This is a personal journal in a public space, kept by Jessica Moyer and Brett Matulis. We are not so vain as to believe that complete strangers are interested in our daily lives. Rather, this blog was created when we decided to move to the British West Indies. It is intended to serve as a way for us to share news, post photos, and eventually, revisit memories. It was created for us and for those of our friends and families that are interested in our lives on the remote island of South Caicos.
I have to relay a funny story about the local South Caicos hotel, the only operational hotel on the island. It's funny only because it didn't happen to me. From outward appearances, the hotel is modest, but fairly nice. From what we've heard, however, they charge exorbitant rates and provide dismal service. Budget accommodations at luxury rates.
The South Caicos Ocean & Beach Resort
Recently a student's mother came to visit for Parent's Day. She, of course, had no choice but to stay at the "South Caicos Ocean & Beach Resort" (the hotel's official name). One of the mornings she was here, she decided to have breakfast at the hotel.
She ordered french toast, and a few minutes later the waitress came out with two pieces of buttered toast. Just regular toast. The student's mother politely informed them that she had intended to order the french toast, to which the waitress replied "this is french toast." Taken aback, the student's mother wondered if, in the Caribbean, they just had different names for these things, and she decided to explain what American french toast was. "Normally, french toast for us is bread that's been dipped in a cinnamon egg batter and fried in a pan. But thank you, I'll have this toast and order something more from the menu."
"Oh, we can't make that kind of toast. We don't have any eggs," the waitress told her as she handed back the menu.
The student's mother looked down through the menu a second time:
French Toast
Omelet
Fried Eggs
Scrambled Eggs
Eggs Sunny-Side Up
Hard-Boiled Eggs
Soft-Boiled Eggs
Poached Eggs
Quiche
Eggs Over Easy
Bacon and Eggs
Sausage and Eggs
Egg and Cheese Bagel
Pancakes and Syrup
After a moment's hesitation she said, "I'll have the pancakes and syrup, please." All but one item on them menu called for eggs, but the hotel was somehow unprepared for such an unusual request.
Eventually the waitress returned with a short stack of pancakes and an open can of Hershey's chocolate syrup. "Enjoy," she told the only customer she'd likely serve for several months to come.
** This is my own narrative of an actual event as it was explained to me. I've never been to the hotel, ate at their restaurant, or even seen their menu. But I've heard more stories than this about their "out of the ordinary" service.
I've just finished reading Shadow Divers, a historical novel about divers who discovered a sunken U-Boat in New Jersey waters that was unknown to history. The book is exciting, very exciting at times, and I highly recommend it. Best of all, though, it's a true story (I don't care much for fiction).
Yes, I actually read this one and didn't just listen to the audiobook.
The book follows a group of pioneering divers as they spend years diving the wreck and researching naval records to identify the sunken boat. What makes it a good story is that they weren't just treasure hunters attempting to make some cash off of recovered artifacts. They were attempting to solve a mystery and set the historical record straight.
Synopsis from the back cover:
In the fall of 1991, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey, weekend scuba divers John Chatteron and Richie Kohler made a startling discovery under decades of accumulated sediment: a World War II German U-boat, its interior a maze of twisted metal and human bodies. Equally astonishing: All the official records agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat at that location. Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end.
My only complaint is that I don't feel like the book is very realistic about the sentiments of German soldiers at the time. When the divers finally identify the boat, there is a chapter that paints a picture of the lives of the crew that perished (based on accounts from surviving relatives). It valorizes the soldiers and completely avoids the fact that these people were Nazis. In fact, the only harsh words in the book are directed at Hitler himself, as if he was the only bad guy among them. Perhaps some of the U-Boat soldiers held unspoken dissenting views, but they were all complicit and they all fought to expand Nazi power.
I can appreciate what these divers did, though. They pushed the boundaries of what was possible and they proved the inaccuracy of the historical record. I'm inspired by their philosophy, purpose, and determination. It makes me want to start diving wrecks (something that hadn't really appealed to me as of yet), mainly because it combines two things that I really enjoy, diving and history.
A matter of pure coincidence, before reading this book, I had contacted a dive operation in the Dominican Republic about their technical diving certification courses. When I re-visited their website today, I noticed that Chatterton was featured on their homepage and is somehow affiliated with their business. I looked back in my old emails, and it was his wife that had responded to my original inquiry. She said the staff is not available for training at the moment because they are "engaged in a commercial diving project." Something tells me they've discovered a new wreck.
I've been planning a trip to the Dominican Republic recently. It costs just about as much to fly there from here as it does to fly back to the United States - far too expensive - so I've been looking into stowing away on the Dominican fruit boat that comes periodically. It's considerably more complicated, though, and I can't really plan ahead.
I talked with the captain of the boat when they were here two weeks ago to let him know I was interested in going. He told me, "no hay problema" (there is no problem). He even offered that I could stay on the boat during the stop at Grand Turk. When I asked how much it would cost, he said again, "no hay problema." That made me a little wary. What was he going to do, take me there and then say it cost $500? But my Ecuadorian friend reassured me that in Latin cultures it was a good sign, that it meant it would be very cheap or even free. I had gone with that crew before when I went to Grand Turk and they wouldn't accept payment then, so I decided they were worthy of trusting.
For the last two weeks, I've been keeping an eye out, waiting for the boat to return. My plan is to go in the second week of April, but it depends entirely on the boat's unpredictable schedule. Today it returned, but with an entirely different crew (I think the owner of the boat must lease it out to several customers). I was considering going earlier than planned because it doesn't look like their schedule will match up with what I had in mind, but this group was far less "tranquilo" (relaxed) than the crew I'm familiar with.
We went down to the dock first thing in the morning, shortly after they arrived, to see if we could buy some fruit and talk about going with them, but it was complete mayhem. There were loads of people there (mostly Haitians, but also many Belongers) trying to get first pick of the fruits and vegetables, and the crowd was getting impatient. Eventually the customs officer shouted that everybody had to leave because it was getting too out of control (the area is actually supposed to be secure). As we were leaving, a local guy (presumably frustrated by the whole scene) sped through the area in his truck, spinning wildly and throwing gravel into the air from his tires. It's lucky nobody was hurt.
The Storefront
We decided we'd return to the shop later, after things calmed down, to get the information I was looking for. I realized in the meantime that this crew does business primarily on South Caicos, whereas the one I know only comes here as a side stop after doing full business on Grand Turk. That was why it was such chaos. They had much more to sell.
After lunch we went down to their shop, expecting things to have calmed down, but if anything they'd gotten worse. I was highly entertained by the scene and entered if only to watch (there was no way to have a discussion about riding with them back to the DR). They had a guy stationed at the door as a way to manage the crowd. He'd let you in, but he wouldn't let you back out until you'd waited to get through the checkout line - that way people couldn't just walk off without paying. It felt a little bit like being trapped inside though, and some of the local people voiced (quite loudly and forcefully) their displeasure at this. The husband of the Russian doctor wasn't buying anything and he started shouting and pushing his way through to get out. It's surprising it didn't break out into a fist fight.
A woman was shouting ahead asking the price of some cookies. The man holding the crowd back told her they were $5. She protested fiercely saying she could get 3 for $5 in Provo and that they only charged her $3 last time. The man, however, had turned his attention to another customer and didn't respond. The woman continued to shout about how high the prices were, worked herself into a frenzy, and eventually threw the cookies (and what I think was a bag of onions or avocados) across the room. She didn't stop there though. She was determined to raise hell and began rallying the others around her. By this point, we'd moved to the front of the line and the doorman let us out. I paid for my watermelon (which I'd found buried beneath some trampled vegetables), and backed away before I got caught in the riot. It appeared, however, that things didn't escalate any further.
My Watermelon
After all the rowdiness, I decided that going to the DR two weeks earlier than planned wasn't really necessary, and that I'd just hope the next boat would come (with the preferred crew) around the time I need it to.
A Haitian woman carrying to goods away on her head.
The name "Turks and Caicos" makes you wonder about the connection between this country and Turkey. The fact is, there isn't one. The country's name comes from a cactus that grows here and the Lucayan term "caya hico," which means string of islands.
Turk's Head Cactus
The cactus got its name from its cylindrical red flowering top, which to some early botanist must have resembled a Turkish fez. The cactus is now the national plant, appearing on both the national seal and flag. Amusingly enough, I read once that when the original draft of the seal was sent to the UK for approval, a British artist mistook the cactus for an igloo, added an entrance way and painted it white. So the igloo briefly became a national symbol of the Turks and Caicos! The UK is supposed to produce the world's best geographers, but somebody overlooked the fact that 21.5°N latitude is a little warm for igloos.
As of this afternoon, I've spent just over 100 hours underwater since arriving on South Caicos. That's more than 4 full days! It took me 138 dives to do it.
100 Hours
I've been diving quite a bit in the last few days - 2 to 3 times per day. The students are on Spring Break, so the staff have had lots of time on their hands. We've done and seen a lot. First off, we did a little more exploration and re-discovered another lost dive site - The Cone. This site is at the far end of the allowed range and has been missing for quite some time. It was listed on a paper map that we found, so we estimated it's coordinates on a digital map and located it using GPS. Once we were underwater, we located the mooring and marked the exact location.
There's no good reason it's called the cone - at least we haven't found anything distinctly cone-like yet. It's not an overly impressive site, unlike the last one re-discovered. There's a lot of sand and some sickly looking Gorgonians. At the drop-off, however, there are some nice coral blocks, but they're very deep. My low opinion of it might primarily be due to coincidental poor visibility, so I'll give it a chance before I write it off completely.
On our first dive to The Cone, Jessee stayed on the surface - something one person is required to do ever since one of the boats was lost. She missed the dive, but lucky for her, she got to see whales because of it! They passed right by the boat. If only we had gone 15 or 20 minutes later, we would have seen them from below too (we had already passed through the area where they were). So close!
Jessee did go on another dive where we had a really impressive sighting. We saw a swarm of 39 Eagle Rays! And, today we saw them again, but there were only 20 this time around.
There's also been a lot of big Groupers around lately too. Some of them are quite fat - as if they are carrying eggs. Groupers spawn in large aggregations at precise times of the year. This makes them particularly vulnerable to fishing because the whole lot of them can be scooped up at once. Fin-fishing (i.e. not conch or lobster), though, hasn't been very big in this area so Grouper populations remain relatively high. The spawning aggregations are supposed to occur in December or January, but seeing so many has made us wonder if they could actually be getting ready to do it soon. I caught the following footage of a couple Tiger Groupers on a dive at The Cone.
To top it all off, it looks like the health care bill is finally going to pass! I've been checking in on C-SPAN throughout the day - which has been surprisingly exciting - and it looks like it will just squeak through.
The local news reported on the Governor's meeting last week. Apparently he held a second meeting on Salt Cay, where he was met with the same sort of anger. The audio in a couple of the interviews in the report is absolutely terrible. I can't believe they aired it that way.
I was invited to go along on a turtling trip today. The destination was Fish Cay (a small island South of here frequented by the fishermen) and Middle Reefs (a series of patch reefs between Long Cay and Six Hills Cay). I got the day started early and was down at the dock waiting a few minutes before the arranged time (8am) this morning. In typical island fashion, though, we set out around 10:30 after running several of errands.
The boat was called "El Cacique" (or "The Chief")
The wind was out of the West today, so the water was very flat behind Long Cay. When we were passing through, I was hoping so much that we'd see the whales. We were in one of the DECR boats instead of one the School's boats, so our range wouldn't have been so limited. I kept an eye out all day, but unfortunately we didn't see them.
The water didn't stay flat all day though, and made much of the ride quite jarring as a result. It wasn't possible to stand (which allows you to absorb much of the shock in your legs), so I just had to sit tight was the boat slammed against the waves.
When we arrived at Fish Cay we went to shore briefly to check for nests. The Turks and Caicos isn't a very popular nesting area (likely due to over-harvesting in the past), but there are a few beaches that are regular nesting sights. I didn't know it until today, but adult females can lay eggs as many as 8 times a year. Though, most years they do it far fewer times and often not at all.
We didn't find any nests, but we did find some tourists that came over for the day from the nearby (and privately owned) Big Ambergris Cay. I bet they came halfway across the world (on a private jet, no doubt) to have that beach to themselves, and there we came trudging over the hill salty and disheveled. You wouldn't have believed the number of diamonds this lady had on her finger - an essential accessory of sunbathing.
We "manta towed" around Fish Cay for a couple hours. I was a little wary of manta towing in that area because of the reputation it has for sharks. The fishermen claim to see Tiger Sharks around there, and it was there that the recent attack happened. Being pulled around by a boat makes you feel a lot like bait. Luckily we didn't see anything more than a Nurse Shark (which do not have teeth and are not predators). We did see lots of Eagles Rays though (which, of course, are harmless).
I had 4 turtle sightings (all Hawksbills) and we had 2 captures. The two that got away may have just been one that got away twice - it was a fairly big Hawksbill both times. I captured the first one (the smallest of them all) with ease. It could barely swim faster than me with it's tiny little flippers. It only took about 10 seconds to get him.
My little Hawksbill. We'll call him Felipe.
The other one that we caught at Fish Cay was also a small Hawksbill, but he really ran for it. He was also in much deeper water, so getting to him was much more difficult. We slipped free from each of our hands once and really tired us out before Tom finally brought him to the surface.
Tom's Hawksbill. We'll call him Manuel. (Hawksbills often have dirty, algae covered shells).
We wrapped things up at Fish Cay and headed over to Middle Reefs. It's not far from Six Hills Cay (which from our angle looked more like 7 or 8 Hills Cay). I'd never been to that area before. Visibility was quite bad today (likely due to the Westerly wind), but it's probably usually really nice. We only had 1 sighting there, but it was a successful capture. Tom nabbed a little Green that was not much bigger than the one Jessee got last week.
We decided that the Hammerhead Jessee saw last Friday was actually a Bonnethead. It seemed funny to us that it was so small (other Hammerhead species can reach sizes of 12 to 20 feet!) and that she initially mistook it for a Nurse Shark. Hammerheads are one of the most distinct looking sharks you can find. So we looked through the ID book and found the Bonnethead.
From certain angles, it's understandable that a Bonnethead could be confused with other round-headed sharks. Photo from Reef Fish ID.
Bonnetheads and Hammerheads are a members of the same family, Sphyrnidae. But Bonnetheads don't get to be anywhere near the same size - usually about 2-3 feet. They also have an oddly flat shaped head like Hammerheads, but it's rounded at the front rather than broad.
Photo from: http://marinebio.org/
Photo from: http://marinebio.org/
Bonnetheads are a viviparous species, which means that it gives birth to live young. That seems like a very strange thing for a fish to do. But they don't raise or protect their young after birth. The ID book says they give birth to up to a dozen foot-long pups. The book also describes their teeth: "The front jaw teeth have narrow and erect smooth-edged cusps, those on the sides are oblique and smooth-edged, and the posterior-most teeth are broad and flat ('molar-like')." Sounds odd for a shark, I wonder what they eat.
Bonnetheads are pretty uncommon around here, so I'm super jealous I didn't get to see it. And we're both disappointed that we didn't have time to stop and watch it longer.
We had the chance to do some more turtle capturing today. This time Jessee got to bring one in. The group got three in all - two small Greens and one big Hawksbill. Jessee spotted the Hawksbill first and called us over for the chase. And chase we did! We were after it for probably 50 minutes or more. The water was really rough and Jessee and I followed it from one end of the bay clear across to the other side. The big ones can go longer without getting tired because it takes them less effort to move a given distance. I got really tired and called to the boat to shuttle me ahead. Jessee kept on its tail and kept on eye on it.
It was heading out towards deep water, so I dove down in front of it and tried to scare it back in the other direction, but it was determined to get out there. It was around this point that Jessee looked to her side to see a Hammerhead. A Hammerhead! I was oblivious. I didn't even know about it until well after things settled down. She says it was a really small one, a juvenile less than a meter long, and that it took a few seconds for her to realize what she was looking at. She kept her eye on the prize, however, and kept following the turtle.
At this point we'd been giving chase for quite a while and were completely knackered (so was the turtle though). I decided to call to our boat to radio the other boat for assistance. It's a good thing too. Jessee really needed a break. By this time the turtle had made it to significantly deeper water (about 30 ft) and wasn't far from drop-off. Fortunately John, a practiced free diver and the fastest swimmer of us all, arrived with the other boat and took over. It took him another 15 minutes or so, but he finally got it. He was in water well over 100 feet deep and just waited at the surface until it had to come up for air. When it started coming, he dove down and grabbed on. He didn't say, but it must have taken him for a ride. It was so big that it wouldn't have been possible to overpower it in the water. The only thing you can do is hold on and point its head where you want to go. You face the head upwards and it brings you up for air. Then you just have to keep its front flippers out of the water until the boat gets there - easier said than done when the water is as rough as it was and turtle is as heavy as it was (it weighted 32.5kg, about 71lbs.!). But we got there quickly enough with the boat to get it on board. In the process though, it bit John and nearly got a couple more of us. It wasn't major, but these big turtles can really do damage if they try.
Back at the Dock
The Hawksbill had a strange spike in it's neck as if it had mistakenly swallowed something sharp. It was old, though, because the skin was completely healed around it.
We removed it and cleaned the wound.
Measurements
We took this one to the dock straight away to take measurements and samples. I stayed to help with that and the others went back out in search of more. They eventually came back with two little Greens, one of which Jessee spotted, chased down, and caught all on her own!
"Pearl" - Jessee's little Green
Pearl weighed less than 5 lbs!
Waiting to go home.
The other little Green was missing a back flipper. It's not uncommon to see turtles missing limbs, but this one looked like a birth defect rather than a wound because there was no scaring.
Without ever trying it, you'd think there'd be no way humans could keep pace with a sea turtle. And certainly when they sprint we can't, but we're surprisingly good at out running them over long distances (especially if you can keep them come coming up for air that often). I once heard a story on NPR about humans being particularly well adapted for running marathons and, in fact, can even out run horses in a distance race. The same goes for sea turtles, I guess.
The Release
p.s. If you've been wondering about Suzie, she's still at home in the Black Rocks Bay area of East Caicos. I've been checking her location periodically to see if she's coming down to visit South.
I've mentioned that I've pretty much given up on the Lionfish hunting, but we recently became licensed TCI Lionfish Hunters. The DECR created official regulations for catching Lionfish and so the School put our names down on the application for permits.
It looks like somebody forgot what year it is because the expiration date preceeds the issue date.
His Excellency The Governor Gordon Wetherell (as he is called) was on South Caicos tonight. Such a formal title, however, did not impress the unruly mob that turned out. They were angry with an array of issues, and they let the Governor know it. They shouted at him, talked loudly over him, and pressed him over and over when he gave answers they did not like (all the while at least one inebriated man walked around the room with an open container). Since the British deposed the elected Premier, overturned the government, and suspended the constitution of the TCI last summer, things seem to have only gone downhill.
The top issue (by far) was a recent decision to cut the pay of all government workers by 10%. This measure was taken in an attempt to reduce the country's deficit, and (I suspect) is a major reason for the recent anti-government protests. The people in attendance were relentless in their attacks about issue. Person after person stood to challenge the government officials on this, and with each one the whole community in attendance shouted in support. At a couple points it seemed as though the whole thing was going to break out into a riot. People were shouting from the back "get out of this country!" and one man told the Governor over the microphone that his administration was worse for the people of South Caicos than Hurricane Ike had been (the crowd exploded in cheers over that one). Eventually the member of the administration who was fielding the pay cut questions starting to respond simply by saying, "I'm not sure there's much more I can say on the topic."
This seemed to diffuse the situation. After they had gotten it all out of their system, the mob calmed down and more sensible questions were raised. They asked about the depressed fishing industry (of particular concern here on South Caicos). The Governor responded that low market prices for seafood in North America were the cause of the struggling industry and that they were looking into expanding exports to European markets where prices remain higher. He gave no indication whether or not they were addressing the issue of low catch due to environmental degradation.
They asked about assistance for families still displaced since Hurricane Ike nearly two years ago, to which the Governor responded with a promise to look into assistance. And they asked about development of the South Caicos airport (which will be necessary if the two tourism developments are ever to go into operation), to which they responded that they are looking into restoring a plan that was put on hold during the transition.
I had half a mind to raise the question of whether or not the TCI would sign a financial transparency agreement with the United States to crack down on tax evaders. Had I known the this townhall was taking place, I might have come prepared to do so. But I wasn't even aware the Governor was going to be here. I only found out because I was jogging by and recognized him standing at the podium. I was sweaty and thought I'd look a little funny addressing the highest government official in the country that way.
Being a British Overseas Territory, I would have thought that the Turks and Caicos Islands would have mastered the art of line standing. The British, as well as us Americans, will instinctively form lines whenever the opportunity presents itself (sometimes for no reason at all). Apparently the Empire failed to export its appreciation for the orderly "queue" to its Caribbean territories.
Standing in Line
Here in the Turks and Caicos, when important business needs to be conducted by many at a single point of service (say when banking or visiting the clinic), people form more of a mass or cluster than anything from which a system of priority can intuitively be drawn. Instead, who has priority seems to be based upon one's own self-assuredness, sense of entitlement, or the audacity to step forward before others. This presents an array of anxieties, frustrations, and downright confusion among those of us unaccustomed to such methods.
Standing in lines is ingrained so deeply in our social code of conduct that we find ways of simulating it when it becomes impractical to physically do it. When there is the potential for an inordinately long wait (e.g. at the DMV) or when layout does not lend itself the formation of a line (e.g. at the Deli), we use numbered ticketing systems that allow for virtual queueing. Absent of such technological aids, we will carefully take note of each individual that arrived before and after ourselves, creating mental queues according to length of time served standing in wait. "I'm sorry, yes, you were here before me. I believe it is your turn to go next." In the Turks and Caicos, however, there appears to be no such socially agreed upon self-ordering. Or, at least, I have not yet figured out how such things work here.
This morning I went to the bank (which, by the way, is only open for half a day each week). For weeks I've been trying to get a $5 money order so that I can renew my driver's license. The Washington State Department of Licensing will not accept cash or credit payments. In my opinion, checks are out-dated and I don't use them. All but once or twice a year, this isn't a problem. But we're still in a technological transition period where some are slow to let go of antiquated systems. Until paper checks become completely extinct, I'll have to deal with these periodic (though increasingly infrequent) headaches over their necessity.
Western Union and the Post Office don't sell money orders and, after waiting for nearly an hour in line-less chaos, I was simply told at the bank that they won't sell them to people who are not "customers." Apparently, the desire to purchase a money order is not sufficient qualification for the title of customer. I'm not sure at what stage in the process of purchasing something one becomes a customer, but I seem to have missed a very important step this time around. With my failure to earn the credentials necessary for the purchase of a $5 money order, I simply went home. What's next? I'm not sure. But I miss my bicycle, and I'm happy to say no driver's license is needed for that.
Yesterday was "culture day" on South Caicos. Every year the Russian Doctor (this is how everybody refers to the island's only doctor) organizes a festival to celebrate the cosmopolitan mix of cultures here. There were three main events: a parade, food, and talent. Representatives from each nationality had a table and provided food typical of their country. Each item was on sale for $1 and the proceeds went to the Soroptomists women's group (yesterday was also International Women's Day).
There were 8 booths in all: Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guyana, India, and ours. Our booth, of course, could be further sub-divided into 8 countries (USA, UK, Italy, Austria, Holland, Hungary, Spain, and Ecuador), though we only provided dishes from the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. Not represented were the Canadians (who chose not to participate after they thanklessly did much of the work preparing last year's event), the Philipinos (who won last year's "best food" award), and Trinidad (for whom there was a booth, but no representative). To say the least, South Caicos is an international community.
Various Booths
Setting up our booth.
To represent the United States we provided Apple Pie (for which Jessee toiled in the kitchen much of the day and for which I sliced an unacceptable number of apples), cupcakes decorated like the flag, and "pigs-in-a-blanket." I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with my country being represented by something so uncultured as pigs-in-a-blanket, until our first customer. A woman from the neighboring Bahamas booth came over before the event had really started and exclaimed, "I wanna try a pig-in-a-blanket!"
Making square pies.
Flag Cupcakes
It was also one of the students' birthday, so Jessee made this TCI flag cake.
The United Kingdom was represented by Scones (which I didn't even realize were British) and Italy was represented by Bruschetta (which Marta resourcefully made without tomatoes). The food I liked best at the event was the Indian. They were very generous too. For only 1 ticket, they gave an entire plate of rice, curry chicken, and an egg pastry. I also tried some Haitian salad that seemed to be made more of chili peppers than anything else. I wished I had had appetite enough to try more, but I had already eaten dinner not that much earlier.
The Indian food was the best.
The talent portion came next. Some performed songs and dances that are traditional in their country (a dance by a couple Haitian women). But most just performed something that would probably be considered international popular culture (our students sang "No Woman, No Cry," some TCI kids danced to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Beat It"). The sound equipment was so poor, however, that it made much of the singing difficult to bear - there was screeching feedback, flat sound, and it was all far too loud. The best performances, therefore, were the ones that just involved dancing to recorded music. Not all of it could be attributed to the PA equipment, though - I included a sixth grader's saxophone performance in the video below just for good measure.
Given the recent goings-on here on South Caicos, I thought it suiting to begin reading Moby Dick. (Actually, I'm cheating a little by listening to the audiobook, but that's neither here nor there). The idea came after others started poking fun at me, saying I was obsessed with finding the whales. The book is about Captain Ahab's crazed search for the elusive White Whale (actually an albino Sperm Whale). He becomes completely consumed by the hunt and is left unable to focus on or take pleasure in anything else. While my recent obsession with whale watching certainly hasn't reached this degree, the parallel they've drawn to Ahab is might not be that far off base for many other things in my life.
We spent much of the day yesterday in search of the whales. But we were not lucky enough to find them. The season is coming to a close soon. Most of the whales should be gone by the middle of March, though some stragglers can supposedly still be seen well into April.
On one of the dives yesterday, I could hear them. The male humpbacks are known for deep their whale-songs. The sound can travel for miles and miles, but I kept hoping they'd just come swimming by. It's really hard to swim with them let alone dive with them. They move so quickly that you can't really plan that sort of thing. You just need to be lucky.
I went out to the very tip of the East Bay Spur (a coral formation that juts out into "the blue") hoping they'd come by.
The whales are nearby. Yesterday there were two sightings; one by me from land, and one by the students from the boats. So this morning several of us got up for a pre-breakfast excursion to look for them (and go for a dive). As it turns out, whales like to sleep in. We didn't see any. They seem to like the south side of South Caicos, though. It was from the bluffs at Shark Bay that I saw them yesterday, right next to the place where I saw them breaching Tuesday. Pepe suspects that these ones aren't just passing through, but are spending some time here. I hope that is true.
Yesterday from Shark Bay. It looked like 3 whales (1 adult, 1 juvenile, and 1 sub-adult).
Waving Hello
Shark Bay from the Bluffs
I was disappointed about not seeing them this morning partly because seeing them from land just isn't the same as seeing them from the water, but mostly because Jessee was along and she hasn't gotten to see them yet at all. It's not fair sometimes that she doesn't get to enjoy as many of the perks of being in a place like this. Even when the other staff are really busy, part of their job requires that they go in the water. When Jessee's busy she can go weeks without being able to get out there. Tomorrow's Sunday, though, and hopefully it will be nice and sunny (there's has been a serious lack of sun on SUNdays lately) and we'll be able to spend lots of time out there looking for them.
From the dive: a funny looking Smooth Trunkfish, looking it's funniest.
The South Caicos Ocean & Beach Resort
This is the "beach" at the Ocean and Beach Resort
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