Touch-ups and Blindfolds (Day 8: January 20th)

Approximately 1 week before arriving in Nassau, a group of students from Rockhurst University had been engaged in community service as part of their alternative break trip. They had come to Andros and had worked on clearing a trail around the blue hole "Hubcap." Today, Ken our guide decided to take us to Hubcap so we could see the work that had been done there and remove some of the remaining stumps from along the trail.

The Rockhurst students had done a great job with the trail. The trail was clear with the exception of a few stumps and the tall trees on the sides of the trail provided shade to those of us walking. Visiting the Hubcap helped us understand the importance of what were were doing on Andros--creating trails and paths to that people could come to enjoy the beauty of the blue holes but doing so in an environmentally friendly manner.

We didn't stay at Hubcap for long though. After about 45 minutes, we drove over to Rainbow to finish off the work there. Our work there didn't last long either. We were done in about 30 minutes. As a group, were were extremely proud of the work we had done at Rainbow blue hole. Despite all the sweat, bug bites, and one extreme case of poison wood that had come with creating the trail, we all experienced a great sense of satisfaction from our work.

Lunch was eaten at home. Our lovely chefs (aka our fellow teammates) prepared pasta salad with chicken which we happily devoured. When lunch ended, we all moved over to Colors (a beach house) where a marine scientist, Ian gave us a presentation on Bahamian history as well as his work on Andros with the organization Green Force.

The presentation was very educative and interesting and not only gave us info on general facts about the Bahamas but also gave us insight into the lives of Androsians.

Free time came after the talk. A couple of us wen tot he the beach while others wen tot take showers.

Dinner that evening was served a local restaurant called Cinderella's. (It rained on the way there, but stopped by the time we arrived.) we had conch, fried grouper, rice and cole slaw. The grouper was amazing!

After dinner, we returned to the cabins for reflection and some team building exercises. In the first exercise we all formed a circle with our hands placed on the shoulders of the person in front of us. The goal of the exercise was to have every person sit on the legs of the person behind them without clinging to a pole or touching the ground for support. The first attempt was a failure but after some great coaching from some of the team-members we succeeded.

In the next exercise, we all put blindfolds on an stood in a single line. The person at the front of the line had their blindfold removed. This person had to lead the group from the cabin to the beach ensuring that members did not hit a stone, fall into a pot hoe, or injure themselves. Once again, this was not an easy task, but we go there. And there, waiting for us at the beach, were two cold pails of ice cream.

Manka and Phillip