by Real Traveler IUP Cook Honors College
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Gallery opening in Nassau

From The One Island Project (Lisa England) in Nassau, The Bahamas on Jun 21 '09

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Week 2

Sunday

Cabin 7 woke up this morning with a land crab invasion. One of the darling little critters managed to crawl up the stone wall and perch itself above Abby’s bed. We had to ask one of the cooks to come and knock it down, she pinned the crab to the ground, grabbed the sides of its shell, and then took it outside to let it go. Unfortunately, I ran out of clean clothes, so I had to resort to wearing my bed sheet like a toga. But some of the girls are going to sneak in some laundry tonight, so I will toss in at least one shirt.

Monday

I finished my ocean crab and a landscape to go with it, and started working on a bracelet woven out of some of the roping we dragged out of the sand. I had to wear the toga to breakfast because my shirt was still wet, and it was still damp after breakfast, but I wore it anyway. After working down at MAIC, Roxanne, me, and a little boy named Randal played card games. Afterward, Roxanne cut my hair for me, all the way up to my chin. It felt wonderful to have less hair on my head. I am very excited to go to Nassau; now that all of us are going, I really want to be around more modern civilization.

Tonight we visited a local bar, Sheila’s. We danced, and the bartender awarded Ali with a T-shirt for her dancing skills, and then gave a shirt to Jeff to give to another one of us. Some of the girls thought it would be funny if they said that we had to either seduce Jeff or buy him a drink if we wanted to win the other shirt. I just kept dancing with Ali while the others went buzzing around Jeff. He gave me the shirt because I “was the only one who kept dancing!” I went with them once before, but this time some of the students got out of hand with their drinking and had too much. Roxanne and I had to help one girl back to Forfar. Steve and Ben were not happy about anything that happened, but later Steve said he was glad that we at least took care of each other. I do not drink, I do not think it is worth it to get drunk to have fun, and I never drank a drop until this night, and it will probably be one of the last full drinks I ever have. The whole incident just made me more determined to stay away from alcohol.

Tuesday

We began the day working again. I finished the plastic bracelet which became a plastic anklet. Steve had us name and price our creations for the show. I dubbed my crab “Frustration Crustacean” partly for the similarity in the pronunciation, but also because I was rather moody while I was working on it. I am not sure why…maybe just the frustration of being in a completely different environment, with people I hardly knew had an adverse effect on me. But at least I know better what to expect the next time I travel to another country: once I realize how I am reacting to certain situations, I can usually counteract those feelings the next time, and have a more enjoyable experience. Ben was especially tickled by the pronunciation of the title.

On the downside, something must have bit me in the eye because it is so swollen I can barely keep it open. I think it is from the mosquito that bit me last night, right in the corner of my eye. It made me look like I had an eyebrow lift. I took some ibuprofen hoping it would take down the swelling, and asked the Forfar staff for ice, but that little sucker was determined to stick around. Karina could not look at me without laughing, and I played with the fact that my eye was a puffball and purposefully made facial expressions to enhance the ridiculousness of my swollen eye.

Thursday

Thursdays are the off-days for the Forfar staff, so we were left to fend for ourselves for dinner. So what we did was have a pizza party. Even though it was Andros, Forfar was stocked with plenty of “American-friendly” food—in fact, our meals there made the whole Forfar experience feel like summer camp on a beach. Pete made the sauce, Ben and Roxanne made the dough, then the rest of us kneaded it and chose the toppings. Apparently Ben is a pizza expert and worked at a pizza shop before. It was so delicious! And we even had enough leftovers to take with us to Nassau. Later that evening, Forfar Ben told us the history of Forfar, of its founder, Archie Forfar, and told us stories about some of the more mystifying and mythical aspects of Andros Island.

Friday

We left Andros early in the morning for Nassau. Pete allowed us to drive the sailboat, so Jess and I took turns, but Pete took over to park us in the channel separating New Providence from Paradise Island (where the Atlantis hotel sits). The gallery showing our works was called the Hub, and it is primarily dedicated to the environment. After unloading our work from the sailboat, carrying it to the dock in the dinghy, then carrying them up Bay Street to the Hub, we decided to tour Bay Street and find something to eat while the gallery people set up for the show. Seeing our projects arranged in the gallery was a real treat! I told Steve that before our pieces just seemed like projects made out of trash, but now that they were presented like art, they felt more like art. I was excited. They put my crab on a skid with a tilt. Some of the students’ works sold that night.

Saturday

We took the day to act like tourists, visiting the shops on Bay Street, the Straw Market, and Paradise Island. The Straw market was a disappointment to me. When it came to picking souvenirs for family, I would have preferred something hand-crafted by a local, but most of what was in the Straw market were all made in China. How sad. Ben, Roxanne, and Steve in the meantime, were at a local college hosting a plastics workshop. We were supposed to meet up on Paradise Island in the Atlantis, and all of us were there by the arranged time, except those three. The Atlantis had some of the biggest stingrays and manta rays (there is a difference between the two) I have ever seen! On the top-side of the aquarium one of the workers was feeding the manta rays and getting them to do flips; it was amazing!

Tonight everyone is going ashore to hit the clubs. Everyone except me; remember I said that debacle at Sheila’s ruined any alcohol-related activities for me? That is why I opted to chill on the boat alone while everyone else went to get drinks. Yeah, get tipsy when you know you need to climb up onto a boat later, and could possibly fall into the water. Brilliant.

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