On the island we met a youth leader, named Rahul, who was guiding some of the youth of the island to help protect their home and teach them about it at the same time. On Monday we met with him and he taught us about the different types of Mangroves and Coral on the island that we went to see the next day. Wednesday though was the most important day, because on Wednesday we carried out the painting of the house of an old musician with the help of the Kids under Rahool’s wing. But, before we started we played some games with the kids to get to know them better. The rest of the day we spent painting the house, cleaning up a nearby beach, and painting a meaningful mural for us to leave our mark on the island. Everything went well, even with the rain causing us to break for lunch and play some basketball with the kids, leaving us satisfied and happy by the end of the day.
Last week the year 11’s and 12’s went on their camps trip to Providencia and had a fun and educational time. It was most definitely a trip to remember even with our early mornings and hot weather. The first day after landing in San Andres we took a tour of the island on a Chiva Bus listening to the sound of rain and the speaker repeating “Waiting to the Bluetooth Connection” on repeat. The next day we got an early start to the long and grueling boat ride to Providencia, some of us had trouble coping with the sea sickness but we powered through. Once we arrived though, we were greeted with the beautiful island views and ocean breeze to relax our upset stomachs, as well as some fun and games on the beach near our hotel. The next day we took out going kayaking and snorkeling, seeing the dense Mangrove trees and all the coral that surrounds Providencia. Wednesday was the day we went to paint the house but more on that later. Thursday was one of the most challenging days of our entire trip, we started the day off with a nice boat tour of the island where we stopped at several beaches around the island, but in the afternoon was our hike up to the highest peak on the island, with logical name of “The Peak”. Our climb up was hot and challenging but rewarded us with a great view of the entire island, but on the way down we ran into some trouble because it started to get dark, though with the help of some flashlights and phones everyone made it down in one piece. Finally on Friday we spent the morning reflecting on our trip, then making the long journey back home taking us all the way into Saturday morning.
One of the main goals of our trip there was to leave as little of a footprint as possible, and help clean up the island. Throughout our trip we made sure that any trash we created we kept and took back to Bogota due to the fact that any trash on the island will have to be shipped off because there is no space on the island for a proper landfill. Also during our several excursions throughout the island we made sure to pick up any trash we found, though on Tuesday when we went kayaking we cleaned up one of the beaches there where we left with around 15 trash bags.
-Breyton