"The boat"

A few highlights from the past week... starting with "the boat"!

"The boat" came on Tuesday! There are, of course, lots of boats around here, but this one is special. And HUGE! It comes every other Tuesday and brings in all of our food, as well as any other major items we’ve ordered and paid to have shipped here. The new SFS van, for example, came in on the shipment two weeks ago. "The boat" makes everyone at the center happy because it brings fresh fruits and vegetables, which often don't last the full two weeks in between shipments. (Notice the fresh fruit salad included in our Wednesday morning breakfast!)

This week’s boat delivery was especially exciting for me because it brought my (and Brett’s) boxes of personal belongings!! I’ve been living out of the duffel bag I brought with me on the plane up until now, and sleeping on sheets one of the students from the previous semester left here. But now I have my own sheets, snorkeling gear, an extra bathing suit, and my hat, plus some extra clothes, shoes, and soap. Yay!!!!

We had to drain our pool a few days ago. We don't have a filter for it, and the method we've been using up until now for cleaning it, which involved periodically pumping old, dirty water back into the ocean and then refilling the pool with fresh sea water, now warrants a hefty fee levied by the DECR (Department of Environment and Coastal Resources). We're working on getting a filtration system put in, but major operations like that tend to take a while down here so it's hard to say when the pool will be up and running again.

Also this past week, I got my blood work done at the clinic so I'm one step closer to getting my work visa. Here's a shot from the front of the clinic:

Last Monday night we were taught to dance the Bachata by a woman named Lenore who's from the Dominican Republic but moved to South Caicos about two years ago. Her uncle, Daniel, is actually our nightguard/handyman and lives here at the center. In the first photo on the left, Lenore (on far right) and Daniel (on far left) are demonstrating the Bachata for us, and in the second photo, some SFS students are taking a crack at it!

...Tonight, Merengue!

Susie

This morning we met Susie (above). She's a huge green turtle who was caught 2 days ago by a group of researchers not affiliated with SFS, fitted with a satellite tag, and will be released back into the ocean later this afternoon. I don't know if you can tell from the photo how big she is, but my foot in the bottom right corner provides a little perspective at least. She's a giant! We'll be able to track her every move after she's released, and supposedly gain a lot of valuable information about her feeding habits, mating rituals, and patterns of movement. It's pretty sad to see her now though. Having been poked and prodded and out in the hot sun for the past 2 days has stressed her out pretty good. I can't imagine that the post-release data we collect on Susie will reflect her pre-capture behavior and activity, considering that now she's all worn out, has two large TCI flags and a huge blue bullseye on her carapace (from the epoxy), and is weighed down, however slightly, by the transceiver itself. (The white towel in the photo is just used to wet her down and keep her calm.) The researchers must have faith in this project though, considering what they paid for Susie's new top of the line accessory: $3000!

A Full Weekend

This past weekend was action-packed! Saturday we did our weekly site clean-up in the morning, community outreach in the afternoon, and somehow the students managed to fit in two snorkeling/diving sessions during the day as well. Saturday night we camped at Long Beach, which is just past High Point on the handle of South Caicos. It was so beautiful! We cooked burgers and "veggie burger-like patties" on a homemade grill we brought with us, played an intense game of wiffleball (staff vs. students), and sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and listening to guitar music and original poetry for hours. Some adventurous souls even went for a night snorkel to observe the bioluminescence and other nocturnal sea creatures. The stars were out and there was a faint glow coming from Grank Turk (the capital of TCI) across the water.

Saturday morning we woke up early to come back to the center, unpack, and enjoy our DAY OFF! (Every Sunday is a day off for all of the staff and students, except for whoever happens to be on kitchen duty.) After brunch I went with 6 other staffers to "Coastguard". Coastguard is what we call the beach at the very tip of the SC handle where the U.S. Coastguard apparently set up camp in the early 80s to crack down on the drug trade en route from South America to the US, but it's not in operation anymore. From Coastguard we island-hopped all the way up to East Caicos. The others were snorkeling but I kayaked and carried extra water, sunscreen, and snacks for the group. One of the staffers is doing some independent research on spotted eagle rays, and so she was trying to get photos of as many as she could. And there were a ton! I spent a lot of time just trying to keep track of who had spotted one and where I should direct our underwater photographers. "Over here... there a huge one!" "Quick! I've got 3 of them!" "Here's one with a bite taken out of its left side... hurry!" (Shown here is one of Jan's successful shots.)

Other exciting sightings included several iguanas on East Caicos (which is uninhabited, by the way), baby lemon sharks feeding in the seagrass about 20 feet from us, and an osprey carrying some kind of a fish in its talons and flying directly over our heads! I was exhausted and the tops of my knees were slightly pink at the end of the day, but it was well worth it! When I got back I thought about how Brett likely spent his weekend... being responsible for a group of early 20-somethings, camping out on Saturday night, kayaking all day Sunday, and getting paid for it too! Hopefully he had some exciting wildlife sightings of his own, and managed to avoid a sunburn!

Tourism in SC

Today we took a little tour of the island and explored the different tourism ventures that are underway here. Here’s where we started… (a view from our front steps):

First, we looked at the locally owned, low capacity, extremely expensive (even relative to everything else around here which is already about a 300% markup from US prices), Ocean and Beach Resort. This resort is actually the only one on the island that's in operation right now, which is not to say that they necessarily have any patrons yet. Almost the entirety of the tourism industry here, as I'm learning, is in a very early (and optimistic!) planning stage of development. For example, there are parking lots with more spaces in them than there are cars on the entire island. Anyway, a feature on the menu at the O&BR is fresh lobster with a slice of American cheese melted over it! Elch.

The second spot we visited was the East Bay development, which has a higher capacity (probably close to 200), is owned by a French Canadian, and is still pricey but offers a higher standard of accommodation for your buck. (On a side note, East Bay will serve as SFS's emergency hurricane shelter, should we need one. At least until it's actually in operation, which could be a while.)

And finally, we stopped at High Point, which is a high-rise located at the very tip of the handle of South Caicos (see map). At this spot, you have almost a 360-degree view of the ocean! The plan for High Point, which is co-owned by three non-local gentlemen, is to divide the building up into condos, sell them off to whatever wealthy individuals from around the world are buying, and then offer local rental and management services to the owners for a fee.

We had an interesting discussion about the probable environmental impacts of the various developments here, and talked in particular about what the per capita impact of each of them will likely be once they are in full operation at maximum capacity. We also learned about some of the conservation efforts that have been suggested in conjunction with development, which a few of the owners seem amenable to. The future customers they hope to attract, after all, may very well be willing to pay extra to know that, in some small way, they're "going green".

So far, much of our discussions here at SFS have focused on the tension that exists between preserving the sanctity of the natural environment, and improving the quality of life for humans through development, growth, and industry. I've been a little disappointed though, that we have hardly talked at all about issues of inequity and social injustice. For example, it's a glaring fact in my mind that in South Caicos (as in so many other parts of the world), it is white, formally educated, well-to-do individuals from developed countries with more than their share of social capital, who come into the lands (or seas) of relatively poor, developing, non-white, underprivileged and underrepresented people to suggest to them how they should (or shouldn't) use their own natural resources. I do understand the argument that natural resources don't adhere to political borders, or even regional boundaries, as in the cases of air and water, and that we all have a stake in preserving what's left of our wild species and pristine areas. I just think that (we) environmentalists often have a hard time imagining how different our value systems and priorities might look if we didn't have the luxuries and freedoms that we do. Luxuries and freedoms, in fact, that development itself has provided us. More specifically, it is a luxury for many of us to have our basic needs so thoroughly met that we can choose to set aside certain resources, which exist in excess of our subsistence- and even leisure-use requirements, to remain untapped. The residents of South Caicos are not so fortunate, however, and so they're extremely excited about the idea of having a booming tourist industry here. They’re also considerable less worried than SFS is about how the ecosystems of the region may be altered in the long run as a result. I can't blame them.

Now we're back at the center, and I'm sitting on my back porch enjoying a cool breeze after being out in the hot sun all morning. There's so much more I could write about now, but I've got to get ready for Activity Night tonight-- a trivia game! In general though, I've really been enjoying the lectures and field trips here so far. They've been interesting and provocative, and have also made me think more seriously about teaching. I'd love to lead my own interesting and provocative discussions on this stuff!

Leaving Town

You won't be hearing from me for a little while. I'm leaving town for 10 days with work. I'll be kayaking and backpacking around Ross Lake in North Cascades National Park (yeah, I'm still in Washington). Almost right away after that I'll be headed east for visits with family before finally making my down to the island.

It's too late to write much now (I have to get up early in the morning), but I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get back.

Week 1

I've now made it through my first week down here in South Caicos! I think I'm really going to like it here. I’m still adjusting to the new climate, as well as the new diet, and the new daily routine, the new time zone, the new environment, the new sleeping schedule, new people, new English accents and various other dialects, social etiquette (I keep getting offered a left hand -palm down- during introductions, and not knowing exactly what to do with it), the new music, new wildlife, new allergies, new politics, concepts of time, gender roles, skin irritations, pastimes, attire, and all the new professional responsibilities. I also switched to a new brand of toothpaste, although that worked itself out fairly early on. I would say that the trickiest things to get used to here have been the fact that my skin is perpetually itchy and sticky from the salt water and heat, and also the fact that I share every last corner of my living quarters with an array of other creatures (e.g. crabs in my shower, mice droppings across my desk, cockroaches in the kitchen, geckos crawling up my walls, mosquitos in my ears, spiders in my bed, jellies in my swimsuit…), but all in all, I’m settling in and having a great time.

I’ll never be able to remember all of the beautiful animal sightings of the past week, but a few highlights since the last time I wrote include two huge spotted eagle rays, a flying squid, a nurse shark, a group of chubby little translucent fish with fins that turn like windmills to propel them through the water (not the scientific term), and probably 50 different types of coral. Also, the students have seen several barracudas, an octopus, green sea turtles, sea horses, and a portugese man-of-war. I missed the last few sightings because I was either in my office back at the center or in the boat on first aid duty, but I’m sure I’ll see them for myself before long. There’s always something exciting going on here in the way of wildlife. In fact, not long ago the bird pictured here (some type of night heron) crunched on a hermit crab and then swallowed the whole thing just a few feet away from me.

Aside from the animals, I’ve been slowly getting to know the town better too. Friday night I went with some of the other staffers to “Chicken Bar” where they sell a variety of beverages and, you guessed it, chicken. Fried chicken, to be exact. Supposedly it’s the most low-key of the very few hang out spots on the island. I got introduced to a few of the regulars there, including a guy who goes by the name “James Bond” and has marked the front door of his home with the digits 0-0-7. Almost everyone here has a nickname.

Yesterday afternoon, as every Saturday afternoon, SFS sponsored several different community outreach activites. Several of our students taught swimming lessons to some of the local kids. (In the photo above I’m enjoying a few moments of peace by our saltwater pool before they all arrive.) We also set up a table for arts and crafts, invited some of the older kids into the center to play ping pong and cards (the rest of the week we have a fairly strict no visitors policy), and did a few other projects around town including a beach cleanup and some invasive species removal. Here we are in action:

All in all our afternoon of reaching out to the community was a success! We celebrated yesterday evening with a cookout, and today we all have the day off! (Which means I get to play Frisbee with whomever else I can recruit to play with me!)

Next week is another big week. The students have their first exam, we’re getting sand delivered for our beach volleyball court, I have to make a trip to the clinic to do some blood work that’s required for my visa (which I’ve been warned could take several hours), and I’ve also been asked to judge a local talent competition. I’m hoping to have time to sit in on some of the classes with the students too, and to snorkel with them in the afternoons when they’re doing their species identification. Otherwise I’ll never learn the correct names for “the pretty blue fish with the eye print on its backside” and “the flaky orange stuff that stings when you touch it”. When Brett gets here with his underwater camera, we’ll be sure to post some great sealife pics!

The Final Countdown

It's down to the last hour in my apartment. I'm scheduled to turn in my keys and sign over the lease at 2:30. The vast majority of our things are already out of here and being stored in Kelly's garage. I moved them on Monday (what a hassle!). All that's left is what I can carry on my bike: a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad, my computer, a few odds and ends, and my hockey equipment (I just had to play one last time last night - there's not going to be any ice where I'm headed).


I had lots of errands to do this morning, including returning Dave's vacuum. I could have returned it last night when I saw him for pizza, but I held on to it saying that I needed to vacuum one last time before I checked out today. Secretly, it was just an excuse to go over to his place to say goodbye to Kasi (his dog). I took her for a little walk and sat with her in the sun in the backyard. It's so sad to leave her! (...oh yeah, and Dave too). She could have been ours if we weren't going to TCI (Dave can't take her to Germany). We even researched the laws on importing pets, but in the end we decided it probably wouldn't be good for her. There are diseased strays she could mixed up with and it's doubtful SFS would have allowed us to keep a dog there anyway.


Lazy Dog
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUgNWPuWAk)

I also had to give up Ralph, my sickly Jade plant (yes, my plant has a name). Maggy is going to look after him, and hopefully nurse him back into better condition than I was able to keep him. Thanks Maggy!


This evening I have a bunch of chores to do (organize my things in Kelly's garage, pack for Gray Wolf, pack for the island). I'll stay at Kelly's tonight before heading to Port Townsend for work, my last trek with Gray Wolf (10 days of kayaking and backpacking on Ross Lake in the North Cascades National Park). We've both been really busy these past few days, but we're making it through okay. We've even found time to talk a few times using Skype. Skype doesn't always work smoothly, but it's free international calling. Look us up using our email addresses if you want to contact us.

Hello from South Caicos

Well, I'm here! Actually, I got here Friday morning, but I've been so busy learning the ropes and meeting the staff, and getting ready for the students to come tomorrow. I promised Brett I'd write a little blurb about my first 2 days though, as they were very eventful. In fact, I keep describing myself as being overstimulated. I'll lay out some of the highlights for you...

First, for a little context, here's a shot looking out at the water from our dining area:

The SFS center is sandwiched between the beautiful, turquoise ocean and Cockburn Harbor, a very small town with 2 gas stations, 2 bars (known as "Chicken bar" and "Ballers" -- but I don't know why yet), one elementary school, a marina, and many, many tiny but fairly raucous protestant churches. (I can hear them singing right now.) South Caicos is apparently a pit stop along several drug trade routes, and it is not uncommon to find the locals in a, um, compromised state. The indigenous population here, known as Belongers, are more numerous than any other group, but there are also Kerala Indians as well as many people from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas.

Between the South Caicos airport (in the dirt runway sense, not in the Chicago O'Hare sense) and the center, we saw many birds that I'm not yet able to identity, a flock of wild flamingos, a few packs of donkeys and horses, and a few stray dogs. After arriving at the center, I met many other interesting creatures, including the cat that roams SFS grounds, hundreds of tiny geckos running around, the mosquitos who enjoyed a fairly gluttonous feast Friday evening at my expense, the cockroaches who have made a happy home in the center's kitchen, a green turtle (I think) that one of the staffers here caught with his bare hands while swimming (see pic above), a range of beautiful and aquarium-like fish and coral, and... let's see... i think there was something else... oh yeah, i saw a caribean reef shark on my very first day here! Maybe it was to be expected, considering that we were snorkeling in an area known as "Shark Alley", but I got quite an adrenaline rush nonetheless. It was probably 8 or 9 feet long, and gorgeous. In a please-don't-come-any-closer sort of way. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that one to show you, but you'll have to take my word for it that the experience was surreal. And yet, commonplace in these parts, I'm told.

So, yeah, the wildlife is amazing and still very mysterious to me. I'm planning to sit in on some of the Marine Ecology lectures so that I can find out a little more about what's around me. But for now, I have lots of my own planning and scheduling to do. Door tags are on all of the rooms, I've got a few icebreakers planned for students who will be hanging out at the airport with me during the day tomorrow waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, a chore schedule is set up, and I'm working on some evening activities for our first week, but there's lots more to be done. And at the moment, I've got to go tend to my bug bites and poison ivy, which are itching like crazy. (No, there isn't poison ivy here, but I got that just before I came and the hot weather really has a way of amping up the itch.) At least I've managed to avoid a sunburn thus far, and I'm steering clear of the pencil tree in our front yard that apparently causes blindness if you touch it and then touch your eyes. I'll leave you with a comforting photo of me safe, secure, (sweaty), and settling into my new home.

The doors behind me lead out to an awesome porch that's decorated with conch shells, hammocks, and lawn chairs, and always has a pleasant breeze flowing through it.

Work or Play?

When I talk about moving to South Caicos, I emphasize the adventure side of the experience. But I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. I'm not just blowing off work and disregarding career goals. I will be utilizing this time to work towards my ambitions. Just last night I submitted a paper for review to be published in an academic journal.

The next thing on my plate will be applications to PhD programs. I'm planning to go back to school in Fall of 2010 (but might go as late as Fall 2011). The application process is quite involved and so I'm glad to have so much time available to devote to it. I'll also be continuing my research. My Masters thesis was on ecotourism (specifically in Costa Rica), but its unavoidable that tourism in Turks and Caicos (TCI) will find its way into my dissertation. Ecotourism is rapidly growing in TCI, and South Caicos will soon have its first international resort. In fact, the School for Field Studies, from what I've gathered, is studying how this new resort might affect the marine ecosystems of the area.

Living in TCI, no matter how I portray it in the majority of my blog posts, is not just about vacationing and being a bum.

A Significant Day

Today, Jessee and I have been together for 7 years. It's pretty hard to believe. I'm not really sure how that much time has passed. We didn't get to spend it together, of course, because she's at training for her new job. But we're planning to celebrate once I get to the island.

Brett and Jessee at Year 1 - June 2003

The training is being held in Salem, MA, where the School for Field Studies (SFS) is headquartered. Jessee's staying in Boston, though, with her sister Amanda (who is "supercool" and from whom I would no doubt hear if I didn't make mention of her). So far it sounds like the training experience has been really positive. We've had some minor headaches (mostly regarding shipment of our boxes - they're actually still here in Bellingham at the shipping store), but the people at SFS, Jessee tells me, have been really friendly and welcoming. She's met a couple of the other "SAMs" (Student Affairs Managers) from other SFS locations who were particularly helpful. I don't know much more than that, but I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing any blog posts directly from her about it for a while. She's very busy.

Brett and Jessee at Year 7 - May 2009

I'm slowly, but surely, getting things packed up and ready for the big move. I managed to sell our dining room set, which was the primary thing we wanted to get rid of, and make a chunk of cash from it too. We still have most of our other furniture, but if it doesn't sell it won't be as big of a problem because Kelly, my brother-in-law, said he'd be able to use it.

I should also mention the other reason today is a significant day: it's my mom's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!