It's a Bahamian thing, mon

Some updates from the field: Bahamian time has started to become the bane of our existence as we really attempt to get our project off the ground and running. It's that relaxed, island time mentality that's clashing with our U.S. sense of urgency, but can anyone blame us that we want to arrive on time (and even early) to the survey sessions that we've scheduled? Meetings with stakeholders that should take 30 minutes at most end up lasting over 2 hrs because of tangents and long-winded stories. I'm definitely going to have to learn to let it go and accept the fact that things aren't done very snappy here.

The list of things to go into our limitation section definitely keeps growing. If it even looks like it's going to rain (which it has practically everyday this week, we are in the rainy season after all) then people will not show up to any meeting that you may have scheduled. Every rain is the first rain here it seems, ironic since we are on an island that's all too familiar with hurricanes. Literacy is also an issue which we've tried to solve by offering to read surveys if the lady happened to "leave her reading glasses at home." It's worked really well and has increased the completeness of our surveys tremendously. Next hurdle to tackle is to make sure that everyone is taking their surveys by themselves; I've seen way too many surveys with the exact same answers as I've imputed the data for comfort.

From the Caribbean (left) to the Atlantic (right)

Last week/this past weekend we did about 3 beach days in a row; our sunburns were an indication that we should probably take a few days off. I already feel like I'm much browner than normal, and I've certainly gone to the beach more in the 2 weeks here than in an entire year back home (terribly sad). We visited the Glass Window Bridge, the thinnest strip of land in the world, where on one side you see the Caribbean and on the other, the darker blue of the Atlantic.