Today is our last day in the Virgin Islands. And boy was it a hot one. I have no idea what the temperature is, but it’s crazy. Anyway, we had our final breakfast today at the teachers cabin. It was the leftovers from our previous breakfasts (cereal, honey buns, guava juice, granola bars). After that we headed down to local school for our service project. The school is the largest on the island (it serves as a high and middle school). Our project involved the beautification of the campus. We worked for 2 hours in the hot sun. Everyone had a mix of jobs. Some people painted the walls, while others helped to plant the garden. Certain jobs involved moving large stones, where others involved digging holes. My main job was digging holes for fence posts. It was a lot less boring then you’d think. While digging, I was able to talk to my fellow Jesuit brothers and occasionally switch to a different job. After 30 minutes, we were given time for a water break. We were also given free doughnuts. They tasted great, but made my stomach feel bad in the heat. In between digging the fence holes, I did some weeding and trash disposal. I helped load trash onto a truck and helped throw it away at a nearby dumpster.
After we finished cleaning up the school, we went to the dive shop. While there, we could buy souvenirs. There were some interesting things in there. One of which was a huge mermaid tail (for someone to wear). I bought myself a nice BVI shirt. After I finished shopping at the dive shop, I walked over to a nearby ice cream parlor while waiting for everyone else. I bought some cookies and cream flavored ice cream (10 out of 10 would eat again). After everyone was finished, we were driven back to our cabins by Glen in the taxi truck. We got back to our cabins at 1:30. Me and my group had to present our final projects at 4:10. So we showered and hung out until then.
I think our presentation went well. During it, I learned that we could have added in more variables for our project. Apparently the group that did our same project during week 1 got different results then us. After our presentation we met up for dinner at 6:15.
(Saturday, July 29th, 2017) It was at a fancy restaurant with a beautiful view of the beach. We had a buffet. It had salad, macaroni, ribs, and mango chicken. I tried 1000 island dressing for the first time and I loved it. We also had some kind of fruity pomegranate drink. For dessert, we had cupcakes and M&M cookies. After dinner we watched a slideshow containing pictures of our adventures in the BVI. After that, we all said a few words to our dive instructors then went back to our cabins. We arrived at our cabins at 8:30. The teachers told us we could write and submit our blog anytime on the next day (Saturday).
Update: I am currently writing this in Dallas. I just wanted to say how greatful I am for being able to travel to the British Virgin Islands. I made so many new memories. I feel like I made a positive difference, both for my Marine Bio and service project. I feel blessed for being able to do this and I’m looking forward to doing this next year.
