Paradise Re-found

Saturday, we had an earthquake.

Tomorrow, we are suppose to get hit by tropical storm Omar.  I'm gonna hold on tight.

Last Sunday, I had a blast snorkeling. One of the ladies I work with invited me to go on her boat with her family. We went to this group of huge rocks in the British Virgin Islands called The Indians. We saw some really amazing things: an eel, a sea cucumber (held it in my hand), about 20 squids, a sea turtle, and a hundred other things that I had no idea what they were. We were able to get a few underwater pics before the battery died (someone forgot to charge it).

On Friday afternoons at our schools, we have a two hour block of time called Enrichment. This is basically set aside each week to do something fun and meaningful with the students. We've done rock climbing, kayaking in the mangrove lagoon, had special speakers come by, etc. This past Friday we celebrated Coastal Cleanup Week. We walked down to Vessup Beach and cleaned up the trash and then had about 45 minutes to swim. I was shocked and appalled by the amounts of garbage that was left on the beach. Some of the more interesting things that were found: 5 tires, lots of condoms (used and unused), a pregnancy test, a mattress and the bones of an unidentified mammal. We were able to gather up a large amount of trash but there was still a ton that we weren't able to get. The students had cards where they records each piece of trash that they found. They will be writing up lab reports for science and then we will be analyzing the data via graphs in my math classes. It was a fun project and the students really enjoyed cleaning up the beach.

On Saturday, I woke up around 6:35am to find that the electricity was out once again. A few moments later, I heard a weird noise. Then my house started shaking. It only lasted a moment but it was still weird. I was still half asleep but I finally realized that I had just experienced my first earthquake. I checked the earthquake website today and found out that it was a magnitude 6.1 earthquake!  According to the site, the epicenter was about 40 miles north of where I am and had a depth of 16 miles.  There haven't been any reports of major damage or any deaths so far.  I think the most bizarre part about it was that I could hear it coming.   Oh and the power was out this time for over 2 hours (the power goes out here at least once a week but for only 20-30 minutes at a time).

( Pics from last Sunday and from Friday... )