorkel of the trip so far. It was a little choppy so for this snorkel we split into two groups. This reef was the healthiest reef we had seen since being in the Bahamas. It was stunning. This snorkel carried extra significance because all of the reefs we had snorkeled at beforehand had been

Day 9 by Gabby and Jack

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 Day 9 (4/4) -- by Gabby and Jack  We woke up this morning on the pink sand beach alongside the remnants of the US naval base. We went for a morning snorkel in search of the dolphins we had seen the afternoon before. While we didn’t spot Chip and her baby again, we spotted the animal from Tanvi’s field guide entry (a spiny lobster!) in an old pipe that had been a part of the wood pilings where navy submarines during the Cuban Missile Crisis once docked. After snorkeling, we packed up our tents and went to a sea glass beach in Governor’s Harbour. To finish off our search for sea glass, we ate doughnuts from a bakery alongside a historic library on the beach. We then packed into the vans and headed off to Leon Levy’s Native Plant Reserve. Our guide, Omar, led us through the reserve, pointing out different plants that are part of traditional Bahamian bush medicine. After a two-hour drive along the Eleutheran coast, we arrived back at our home base to unpack and clean up from our camping