Our version of the 4th of July.

One of the families at church threw a 4th of July BBQ for us last night. It was a great collection of people! The event was thrown by a British and Canadian couple. In attendance were Bahamaian, Candaian, Chinese and American citizens. It was a hoot! We had a lovely time and even managed to see the end of the fireworks from Atlantis. Nothing like Thunder of Louisville, but enough to make us feel like we had celebrated properly. We also discovered a new game, 'Blockus'. It is a board game that is played somewhat like Tetris. We plan on finding it when we get home, the math geeks in our family will love it!

We continue to enjoy our time here and we learn something new daily. The Bush adminstration's antics with Scooter Libby has made the papers here for the last several days. I find it interesting to hear people comment on our government and their view of how riddled our system is with corruption and immorality. While I know that we don't have a perfect system and I will be the first to point out we have made our fair share of mistakes, it is still strange to hear other people point out our weaknesses. It is also eye opening to realize that the rest of the world does not idealize our government. In fact, it provides them with a bit of entertainment every now and then.

Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Peace,
Keri

Happy Independence Day (in the U.S.)

Happy "Fourth of July" everyone. We were thinking today that we would probably be in Logan, sitting around at Kevin and Lynn's watching the parade, eating brats, burgers, potato salad then going to see fireworks. None of that here . . . today. (Although we did see a van on the road that had two American Flags waving and a Red, White and Blue ribbon on the front.)

Bahamian Independence day is on July 10. This year marks their 34th year of independence from being governed by the British. While they are still a commonwealth they enjoy their own government and the elections that go along with them. They just had their elections in May and a new party was elected into power. There are sill the remnants of the election; campaign signs, t-shirts and the almost daily newspaper article or opinion critical of either party. We will give you more information about their Independence Day celebrations next week.

Today we spent the day on field trips going to The Bahamas National Trust and to the swimming pool. The BNT is like our National Park system. The park here in the Nassau area is called "The Retreat" and is part of the Trust system. This particular park is more like a botanical garden which houses native plant species. There is a problem throughout the islands with deforestation due to construction and demand for the tropical woods they have here. It was a great walk and environmental lesson. I have included pictures from out trip there. The white flower is one variety of native Frangipani. It is a very fragrant flower which is used in making perfumes. There is also one of the many spiders found throughout the park. The last one, dark yellow, is a False Bird of Paradise.

Tonight we are going to the Robert's (You may remember my mentioning them in an earlier post, Ros and Eddie, Julia and Sopie) for a cookout in honor of our Independence Day. I'm not sure if we will be the only Americans there or not but I do know that England, Canada and The Bahamas will be represented along with us. More details, if interesting, later.

Peace - Kurtis

Cabbage Beach

Today we all went to Paradise Island. It was a beautiful place it was very hot and the sky was blue for the for the first time in a long time. The island is just to the north of Nassau. We had to take a toll bridge to get there. It cost $1.00.
It was very sandy and not so much rocky like the other places we have been. The water was so very green and you could see the sand through it even though you couldn't touch the bottom, it was amazing. We saw tons of people on jet skies and the parasailors were an amazing sight to see. We saw the Alantis Resort. It was absolutely huge. The only bad thing is that on our way home we got slowed down in a huge amount of traffic but other wise we had a great day and look forward to another. - Emma

KidsUp! - Day 2

Things went much better today. There are still a few kinks to work out but the kids are getting into the daily routine.

We have about 55 kids ranging in age from 6-12 (although we have few older ones who have younger siblings). They are divided into 6 manageable groups with one or two teachers per group. We are focusing on reading and math skills with a little computer skill building and a lot of field trips and recreation activities. We will be swimming twice a week, go on various field trips twice a week and go to the beach for a full day every other Friday.

We serve them two meals and a snack every day. Some of the menu items are quite different from food in the U.S. Yesterday we had grits and sausage for breakfast. The grits were nothing new but the sausage was really bologna which had been cut into small pieces and cooked with onions, green peppers and tomato paste. This same method of cooking is used for corned beef (which we had yesterday for lunch and is referred to as "Fire Engine") and tuna. This morning we had some really great oatmeal which was cooked then finished with sweetened condensed milk and was served with banana. Today for lunch was tuna salad sandwiches. So we are trying some new things. Both Emma and Mekayla liked the "sausage", minus the grits, and the "Fire Engine".

Things are off to a great start and will only get better from here. I have included a couple of pictures. One is of my group which I am teaching with my partner, Stephan (who is Jackie's brother and is in teacher training at the College of The Bahamas). The other is of the group that Mekayla and Emma are helping out with, this is the youngest, and biggest group.

Tomorrow my group goes on a field trip to The Bahamas National Trust. This is a nature conservancy with many endangered plants. I may have more information after I go tomorrow. Emma and Mekayla went today with their group and this was the report I got from them. I almost forgot, "watch out for the spiders, they are huge and they are everywhere."

KidsUp! Begins

Today was the first day of the program, so much for playing around all the time.

It was a somewhat rough start to the program. A bit unorganized and chaotic, this will only get better with time, and enforced rules. Still, the Bahamian clock continues to tick to its own rythym, both for staff and the kids.

More later when we are not so completely exhausted.

(By the way, the Junkanoo Festival continues through July. So those of you who are visiting will get to go and see the sights. As long as it does not rain . . . too much.)