New Faculty Orientation

The Island School and the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) brought in eight new faculty or staff for this semester.  Outside of the four fellows, there is Ron the Divemaster and new head of the boathouse; Lissa, who is transitioning from CEI over to IS in the field of Human Ecology; Tiffany, who will run Visiting Programs through CEI; and Peter the new Marine Ecology teacher.

Starting on Monday morning with a rigorous snorkel exercise, this group has been together for all the daylight hours.  Currently, we are being guided by Remo, David, and Justin and eased into the way of life at the Cape Eleuthera campus.  A basic day entails a 630 morning exercise, followed by breakfast.  We then move into meetings which range in topic from risk management to how to reuse "resources" i.e. our garbage collection.  After lunch, we have been going on excursions which gradually expose us to the wider network of Eleuthera.  Finally, dinner has been in various spots around South Eleuthera and is then followed  by personal time.

Our morning exercise has been snorkeling, completing a run-swim, going for a run on the inner loop, and on Thursday a demanding run out to High Rock and back to campus.  For terminology sake, the inner loop is the interior of a golf course which was only operational for twenty years, and has since been reclaimed by nature.  The original cart paths and some fairways are intact and provide excellent running opportunities.  High Rock is a cliff overlooking Exuma Sound.  The limestone has been beaten away by years of wave action and rain erosion, creating a 15-20 foot (depending on the tide) cliff from which we can jump into the azure waters.

A run-swim is an exercise which begins at the girls dorm cut and goes in a straight line towards the marina, wraps back around and returns to the flagpole in the center of campus.  Every time a person comes to a change in terrain during their straight line movement, they are either swimming or running.  On the way back, there is a section of road running, followed by a cliff jump of about 8 feet, leading into a swim and return to the flagpole.

Over the course of our various exercises, I have found Tiffany to be an admirable training partner.  She was former swimmer, who like me, hates to run.  This leads to a perfect pairing on both land and in the water.  At this point, I would consider myself to be among the top swimmers, but the runners are by far superior to my current abilities.  The great thing is that we all know that we will improve on our weaknesses and have each other to give or receive needed support and encouragement.

I once again have to comment on the fabulous food that is being served in the dining hall.  Based on the limited  in season fruits and vegetables, these women are making wonderful dishes that provide the nutrition that we need so we can maintain active lifestyles in the heat of the Bahamas.  Our off-campus dining experiences were at Sherril's, in Deep Creek settlement, and Coco's in Rock Sound.  Both places specialize in conch, much like every other restaurant on the island.  Conch salad, conch fritters, conch burgers, it's all good.