Note: WordPress keeps changing it’s editing interface on me and now I can’t figure out how to make the captions show up when you roll over them. Sorry! I think you have to click on the individual photo but I’m not even getting that to work this morning due to really slow internet.

Our daily rhythm is usually the same: school work in the morning and free afternoons for playing, swimming and exploring. Some afternoons the kids stay here at Roatan Refuge where we are living. The VanZee’s, who operate Roatan Refuge, have 6 children, and the Christman’s have 3 so there is quite gaggle of kids to entertain each other. The kids love swimming in the pool, doing face paints or playing games. All the playing usually continues after dinner as well!

Some afternoons we go to the closest beach, West End, to swim, snorkel, and play on an old sailboat (it’s like a huge jungle gym out in the water). Gelato is sometimes involved.

My favorite times, though, are when we get out and explore the island a little more.

SOL FOUNDATION and BICA

The SOL Foundation and BICA share a building in Sandy Bay, in a relatively poor neighborhood. SOL (School Of Life) supports neighborhood kids in a variety of ways. They provide meals, tutoring, a safe place to play, a backpack program and sports teams. It is a beautiful, vibrant community center that is so welcoming and always full of kids. We helped twice at SOL, once working directly with the children and once helping with a building project. Trash, and plastic in particular, abounds on the island, and SOL has a creative way to reuse some of that plastic. Children collect plastic bottles and other plastic trash and then stuff the bottles with the plastic. And I mean really stuff – using rebar to pack it in – because the bottles have to be as stiff as bricks. These bottles are then used to help build a wall around the community center. It’s a beautiful process – and result.

BICA, or Bay Island Conservation Association, is the other organization in this building. We helped with two of their projects: the brand audit/beach clean up that Sylvia wrote about, and a study on the ocean currents around the Bay Islands. Luther students painted 1,000 yellow boards and we helped write instructions on them. The photo says it all. 🙂 We want to follow up on the results so we’ll be checking in on Facebook!

It has been great to make connections with organizations on the island, mostly because of the internships that are set up for the Luther class. We have students working at both BICA and SOL and we enjoy learning what they are doing and joining them at times. We have really appreciated meeting new, delightful people, having experiences unlike anything in the States, and learning so much – about people, the island and oceans, and the importance of connections.