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Location: Road Town, Tortola
Today I woke everyone up at 6:45. We gathered together an anchor crew and set sail for the place we started our trip, West End. As I steered the boat into the dock it made me realize that our trip is almost over, we had made a full loop around the island of Tortola. Once we had docked we hopped into a taxi. The taxi was filled with locals who were laughing and having a great time with each other. The taxi ride felt like a roller coaster with amazing views of the BVI’s. We went speeding up and down the hills and around tight corners. I have only seen one speed limit sign so far.
We arrived an hour later at YEP, Youth Empowerment Project, which is an after-school and summer program for children. The children have the opportunity to cook, have computer classes, play sports on an awesome sport court and do arts and crafts. The Lifeworkers were split up into three groups along with the children. My group started out playing sports. We played basketball and volleyball in the extreme heat. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids because they had so much energy! We even did fake dunk shots which was pretty funny. Then we moved on to face painting. First my buddy, who was a ten year old boy, painted my face. I told him he could paint whatever he wanted. I ended up with a hot pink face with random black lines. Then I painted his face like a lion as he requested. After the morning activities we had a lunch break. Our next activity was changed from making pizza to being outside again. It was afternoon and the sun was very strong but a little boy named Seoan showed us a vending machine for cold water. We continued playing basketball and soccer till it was time to leave. It was very sweet at the end when the children wanted us to stay. We hopped into the taxi and went back to the boat which Torin moved to Road Town. After a short dingy ride out to the boat we cleaned up and headed into Road town for some shore time.
Maryam, Tiffany and I went to Pussers for a virgin Pina Colada which we decided were one of the best so far. After we finished our drinks we headed to the food store to buy some food for snacks. A highlight of the day was after shore time when we got to take real fresh water showers at a place called the Baths at the Sunsail base where we rent to boat. Torin treated us to dinner at a local restaurant. We had chicken, vegetables and goat Roti. Everyone loved them and was very pleased. The restaurant also made homemade hot sauce that is so hot it has been known to hospitalize people. Fortunately everyone survived the crazy sauce. Overall it was a great day! The children were very entertaining and it was cool to get to know Road Town a little better.