Live a lil' in my shoes...: "C" Turtle, Community, & Campfire

IT'S SATURDAY! Which is and probably will be one of my favorite days while I'm here. Today was a very long but eventful and exciting day. For breakfast I enjoyed chocolate chip muffins :) Then, everyone pitched in and helped clean around the center, I was in charge of skimming the pool which was really annoying because every time I got an area clean I came back and it was just as dirty again...it was a never ending pool skimming session. But, shortly after it was time for my first ever "real" scuba dive!! I was actually a little nervous at first but the second I back-rolled into the water everything felt completely normal. Scuba diving is one of the most relaxing activities I have ever done. On the dive we went about 50 feet deep and just cruised around enjoying the view. I saw millions of pretty fish and some weird looking ones also. I saw a Lionfish too (which is actually an invasive species and are constantly hunted and killed), too bad they are poisonous because I totally wanted to touch it. In the beginning of my dive I saw a small stingray swim ahead of me and then towards the end of the dive my group witnessed a huge Green Sea Turtle just chilling on the ocean floor. It was so cute, it kept looking up at us like "what are you looking at?" haha! We were so amazed we ended up spending about 15 minutes of our bottom time just hanging out in that spot, it never got old to look at! As we headed back to our boat and finished off our dive we noticed a large Eagle Ray buried in the sand directly below our boat too. It was a pretty successful dive, even though I still haven't seen a shark.

After the dive it was lunch time, and then we began to get ready for all of the kids and locals to come to the center for community engagement. The town and especially the little kids absolutely love us here (SFS has a good reputation). I walked around the corner while a few people were waiting in line to come in and a little girl looked up at her mom and shouted, "Mom, it's the white people!" LOL. Believe it or not, I have heard that more than once too! They all look forward to coming to the center every Saturday where they get taught how to swim, play arts and crafts, exercise, learn about sea creatures, play various games, etc. We also have some adults come to learn English and how to use a computer. Each student picks an activity to teach for every Saturday, and I chose to teach English. There was only one man who showed up today and he was very good. We worked on some active and passive verbs with him and even taught him the skeleton system, bones, organs, etc. He caught on very quickly, it was very rewarding!!

For dinner we had a cookout at one of the beaches here on the island. I walked around and found a pretty conch shell (Strombus gigas) and an inflated sea biscuit (Clypeaster rosaceous), I'm keeping them :) As it got darker we made a campfire and I got to experience a "shaggy dog". It is kind of like a smore, we roasted marsh mellows, dipped them in melted chocolate, and then dipped them in a big bowl of rice krispies. It was delicious!

I'm actually excited for the rest of my night too. I'm going to take my first fresh water shower and relax while I study and do some homework (I'm excited about the being clean part by the way). I might also make some friendship bracelets, I learned how to do that today too :) Tomorrow I get to sleep in, brunch isn't until 11a.m. and it's our only free day where we can do whatever we want! I haven't decided what my day will consist of yet, but you guys will find out tomorrow!! So, I'm going to go take my shower now (YAY!), but here are some great pictures I've been taking. Have a good night everybody! :D