The First Few Weeks

Over 2 weeks have passed since my last update, and a lot has happened in that time. I'll try to fill in the highlights here.

We go to the beach nearly every day, the closest one is only a mile away, and a nice beach is just a short car ride. We often go jump in the waves to clean ourselves off, especially at the beach that has a public shower to rinse off with. The water here on campus is a bit sulfuric, it smells like rotten eggs.

The weekend 2 weeks ago I got to explore the island a bit, there is a water reservoir that is a big lake you can jump in. There's a platform in the water about 15 feet high that you can jump off of. I tried to do a front flip and smacked my back on the water, that didn't feel good.

That Sunday I went to a beach called "Rock Quarry". It's only rocky on one side of the beach, the other side of the beach has some relatively tame waves, and there is a rivermouth so you can go swimming in the calm fresh water if you want. One of the guys from church brought some surfboards and gave me an intro to surfing. I'm not any good, I got tossed of a few times and didn't catch any waves.

Labor day weekend we went camping on the west side that Friday night. I showed up early to help gather firewood, and got to watch the sunset over the pacific. It flashes green for just a moment as it goes over the horizon. I brought my hammock to sleep in, but most of the people just slept on the sand in a blanket or sleeping bag. It was a full moon, one of the brightest nights I've seen, huge visibility. There were plenty of locals camping out on the beach playing loud music. One of the guys had a pretty big crab crawl into his sleeping bag, that was a nasty surprise. In the morning we could see people hunting goats up in the cliffs, there were gunshots.

That Monday I went to a beach called "Tunnels". That is a good snorkeling area, there is a reef right next to the shore and one farther out you can swim to. I saw a sea turtle and some cool tropical fish.

Saturday a family from church had the guys from Bible College over, they fed us and took us to the beach. On the way back the truck ran out of gas, and we had to wait for someone to bring us some extra. Then it started to rain as we pulled away, the guy in the back of the truck wanted to switch vehicles but the driver didn't give him enough time and he got soaked. Once we got back to their house they gave us free shirts and fed us again, then we watched a movie. (Joseph)

The campus is located at the bottom of a hill on church property. The church meets in a big tent on top of the hill, and we walk up their for classes. The tents are split into two groups, one for the guys and one for the girls. The girls have electricity from a generator, but they pay the price by being close to a rooster that keeps them up all night. One of these days I'll put up a post about classes and what I'm learning.