Snorkeling has always been a favorite of mine. I love how the ocean silences all the externalities of the outside world. Despite the cold (and when I say cold, I just mean not super hot… we’re all Floridians now!), there was no hesitation for everyone to jump on the ocean. Amanda, Helen and I did the old fall-off-the-side-of-the-boat trick instead of using the ladder.
The ocean was still a little rough so I don’t think there was as many fish as there usually would be, but we saw a lot of barracuda, schools of fish, coral reef, and a turtle!! It was fun but it took a lot out of us, we all fell asleep on the boat ride back! (Except for Manda who went back to the bow of the boat to get drenched… this time with her snorkeling goggles on).
We made our own lunches when we got back the villas, and only a few hours later it was 5:00 and we were off to Pete’s Pub (owned by a former Rollins graduate!) for dinner. *5:00 was not to be mistaken for an early dinner, however, because it took a good 40minutes of scenic Abaco to get there! Pete’s Pub was super cool. It was, for a lack of more descriptive words, in the middle of nowhere. They were actually saying that parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed there! There were no walls, only large wooden pillars, and shirts on the ceilings from people who have ate there (we brought and signed a Rollins t-shirt!). The meals were AMAZING. I had grilled grouper marinated with a sweet mango glaze… it had my mouth watering at every succulent bite mmmmmm, SO GOOD!!
It had been a big day in the sun today, and right when everyone was fading, Ed came running from the beach to herd everyone to look at the stars on the other side. With virtually no light pollution (we almost had trouble walking across the well paved path because it was so dark!) we were stunned in place with our necks tilted back to the sky. The stars were as numerous and bright as I think anyone had ever seen them before. People able to point out O’Ryan’s Belt, the Big Dipper and the Milky Way to the astrology inept others in the group, me being one. It was truly awesome looking around and seeing us all together on the beach, looking at the stars, and participating in recreational interaction as a whole group for, perhaps, the first time this trip.
We all woke up early to the sound of an alarm going off at 7:00 a.m. Showers were being taken, blow dryers were going off, and five girls were rushing around preparing themselves for the day ahead of us. We all knew it was going to be a long day, but a fun one as well. We met as a group in front of The Regattas and continued on walking towards our journey to Every Child Counts.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as we arrived at the school we had time to prepare amongst our groups to get ready to teach our four classes. We had no idea how advanced the children would be, so we assumed their ability and we figured we’d get to know each of the classes once they started.
Once our first class started we realized they were pretty advanced, so we all played name games and made nametags with animals starting with the first letter of our name on the back. All of the children made some pretty awesome pictures. I was sad to see that the class was over, but I was excited to move on to the next classroom.
The next classroom was a little more difficult because it was a functional classroom. One of the boys that I worked with for most of the time was named Donald. Donald was a special boy because he was nine years old, but was mute. He brought a smile to my face because even though he probably couldn’t understand me and couldn’t speak back to me, the smile on his face was absolutely precious. He and I tried to color pictures together and following pictures we played follow the leader as a class. The children loved playing this game and I realized more children were advanced than others. But that didn’t matter because everyone treated each other equally.
Our third class was a small class of five children, so we were able to give each child special attention. Most of the children were functioning, but some of them struggled with social skills, but as for my student he struggled the most. Tyler was able to repeat words after they were said, but that was about it. We realized that this was a class we would have to work with closely.
Lastly, was our largest class, which Jen taught. This class seemed to be the most diverse in age. Some were more advanced than others which we learned as we went around the classroom saying our names. After we made nametags we played a few rounds of bingo, which the children seemed to love. One of the boys, Eric was ecstatic when he won the game two times. To see all of their smiles made all of us smile because I could tell they were all so happy to have us there teaching them.
The first day of teaching went really well for all of us. We were all able to assess their learning skills to prepare for our second day of teaching. The kids were all absolutely adorable and some were definitely more advanced than others, but tomorrow will be another adventure to see how fast they can learn with technology.