Day 12 - To Waste or Not To Waste...

Today there was another 6:15 wake-up call this morning, courtesy of Wes' and Jenny’s alarms. We all rose from our seemingly more comfortable beds (ever since the camping experience) and began our day. Instead of morning exercise we gathered on the beach early enough to watch the sun rise. We spent a couple silent minutes admiring the crash of the waves as well as the orange sun slowly rising over the blue horizon. One of our guides, Scott, separated us into 2 groups for some fun activities. This included the “Human Knot” activity. Although not always solvable the Human Knot exercise encouraged us to communicate with each other and work as a team to untangle ourselves. After a few more communication activities we sat on the beach to discuss our Down Island Camping experience and talk about our economical and environmental impacts on the local areas we visited.

            After a hearty breakfast of grits, eggs, toast, corn beef, and (in Ben’s case) a lot o grapefruit we started our academic filled day. Sam, a waste expert at the Island School, taught us about human and material waste. We even looked at the Bio-Digester at the Island School to learn how the system creates fertilizer from human waster. In order to get our energy up Sam also worked in an exercise. We all did squats for one minute and calculated how much energy we created. One squats creates roughly 1 watt of energy. Brian, Zack, and Ben created enough joint energy to power a fluorescent light bulb for 8 minutes and 26 seconds. This was the perfect transition into our next class on energy. Matt, an energy expert and engineer at the Island School, taught us about the daily human energy use and also about solar panels.

            The lunch of pasta, peas, and bread kept us full and focused during our next class about transportation. Scott had us think about the different things needed for transportation (materials, energy, etc.) and issues surrounding the topic. We talked about some solutions the Island School has to these problems and were broken into smaller groups to come up with ways Cleveland could gain “green” transportation. The groups were given an hour to go wherever they wanted to read about urban transportation and think of ways Cleveland could have more convenient transportation but in a green way. While recreating our city we saw four bull sharks at the marina! They were huge but very cool (especially because we weren't in the water with them).

            There were a few new activities to explore during free time. Chris Maxi led a group in a Run-Swim. Max Pollock, Jenny, and Lucky the dog all participated in the optional exercise. Some others joined Serena, our other guide, in the orchard to pick plants to make bush tea. Whatever activity was chosen the mosquitoes followed. It’s safe to say that Courtney is the most popular with the mosquitoes.

            After a quick meeting, a cacique hand off to Liz, and a scrumptious mash potatoes and ham dinner we all hurried back to the Octagon classroom for a presentation by a visiting green architect. No surprise that after the mentally exhausting day everyone went straight to bed as soon as possible.

-Rachel