Adventures Abroad: Thoughts about...thoughts

I don't think I have anything super coherent to write about today in the way of a single thought process. I do want to talk about the money issue though. It's kind of crazy how much money we all have here in this program. Each person has spent at least $1000 on dive gear, and at least $100 on snorkel gear. To even get certified to be a scuba diver costs $300-500 depending on who you go to. On top of that, almost everyone has a gopro of some sort, which has got to cost $300-400, and even more money to spend on top of that for food, souvenirs, etc. And to come on a trip such as this for one session of summer is upwards of $3000 dollars. So basically to even think about coming to this particular program in Bonaire, a student would have to already have *a lot* of money to pay for all of these different costs. And there are high school students here as well doing their own program for five weeks. I am not sure for them whether they need to provide their own gear or not, but in any case it must cost a similar amount of money to come over here. I recognize for myself, coming from an upper middle class family with enough money to pay the bills that thanks to the hard work of my parents, any opportunity that I want (or did want) to take, especially with regards to traveling, was achievable. Yet for many other people, this is not an option. Take, for example, scuba certification. Because Bonaire is supposedly diver's paradise, and I am currently not a certified diver, I was thinking about taking an open water certification course to participate in class and recreational dives that other students were doing. My roommate also happens to be non-scuba certified, but because of money issues (among other things), he is not considering getting scuba certified. Just the simple fact that I am able to begin to think about certification without having to worry as much about the money aspect just goes to show how much privilege myself and many of the other students come into the program with. It's really kind of scary to think about. What kinds of responsibilities do we have sas individuals to steward this money that we have? Especially as we get older and become independent financially from our parents, how can we spent our money wisely? Will it be solely for ourselves, or will it be for others? Will it be for the conservation of the environment around us? The choice is there for us.

On Sunday, I had a pretty lazy morning--I ended up waking up at 12, since there was nothing planned for us and I was pretty tired from that camping trip and everything that happened on Friday and Saturday. I spent most of the morning trying to complete homework (we actually have a ton of homework here--fieldwork reports, scientific readings, studying for pop quizzes--it's a legitimate science program). I had three scientific papers to read and understand, so I was in the house most of the afternoon trying to slog through that and get to a point where I could participate meaningfully in a conversation during class (or do well in a pop quiz...). At around 6 we headed out to an event called Taste of Bonaire in downtown Bonaire. If you've ever been to a "Taste of _____" event, it was the same as that. There were little stands in the main plaza area showcasing their work--arts and crafts, food, drinks, desserts. It was all there. And all supplemented by live performances by groups around Bonaire, which was really cool to see and experience. For dinner, I had goat stew from our CIEE chef, Gibi. It was really good--it tasted very similar to lamb which was quite interesting. Other people had iguana soup, which I was keen to try, but after seeing what it looked like (see picture below), I couldn't bring myself to try even the soup. Apparently it tasted like chicken noodle soup. We stayed around to see a couple of groups perform including an amazing drum group called Intense Brass. After they finished performing, we headed home to relax and chat.

(Taste of Bonaire!)

(A picturesque downtown Kralendijk)

(Iguana soup--they left in all the scales and claws!)

(About to try iguana soup...)

(Gibi's! His food is so good)

(Goat stew)

(Good food and good company)

(Intense brass--I wish I could upload a video but the video size is too large to upload to BLogger...)

Monday was a nice, relaxed class day. We didn't have class in the morning so I had a chance to review my notes and readings before class, but we did have class in the afternoon--a short two hour lecture, before heading out for a snorkel and dive. The snorkel team went to Lac Cai, on the tip of Lac Bay, to check out the mangroves and snorkel in the super warm and shallow waters to check out the invasive Halophila seagrass. There were some really cool things to see--juvenile fish around the mangrove roots, egg sacs for arthropods, and even some upside-down jellyfish. We are heading back there tomorrow for a kayak trip and another snorkel (and one of the intern's gopros!), so hopefully I will be able to take some photos and upload them here for you all to see. The dive team went to a dive site in the south of the island to go lionfish hunting. The lionfish is an extremely invasive fish in and around the Caribbean, and they have found that the most effective way of control for these species is simply removing them. So, a two teams went out to spear some lionfish. They ended up catching 7 total, and we are getting a chance to eat them soon! After coming back from the snorkel, we had a quick dinner, and I went to skype one of my friends and relax before heading to bed.