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Day 5 (3/31) -- By Olivia and Roman

---From Olivia---

So. March 31. Almost half way through. And quite the day it was.

We woke up early or the ‘run swim’, a roughly mile-long circuit that alternated between running through swathes of Bahamian scrubs and swimming through the man-made coves that separated the chunks of land. And, to top it all off, our lovely leaders added squats with rocks, burpees but harder and scullers in between. It’s funny though, even if we did do our fair share of complaining in the middle of the exercise, there was something remarkable about being able to do it together. Despite moving at various speeds, we stuck together through it all and had buddies to high five after we finished every activity. Being in the water, appreciating the beautiful sunrise and working together to make it to the end, all before the time the rest of our classmates would start first period a whole country away, was definitely one for the memory books.

We completed a leadership activity was so interesting and made so much sense it was almost scary. As young adults who are just about to head off into the next chapter of our lives, it’s so crucial for us to understand exactly who we are as leaders in the context of others. Thus, it was so cool for us to put that into words and find other people who relate to us in the way we how up in leadership roles.

Shortly after, we shifted our focus to marine debris, one of the most critical parts of our time at here. We had an incredible presentation, diving into the history of plastics, the oceanic gyres, the impact of plastic on marine ecosystems, waste management in the Bahamas, and finally, how we can tackle the huge issue that was presented to us. It’s honestly overwhelming—there is so much plastic out there and due to the nature of photodegradation (95% of marine debris is plastic), it will be impossible to erase the presence of plastic on earth. Still, there’s lots of hope from multiple avenues: numerous organizations doing cleanup projects, others lobbying for tighter restrictions on plastic consumptions and as the issue of plastic becomes more mainstream, there are many big corporations taking notice and making shifts in their policy. As we prepared for our big beach cleanup, we acknowledged that our impact was nothing compared to the insane amount of plastic that enters the marine ecosystems every day. However, we also understood that every piece of trash we collected was one less that could cause damage to marine life. Additionally, tackling this issue allowed us to better understand the larger systems at play when it comes to waste management globally. These ideas are ones that we can take home with us and implement in our own lives, whether that be making small decisions in our own lives or becoming active in our communities.

Our first cleanup site was Cottonwood Beach, a beautiful stretch of coast on the Atlantic side of the island. We utilized a marine trash tracker app to categorize what we had collected (ex. bottle caps, film, utensils, clothing, etc.) and add it to a global data base. This was my first foray into citizen science, and it was really cool to be able to connect what I was learning and doing at a local scale to this issue on a larger scale. Though the sun was hot and the work was gritty, we were able to collect quite a bit of trash, focusing on the smaller items that were present at that particular beach.

Thus concludes the recap of yet another crazy day. Of course, there is so much more that I won’t be able to cover and wish I could, the small moments of joy, humor, beauty and learning. And quite honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to get anywhere near doing so, even if my word count was unlimited. But that’s okay—it just means more for me to talk to people about when I get home J

Cheers!

Olivia

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---Roman’s Reflection---

As we approached the midpoint of our trip I found myself gaining greater sense of belonging within the group. It has felt overwhelmingly rewarding to see the “real” work that happens at Cape Eluthera, and to know that what we delegated our time to in class before traveling here was both necessary and applicable.

Already, we’ve been able to teach others about our learning—like after our second night crabbing with Bill to support his PhD research, when we met a family on the way back from “the bush” and were able to explain to them the crabs we found, how we found them and the ecological importance of them within the Blackland Coppice they inhabit.

Being on the trip now, I hold no doubt about the validity and importance of this experience to our collective pursuit of science and a healthier, more informed planet. Occasionally, we are greeted as “ecologists”, which is very official sounding. This rings true when we’re being guided through labs and especially when we’re being guided through the thick and slippery black mud of a mangrove forest to wade into the habitat of junior lemon sharks.

Each day, I feel increasing belonging in the educational environment provided here. However, I’ve still had two things, ideas, concepts—whatever you want to call them—lingering in my mind, though this has recently decreased to one. Let me tell you how:

At the start of the trip, I was trying to find my place in the group. I was not feeling left out or that there was anything wrong with the class dynamic, this is just to say that I felt I had yet to find the place where I could showcase my personal strengths in a meaningful way for the collective. This all changed during a recent leadership workshop. In said workshop, each member of the class answered a series of questions which placed them within a quadrant that defined the type of leadership that came naturally to them. The four quadrants, listed from most to least members of our groups, were: Architects and Analyst (10 people), Drivers (4 people), Relationship Masters (4 people), and Spontaneous Motivators (2 people). There’s lots to say about each type of leadership, especially in terms of how much each type can contribute to an overall group, but in the interest of your time, I won’t bore you with the details and instead I’ll get to my point; I learned that I am one of the two Spontaneous Motivators of our group. There was never an issue of me not ‘fitting’, the leadership style I take on just happens to be different from the rest of the class. I remember writing in my GSL journal afterwards, “It makes sense now”. With this additional perspective, I’ve cut my two lingering thoughts down to one, as I feel that now, as a result of that workshop, I’m able to observe the group and hone my leadership skills.

Still, one thought remains—It also has to do with the concept of belonging. Lots of my reflective time here in Eleuthera has centered on identity, culture, and the role I play in this country as a visitor who is participating in service learning, and also as someone who is Caribbean and relates to a lot of the people I’ve met here. In this last week of our trip, I hope to spend some time thinking and finding balance between acknowledging that I am a visitor from America that is here to learn and acknowledging that in many ways I feel a deep sense of belonging here and understanding of the culture and identity already.

Thank you

Roman O’22