The morning started off with an alarm on my iPhone of Apple’s “night owl” ringtone at 7:20. Immediately afterwards, I hopped out of my bed and got dressed for something different than the usual of diving and snorkeling. Today, we had service planned at the nearby high school! Another house was in charge of breakfast this morning, so we set out for that casa. After breakfast, we walked down to the high school since it was very close. Upon arriving, a building with all its shudders closed and a need for some fresh paint stood in front of us. As we walked through the front, a nice lady greeted us at the guard house and directed us forward to a hall. At the end of the hall a great field that was fenced off was before us with an enormous tree, play set, and a construed volleyball net. As we walked around, we did not see anyone until we took a corner and met the individuals who would be in charge of the worksite. We did not know what to expect upon arriving so we did not know what we would be doing. The group introduced themselves and explained that they were a part of an organization funded by Richard Branson. Richard Branson, we learned, is an entrepreneur who became successful and owns his own island, virgin airlines, virgin records, and several other brands. Richard Branson now uses his success for good as he funds programs and organizations to better the world around him. Today specifically, the organization that he funded was unite BVI. The individuals from the organization explained that the high school was severely underfunded by the government lacking basic necessities such as paper to print things or toilet paper. They explained that they had brought in a library and our job was to make the school look more pretty by tidying up the school and helping to place plants in the ground. My job specifically was helping to carry gravel and soil up to the second floor of the complex and to plant trees at certain locations. For the first half of the job, I carried to gravel and soil up to the second floor until the blisters that started forming became to much to continue the job. I then went down to the ground and found a shovel to start placing the trees. After around two hours we were done, the school that had once looked a bit gloomy was now a beautifully plant covered landscape. This service helped me to learn that just a bit of cleaning and some plants can make a big difference in the appearance of a location. After service, we went down to Chez Bamboo, a restaurant, where I had delicious chicken quesadillas. After lunch, we went back to shower. After our showers, we presented our final project which I felt went very well. Our project was finding whether or not algae abundance correlates to a reef’s health. We found that the more algae on the reef, the poorer the health of the reef was and vice versa. After presenting our project, we went for dinner at the top of the baths where there was an amazing buffet set out! Tomorrow, I hope that our flight goes exceedingly well and we make it home safely.
