Good-bye for the summer!

Just some parting shots from Costa Rica as I prepare to disappear for the month of July. Clearly they had a great time white water rafting. I love the reflection of Frances (aka "Frannie") in the bus window.

Emma and Lenore are a couple of budding botanists, while Tyson looks ready for a hard day's work. Many wonderful memories!

Thanks to all for a memorable and exciting school year. I would love to give you a photographic year in review, but my time has run out. I will turn into a pumpkin in exactly 5 minutes! I hope you all have a great, relaxing, restful, and fun-filled summer. Please remember to read A Home on the Field. Elise has already talked with author Paul Cuadros about a visit to the Upper School in the fall. He sounds very excited about this opportunity. We want to impress him with our knowledge! (Parents, I'm hoping that you will read this book as well and discuss it with your children.) Take care and be safe. This is Carrie signing off for now.

(Hey Alison! See you in August.)

June 16, 2009

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy graduating 40 beautiful seniors! We then had a week of staff meetings and are now filling our time with End-of-Year report writing. I did, however, have a few more End-of-Year experience photos to share. Above, you can see the leader of the west trip, Bob, in his strong leadership position. (At least Liz is doing something to keep the canoe moving forward!) Below, Bob's group as they are about to get on the river for 5 days. As Susannah said in her evaluation, "I feel like the West Trip is a lot more about personal growth than anything else. Other trips have encouraged group bonding and service, but this trip was more about learning about myself. The challenges were more personal and being in the canyons offered many opportunities for personal reflection. I thought a lot about transitioning out of high school and into college."

Esther wrote: "Backpacking was amazing, a very solitary experience of just plodding along in your own world. It wasn't too hot and the canyon was beautiful. It was nice to be able to walk and think, to just let your mind wander.

The bottom three shots are of Susan's Civil Rights group. You can see the whole group on a ferry trip in Gee's Bend, home of the famous Gee's Bend quilters. Below, Alison and I are at the Civil Rights Museum in Burmingham, and Molly is at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Atlanta.

More quotes from Bob's kids...

Josh: "My favorite moment was running up the final slope of Dominguez Canyon looking down at the river singing the 'Rocky' theme music."

Ben: "I loved waking up in the night and seeing all the stars and Milky Way. More than that, I liked not having to care what time it was, what day it was. Everything just sort of flowed. We were on our own time in the desert, and that's a great thing."

Erin: "Being out west in such a demanding and open environment asks for a lot of effort from people. At times, it can be easy to let things get you down and learning to cope with that is important. It is extremely meaningful to have the opportunity to escape society for a while and just allow yourself to actually think."

Colin: "When I first signed up for the West Trip, it was for the adventure. Now that it's done, I have much more than that. The ability to work in a group of the same people for two weeks was a great challenge, and we met the challenge. There are many times that the need to put the group ahead of one's self comes up in life, and this trip helped us see that. Also, the geology and astronomy were awesome!"

Who could ask for more. Out of the classroom--into the world.

EOY updates May 28, 2009

A game of soccer at Maracas Bay in Trinidad. Beautiful pink flowers growing out of a stone wall at the monastery. I talked with Jamie this morning. All is well as the group headed out for a day of service.

Very important and necessary on-campus work is being done by Ken and Rob's groups. Ken has a painting crew. They have painted Ken's and Rob's rooms and have moved on to the computer lab, which was in bad need of a new coat of paint. Here, you can see Monsieur Ken at work, and then Xin and Xiaona painting the computer lab. Meanwhile, Rob's group is cleaning out the attic.
You can't believe what they are finding. David is holding paper bags from the CFS Craft Fair, which they stopped having 20 years ago! Graham is holding one of the old adding machines that were found. He also found a great (and really old!) typewriter that he is taking home with him. Sherri's group is doing local service at Welcome Baby in downtown Durham. They are helping to fold and stuff 9,000 newsletters that get sent every other month. Sherri and her group are getting cross-eyed as they do this tedious, important, and very much appreciated work.

LITHUANIA

Here is a note from CFS grad and co-leader, Will Gordon:

All is well, we are currently in Juodkrante, a seaside town on the Baltic Coast. We just got back from a walk through the forest to the seafront. It has been a blur thus far, all in all things are going great. I think it has been a memorable trip for all the students. Certainly lots of 'new' things to see and try. I think the highlight of the trip thus far was a flight in a hot air balloon floating over Kaunas yesterday at dusk. Nine of twelve students flew. It was really amazing. And the night before, on monday, we had a meal at a traditional lithuanian food restaurant. We hosted seven local lithuanian high school students, as well as two other lithuanians, and it was great for the CFS kids to get to meet 'local' kids. I think it personalized the experience for many of them. Apparently there is a 'Pop Music Festival' in the small fishing village we'll be visiting tomorrow. Gonna check that out.

Each year, the End of Year experiences are fun, exhausting, life-changing, important, emotional, educational, astounding, inspirational, and unforgettable. This year is no different.

EOY Update from CFS May 27, 2009

Trinidad:

We began Monday evening by holding baby leatherback turtles before we headed to the beach at dark. Here are Molly, Gustavo, Chloe, and Jonas petting a mother leatherback as she lays her eggs. What an amazing experience! Earlier on Monday, we took at 3.5 mile hike to the water falls (above), swam for a good while, then hiked back. One incredible experience after another.

Two group pictures: The Trinidad group dressed in their Sunday best right after going to the church service and the Costa Rica group with Melody Blackmore (Asher's sister and Frances's co-leader.) The Costa Rica group had a wonderful white-water rafting experience and then headed to Las Cruces. They have been working on a gardening project, gone on nighttime nature hikes, and played lots of soccer.

Dave reports that the Adirondacks trip is doing well. They went on an overnight canoe trip. They started at Square Pond, crossed under the bridge to Follensby Clear Pond, and portaged to Polliwog Pond where they spent the night. The next morning, they portaged to Middle Pond, then went up creek to Floodwood Pond, and then down another connecting creek to Little Square Pond. (This definitely sounds like a Dave Worden trip!) As to food, they have been "throwing all sorts of things on the large cast iron griddle over the fire...french toast, pancakes, eggs, and potatoes." They went on a 5-hour kayak trip from Stony Pond through Stony Creek and down the Raquette River almost to the village of Tupper Lake. They will do more kayaking in the next few days.

The Civil Rights trip to Alabama sounds truly amazing. The group was written up in the Selma Times-Journal (May 25). The article talked about the group wanting to "engage in honest discussions about race with residents from a city in the Deep South that witnessed some of the most dramatic events of the Civil Rights movement." The kids and Susan will show Selma residents how they see the history of Selma through 2 documentaries that were created by Travis Rexrode and Susan at the Everyman Book Store in Selma on Thursday night. They are also working on another documentary throughout this educational trip.

I spoke briefly with Jon Lepofsky who is in Newton Grove with the freshmen. He reports that all is well. Last night, the group visited their first migrant camp and played soccer with the farmworkers. Visiting the camp brought about strong feelings in the kids that they were able to share during their nightly silent meeting. Father Tony and Pastor Doug, the leaders of the Episcopal Farmworkers Minestry, did a presentation to the kids today to explain the important work they do and talk about what our ongoing involvement means to them. Work at the Head Start facilities is going well, and the cooks are doing a great job in the kitchen! I believe they are planning a talent show tomorrow night and a freshman prom on Friday or Saturday.

That's all for now. I'm having a hard time transitioning back to Durham from Trinidad. I miss the group, the view, the food, and the warm and wonderful Trinidadians. More to come...

May 21, 2009 From Cyril Ross Nursery, Trinidad

I told the kids that I wanted to include a picture of everybody, so their parents would know that they were safe in Trinidad.  As you can see, they are all very sad to be missing their parents and home!  At the moment, I am at Cyril Ross Nursery (the orphanage) with a hard working group.  We are painting, painting, painting!  This will be my last day for a while that I will have any contact with a computer, so you won't hear from me again before next Wednesday.
Beautiful flowers everywhere.  The dry season has been rather wet this year, so everything is green and colorful.  The birds are amazing.  As we sit together for breakfast every morning, we look out over the little town of Tunapuna and watch the clouds roll by.  Pretty wonderful!


Above (possibly), you can see Gustavo and Dan as they work in Madonna's office.  Madonna is the manager and head honcho of the nursery.  She is so happy with her new office!  Then you can see a group painting the wash room--some of our students along with some kids from the nursery.  There is also a picture of Kathryn having her hair "designed" by little Chelsea.  We are not allowed to take any pictures of the beautiful faces of the children.

One of the very talented and artistic girls did Molly's hair one afternoon.  She taught herself to braid like this and did it very quickly.  

We will stop work early today, at about 2:30 for a special event.  There is some kind of big sporting event at the University of the West Indies.  We are calling it the Caribbean Olympics.  Athletes from Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other countries will compete for 10 days in a variety of contests.  Tonight is the opening ceremony.  We will be the guests of the organizer.  Then we will stay for the first basketball game.  Tomorrow we head to the beach.  On Saturday evening, we will take part in the Astronomy Association's monthly meeting.  Many telescopes will be on the mountain and we will have quite a view.  Needless to say, every day is nothing short of amazing and we are all blessed to be sharing this experience together.  We can't wait for Mike to join us on Saturday night!

I'm sorry that I will be out of touch for a few days.  If you are following this blog, I'll see you on Wednesday--hopefully with news from other groups.  The sign on the wall next to me says "Every Child Deserves to Smile!"

May 19, 2009 From Trinidad

Jamie is holding court after dinner at the monastery. Chloe, Leia, Rosie, and Hannah look great after a hard day's work
Ah, yes, the fire tower. You don't suppose any of our kids actually climbed up that thing? No way! Here's a shot of some of our students below one of the buildings at the monastery. Hey Tony--Where are you going?!


After a short night's sleep and a long day's work, somebody actually got tired enough to fall asleep in the middle of all the activity at the orphanage! You can see some of our students playing soccer with the kids. Samantha and Sarah worked hard to organize books in the library.


Kathryn and Molly worked with one of the kids to install tile in the girls' bathroom. The large photo at the bottom is just some of the artwork by Marcus, one of the kids. He is 14 years old and an amazing artist. His work is everywhere!













Day 2 and we are hard at work. Gus and I are back at the Cyril Ross Nursery with group B, while Jamie is at Habitat with group A. Yesterday, the Habitat group worked at a church. They built a table that will be used for bending rebar. They built forms for cement and cut lots of rebar. Today at the nursery, we mounted 8 fans on various cement walls, tiled a bathroom, fixed a broken swing, and started a big painting job. Last night after a delicious dinner, we held a meeting to talk about why we are here. We spent a long time outside, singing, playing guitar, hula hooping, and enjoying the amazing sparkling lights below us in Tunapuna. I feel so blessed to be able to share this experience with this amazing group of students. More to come...

May 18, 2009 from Trinidad

I am writing to you from the Cyril Ross Nursery. I'm sorry, but I forgot to bring my camera connection with me today. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to include some pictures. We had a very long day yesterday and finally arrived at the monastery at about 2:00am. The trip up to the top of the mountain in the pitch black with the lights of Tunapuna below was both scary and exhilarating. Adrian and his staff had a light snack waiting for us when we arrived. The view is absolutely breathtaking from the top of the mountain, as Jamie and Elise had promised it would be. We were all in bed by 3:00am and up at 7:00 this morning.

After a breakfast of cereal, peanut butter and jelly, and yummy watermelon, we split into work groups and headed out for the day. Jamie took Group B to work for Habitat. We will not see them until the end of the day. Gus and I are with the A group at the nursery. We have toured the grounds and now have a list of important jobs to do. We will paint the office of the woman in charge--a soothing light orange. We are replacing broken tiles in the girls bathroom, replacing missing glass louvers in the upstairs windows, and building cabinet doors. One of our biggest jobs will be to install wall fans in many of the rooms. Michael has jumped in as our handy measurer! (The computer tells me this isn't a work, but I assure you it is.) At the moment, Samantha, Sarah, Tony, Dan, and Rosie are organizing the "library." Hundreds of books in random stacks and shelves waiting for some organization. It's a big job. The second library is awaiting the same kind of help upstairs.

There are only 2 children in the nursery during the day because most of them are at school. Leia is spending a lot of time with little Kelsey who is enjoying telling our kids what to do. Little Sean has gone to bed for a nap. Gus has taken off with Jonas, Tessa, and Michael in search of the hardware store and some tools. We will eat lunch at the nursery and are looking forward to Trinidadian food. We are looking forward to spending time with the other children after they get home from school.

After such little sleep last night, we are hoping for a good night's sleep tonight. We feel so blessed to be here in this beautiful country and doing this imortant work. Our students have been wonderful--helpful in any way possible and no complaints...even with a very long day of travel.

More to come...