Final Day at TCI!

Wow! Last full day here!! Every time I did something throughout the day I just thought, "this is the last time I'll be doing this"! It was so sad! :(

We began the day with our last morning meeting where we went around sharing our favorite memory for the semester. After that we spent the first half of the morning packing and cleaning up the center. Then, after lunch, we all went to a new beach we haven't been to yet. It was on an island right across from the center, so we had to take a boat to get there. It was a beautiful spot and a great way to spend our last day here. We spent most of the time in the water...learning how to use a paddle board (which is a lot harder than it looks!). We baked in the sun and played games for a few hours until it was time to head back for dinner. Our last dinner here. It was delicious too...BBQ chicken wings, rice, veggies, and fruit! :)

Once dinner was over we all got ready for our evening banquet. The night consisted of singing songs, receiving awards, watching videos and slideshows, and dancing in the rain. It was such a great way to end the last night here. We all pulled out glow sticks and jumped around in the pouring rain with thunder and lightening in the background. It was beautiful every time the sky lit up!

I still cannot believe this trip is coming to an end. We all have grown so close here and become a huge family. I live with these people and see them every single day, and now most of us will probably never see each other again. It is really depressing to think about. Good thing we have facebook to keep in touch, because I really feel we have made bonds here to last a life time. This has honestly been the BEST experience of my life, and I will cherish it forever. I am so blessed to have my family and friends support my goals and life choices and I cannot express how much I appreciate all of you who have been by my side. I especially want to thank my parents, because if it wasn't for them this amazing journey would have never happened. I love you guys so much!!! With that said, this will be my last blog for the time being as I head back to my normal life in about 24 hours. Tomorrow will be a full day of travel for me and I won't be arriving home until about 9 at night. As happy as I am to see everyone I love, it is a bittersweet feeling to leave the beautiful TCI. I definitely plan to visit in the future, and I hope all of you who have been following my blog hope to give this wonderful island a chance as well. I will miss this place I have called my home for the last month...but at the same time I am ready for my next adventure (trust me, there is already one in the making)! Thank you everyone who has been reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a wonderful rest of your night, Happy 4th of July all! :)

My newest family!!

The pristine waters I will miss so much!

Turks and Caicos<3

:)

SEE YOU GUYS SOON!!!!

Last Weekend!!!

I didn't have much of an opportunity to write a blog yesterday, so this one will have a re-cap of yesterday and today!

Saturday morning I was supposed to go on my last dive here, but I had a malfunction again :( I already was in the water and at the very bottom of the ocean when I noticed I was to heavy and my BCD wasn't working. I had to swim all the way back up to the boat and have one of the interns fix it really quick. It was easy to fix and it happens from time to time, so I thought I was lucky and able to continue the dive. But, when I began to descend again I couldn't get my left ear to equalize, which means I probably went up to fast the first time I ascended. This totally sucked, and after trying for five minutes I gave up and made my way back on the boat. I was really bummed I had to miss the last dive, but I know I have plenty more to follow in the future. Dad...this just means we need to plan a dive trip as soon as possible when I come home!! :) Also, on a brighter note, for the 5 minutes I was underwater before I noticed my BCD wasn't working, I saw a shark and a queen trigger fish (which is really rare to see because they are endangered!). It was awesome, it came up and swam right by me! I guess it wasn't that much of an unsuccessful dive!

After the dive lunch rolled around and after was community engagement. We taught some grammar, and read some stories to our student. He invited us to go to his church on Sunday when we were done with class. We said we would attend, even though we wouldn't know anything the Pastor would be saying (it is a Haitian church).

The rest of the afternoon everyone was exhausted and just hung out around the center and relaxed. Much later, after dinner, we all went out into the town again for our last Saturday here. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to stay out later than normal because everyone has been being so good with the curfew. As much as I'm ready to go back to my normal life, it was sad to think none of us will be stepping foot in our favorite places here anymore.

The last time Kelsey and I will see Lars!!

As for today, I had to get up a little earlier than I wanted to because I was part of the brunch kitchen crew. From 9 to 11 this morning my kitchen crew and I cooked for everyone at the center. Okay...I didn't really cook that much. Fortunately I was paired with a group of people who know how to utilize the kitchen LOL. But, I was proud of my one dish: sauteed potatoes and veggies! :) The breakfast was a huge hit, we made crepes with the option of spinach, ground turkey, strawberries, chocolate, or caramelized apples as the filling. Also, along with my dish, there were hash browns and deviled eggs. It was delicious!!

Right from brunch I headed to the Haitian church. It was very interesting. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but they welcomed us nonetheless. They made an announcement to "the school for field studies students" at the beginning of the service, telling us how thankful they were that we showed up even though we do not understand, that they hope we get pleasure out of the service, and God Bless us for coming. It was really neat :) Like I said...EVERYONE knows who we are here haha! During the service, the one who welcomed us in the beginning came up to where me and my friend were sitting and gave us a Bible, telling us what section the Pastor was preaching on. It was very thoughtful of her!

As soon as I got back from the service we noticed almost everyone had gone to the beach, so we headed in the same direction. We all spent almost the whole day there since it is the last time we would be able to go. We went when the tide was out, so we were able to walk towards this small island a little ways out. When we got there we all found a cliff we could go diving off, it was a blast! I've never gone cliff diving before, so I really enjoyed it. After many hours there and at the beach we headed back to shower and get ready for dinner. So now you all are caught up to speed! The rest of the evening will probably be really relaxing because we all are worn out here. It is nice not having to worry about any school work, that's for sure! :) So I hope you all have a really good evening! I have some really cool pictures from today, but they are not up on the server yet so I will post them tomorrow. Good night everyone :)

Presentation Day!

Good evening everyone! Sorry it's so late, I just now got back from an event here on the island called the Fireman's Ball! But more about that in a minute...first let me tell you how my morning went!

I woke up, and after saying goodbye to one of the interns who has been here over a year, my group got together to wrap up our presentation. First, we all got our snorkel gear on and headed to the docks to take some good pictures to put on our powerpoint. After we made it look pretty, we did some last minute editing and split up who was going to say what. We took the time before lunch to practice learning what we were going to say and then the time after lunch until 4 p.m. actually practicing it all together. We got it down pretty good, and eventually it was time to present. All of us students and the majority of the staff listened to each group present for two hours. Our group was the fourth to present. We did pretty good :) But...I'm anxious to see how she is going to grade it! I'm just glad it is over...and now I am officially done with schoolwork and I can just relax and have fun the last few days here (can you believe it's already almost been a month?).

By the time we finished it was time for dinner, but we only had some snacks because we were going to be having dinner at the Fireman's Ball tonight. We have been planning on going to this event since the first week we arrived here, we all paid $20 for a ticket that included a three course meal. It is a fundraiser and a special acknowledgement to the firemen here on South Caicos. I honestly cannot even put into words how the whole thing panned out and the overall vibe I got from it, but let me try to explain the best I can. The event was supposed to start at 7 p.m., and it didn't officially begin until about 9:45 p.m. (we did expect it to start a little late, because that is how things are here on the island, but not THAT late). Throughout these three hours, us students and fellow teachers (who might I add were about 95% of the people there), listened and occasionally dance to some of there music playing. Eventually though, everyone got tired, thirsty, and starving. When the ceremony did begin, the firemen (and one fire-woman), all lined up on stage while the chief officer introduced them. There were only 6 of them on the stage, and there is a total of 12 on the entire island. The chief officer mis-pronounced one of the names wrong, and he stuttered the entire time. It was supposed to be a formal event, but to be honest if that was ever an event that took place at home it would have been thought of as a joke. It was sad because this was a serious event to them, the chief even mentioned how he knows it is not a very nice event but next year will be better...that really broke my heart to hear him say that :( I'm not trying to bag on the event and my evening though, I am just trying to give you all an idea of how different things are done here. Overall, I really enjoyed the effort they put into the ball and it was really cute to hear them make speeches and honor the men on the island. I do wish there were more locals there for support though, just for their sake. For dinner we had a salad, rice/chicken/crab, and cake, and for drinks they handed out canned soda. It was all pretty good! :) Despite the fact that it took a while to get things started, we all kept ourselves occupied and waited patiently for everything to take off. Honestly, the chance to go to a Fireman's Ball on South Caicos is not an opportunity that comes around often, so to celebrate with them was heart warming.

So now that it is past midnight here I am more than ready to go to bed! I hope you all had a great night! :)

 The cake SFS made for them :)

 It is hard to see, but this is where the even took place.

Me patiently waiting for dinner :)