K-Pasa

The view from the top of Angel Falls ... basejump anyone?!

Erin hard at work cleaning up Curacao!

What a great team!

Another great team!!!

Look at all the trash in the back of that truck!
No, no, not the kids! The back of the white truck!

K-Pasa is the local activity guide of Curacao - keeping us informed of the week's concerts, happy hours, tours, and special events. Here is our own version of K-Pasa:

Tuesday, September 9th
Back to School Night at the International School. Erin and I got to meet many of our students' parents, and were so happy to discover such a supportive and appreciative bunch. School continues to go really well, and we've really enjoyed our first few weeks as coaches.

Wednesday, September 10th
The surf was up on Curacao and I headed for Playa Kanoa to catch a few waves while Erin joined some of the ladies from School for Aqua-Jogging.

Thursday, September 11th
We spent a few moments in silence to remember the people directly affected by the terrorist attacks of 7 years ago, and then went on with our exceptionally busy schedule. I went straight from basketball practice to IB Night - a night to introduce the International Baccalaureate program to interested students and parents, and got to share a little bit about Theory of Knowledge - the IB course that I teach. I really love the course, and the entire IB program, and gave the parents and teachers a good taste of what the class is all about - it was a big hit!

Sunday, September 14th
Brievengat 2.5/5/10K Race. The race began at 6:30 a.m. and I would have had pictures of Erin crossing the finish line except I somehow got suckered into running the 10K and finished well after Erin. I'm gonna catch her one of these days!

Saturday, September 20th
International School of Curacao partners with Maduro and Curiel's Bank to help clean up the road to Playa Kanoa. A huge group of volunteers came out to gather the tons of trash, bottles, plastics, and old tires that are often dumped alongside the somewhat isolated road. The island's waste management company, Selikor, and a new recycling operation on the island, Curaplast, helped drag off the massive amount of waste that was collected. The cleanup was a huge success - the road looks a lot better, and kids of all ages could be heard asking the question, "Why would people do this?" We've got to believe the seed was planted for at least a couple protectors of the environment!
After the cleanup we hit the beach to celebrate one of our new friend's 30th Birthday. Carrie turned 30 and a group of teachers enjoyed some snorkeling and volleyball on the beach. We spent the afternoon and early hours of the evening simply relaxing - it was fantastic.
Once we came home we checked in our football teams: SMU suffered a big loss to TCU, but Vandy came out on top of Ole Miss, and continued making a statement. Vandy is 4-0 overall, and 2-0 in the SEC!!! Could this be the year??? Is Vandy finally gonna be bowl bound?!


We have a lot of adventures coming up soon ... Dan has his first basketball practice with a local team from the island, we have another race coming up next weekend, and the International School just started a dive club and we should get to do our first Night Dive to see the coral spawning - that oughta be interesting. In a couple of weeks we'll enjoy our first full week off since being on the island, and are all signed up for Windsurfing lessons! Be sure to check in and check out the photos of all of our adventures.

Last time we talked about our summer plans and the hopes of a trip to Ecuador! We're still looking for family and friends who would be interested in exploring that beautiful country; but now we're making plans for a shorter trip to Venezuela's Angel Falls right before our Christmas visitors arrive in Curacao. It's the world's tallest water fall, and we're hoping to check out the view from the top!