We couldn’t dive due to the fact that we are flying tomorrow, but the day was not one spent just lying aroumd. Once everyone has eaten breakfast, we woke up and headed to the local high school to help Unite BVI build a library and a garden. Unite BVI was founded by Richard Branson and aims to help both the local community and the environment around the British Virgin Islands. I started off by organizing books in the newly constructed library and the books ranged from Where’s Waldo to Percy Jackson. After that, I filled buckets of dirt for the surrounding garden and also lifted buckets for the garden on the second story of the high school. The whole time the group was singing along to some 2000 Pop jams which made the work so much more fun. We also had a doughnut break and those were some of the fluffiest doughnuts I have ever had. I met a really cool guy named Chris who works on mosquito island and is an avid kite surfer, and also a local resident of BVI after moving from England. It was really cool to help make something like a new library that would change these kids lives forever. Upon finishing, we went back to the dock for another lunch at Bath and Turtle and I got the quesadillas which were very good. I got a Virgin Gorda mesh hat at the dive shop.
Returning back to Guavaberry, we all got prepped for our presentations of our findings for all the teachers and instructors. My group went third, and I thought we really did a good job. Everyone was really excited to see our findings as the project had never been attempted before. I think everyone really liked my video of the dye being excreted on a sponge. The first question we got after we had presented how the smaller sponges seemed to have a faster speed flow process was “How cool was it?” and got a laugh from everyone in the room. It was really cool to present my findings of an experiment in professional manner like that. I had never experienced anything like it before. I feel like it was a good start for an experiment and we discussed how the experiment could be expanded upon with more species of sponges. Dinner tonight was a buffet style at the “Top of the Baths” located right above the famous rock formations. The ribs and macaroni were my favorite, but what made the night special was the video at the end of the entire week. It was really cool to see everything we had been doing for the past week. The goodbyes were hard but the memories and experiences of this week will stick with me forever and while this place is amazing I can’t wait to get home.
