Travel, Eleuthera

Welcome one and all to the Mission Trip Internship Blog. I have been away for quit some time due to intense work travel and the overall depressions of the pine ridge area. I am currently in the city of Tarpurn Bay which is located in the southern quarter of the island of Eleuthera in the Bahama Islands. To keep you all very interested I will start out with the boring information and end with the exciting stuff about the Tarpurn Bay to keep you all on here. So here goes the boring stuff.

Ttravel was very good on our way back to the sconnie nation. We left Pine Ridge about 345 in the afternoon and returned home at about 5. With the hour change in time zone we made it in about a half a day which was great time. The ride was very interesting to say the least. Steph was driving with me which always makes me a little leary because she tends to hit the rumble strip over and over again. When I noticed her driving was doing well I decided to get in a good nap so I would be well rested for my driving stint in the near future. About a half an hour into the ride Steph...like clockwork......hit the rumble strip with full force of the F-150. The noise made me purk up pretty rapidly which was cause for kind of an awkward moment. I tried to diffuse a little of the tension by doing the first thing that came to my head....Yelling RUMBLE STRIP about as loud as I could and going back to bed. While I was lying there with my eyes closed I thought to myself that I probabaly made the situation 8 times worse. Whatever happened though..we were still on our way out of Pine Ridge. That was about the only interesting thing about the trip. That and when I said godbye to Lenny he hugged me so hard that I nearly passed out. It was pretty intense.

The trip down to Eleuthera was very long and tiresome. It went bus to Chicago, flight to North Carolina, Flight to Ft Lauderdale, Flight to Nassau. Which is where we slept for the night. We then awoke and went to church in Nassau Sunday morning. If you have never gone to a church in the Caribbean let me tell you somthing. Its long, energetic, and....veeeeerrrrryyyy long. I actually had a very good time though. The service lasted for 2.5 hours but held my attention the whole time. We got up in the middle of service to introduce ourselves with all the others that did the same for their forst time being at that church. Butttttt sitting there, 12 white poeple, all crammed in a row with a room of all blacks, im sure everyone else in the church was wondering who the heck was the frosting in the middle of the ethnic oreo. We then left on a boat and got to Eleuthera at about 7 then took a bus ride via twinkie (school) bus to the Camp Bahamas. So since yesterday we went to bed and checked out the worksites this morning. It looks like our crews will be mainly doing tile work and clearing brush to make new cabins. This will be great work and its only 50 ft from the ocean. On the otherside of the bay area is where Mariah Carey has a house where she recently got married. We went swimming in the ocean as well and aet meals. This pretty much concludes what I did today...however I will give you a little more sustinance than that. Swimming was awesome. The water is incredibly warm and there is nothing but sand and Conch shells under your feet. We walked probably about .3 miles out and the water was up to my chest. We found cool shells and had an overall awesome time. Eating was also cool. We checked out some local cuisine and by that I mean he had some Conch Salad. The salad was pretty good but the conch meat was a little interesting. It had great taste but about the consistancy of really well done chicken and rubber. It was mixed up withgreen pepper, tomato, hot peppers, onions, lime, and lemon. It was very good. The only other thing that I have to mention so far about the island is that I have a new enemy. They havent affected me yet but thay are weakening the moral of my fellow employees. The Locals call them ankle bitters. I have no Idea the real name but they are regardless nastly little devils. This is going to be a war I will most likely not win. The ankle bitters a little nat like animals that sit on the ground and when you walk by they jump up on your ankle and bit you. The bit feels like my dreaded rival the fire ants bite but there is no way you can see this coming. This foe will be tough but I will fight with honor.

Thank you all for reading and the posts will continue very regularly from here on out. Please keep reading and whatever you do.....do NOT read this at home please do it at work. Stay classy my friends and remember....WHY READ THIS BLOG AT NIGHT WHEN YOU CAN DO IT AT WORK TOMMORROW.

Love

Matt

Interesting Fact: I think the ankle biters are Chiggers. O GOOD GRIEF. There is no way i'll win this battle unless I act quickly...which I will...dont you worry about that.

Interesting Fact: Intelligant people have more Zinc and Copper in their hair....I cant believe I got through airport security Saturday.......