I left on Friday morning for a second field trip with the sixth graders—-This time we were going to Barbuda, the tropical paradise.
We left the port in St. Johns as a small group of two teachers, three students, and myself. Two of the students were brother and sister.
The ferry ride over was awful. The seas were high and wind was fierce. People were passing around trash bags and puking in them as if it was offering time at a church service. It was a long ride and I was very generous as well that day. Even still, when Barbuda came into view on the horizon, Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds began to play on the radio, and we all sang along in elation, relieved to have survived the two-hour thrill ride.
Our first stop on our venture into the island was Barbuda’s famed Frigate Bird Sanctuary, home to thousands the active creatures. We saw plenty of males puffing out their red gular pouches and fighting over the females.
It's mating season at Barbuda's Frigate Bird Sanctuary
After taking the boat back out of the lagoon we were in, called the Codrington Lagoon, we hopped in our touring van and took the only road in Barbuda (aside from the smaller ones in the village and at the resorts) to the only hill in Barbuda, which once was the site of a sulfur mine used to make gun powder for muskets and cannons. Also in that hill, are seaside coves. We climbed into one, up through it, and on to the top of the hill, which offered us a gorgeous view of the ocean.
After a brief moment on top, to absorb the view and take pictures, we loaded up back in the van and left for an old gun tower, which was a few miles away on the other side of the island. Next to the gun tower was one of Barbuda’s pink-sand beaches, a notable tourist attraction.
Ajani pulling tricks on the pink sand beach
Back at the townhouse we were staying in, I realized that I had left my playing cards at home, so I walked down the road to a bar to ask for some. The boys and I needed to get a game of Crazy Eights going.
The bartender had them, he just needed me to wait for a moment as he looked for them, during which time I sat down and had a conversation with two guys sitting just outside the door, next to the dominos table. After they learned I was a Peace Corps volunteer, they shared with me some of their wishes and concerns for the country. The conversation was brief, but I walked away from it with new insights into the usefulness and necessity of literacy work in Antigua. When I got back to Antigua, I had a renewed inspiration for the literacy outreach program I’ve been contemplating.
Our picnic beach
After our night of Sponge Bob and card games, we got up the next morning ready for our day at the beach. We spent the day looking for crabs, having a picnic, and playing cricket with a bat and backstop we fashioned out of a pieces of a broken fence.
The teachers had obligations in Barbuda, so it ended up just being myself and the three students returning on the ferry that day. We left in the early evening and the sea was calmer for the trip back.
Midway through the voyage, the sun was setting and a cool, relaxing breeze began to wash over us. As we were sitting in the back of the boat, moving up and down with the gentle waves of the ocean, time seemed to slow down, so I had plenty of it to think to myself. I reflected for a while on my decision to join the Peace Corps, and I then drifted into a deep mood of heart-felt contemplation. While the kids were falling asleep on both of my shoulders, I thought to myself, “This is what I signed up for—-and this is only the beginning.”
