Happy belated easter!

Hello Everyone,
Happy belated Easter! I know I haven't updated in a long time but I have just gotten back from a week long retreat on the isle of Erraid. A roughly one square foot island with eight full time inhabitants. The island is mainly self sufficient, so my class (there are 18 of us) spent our time there helping in the garden, chopping wood, making candles, helping them cook and one day we went on an island wide sheep round up! This sounds far more exciting than it actually was. What I pictured when I heard we were going on a sheep round up was a chaotic scene involving chasing sheep and stampeding sheep herds. What actually happened was we all lined up in a giant row (there were 38 people altogether) and walked across the island until we encircled the sheep. It was more like a leisurely stroll that happened to involve sheep.

More facts about our stay on Erraid: we drank rainwater, washed/showered in water from a peat bog, ate food that was grown there, our houses were heated by wood stoves, used composting toilets and some people had milk that was still warm from the cow! As a disclaimer, they did have electricity (for lights/fridges etc) that was provided by a nuclear power plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson (yes the author of treasure island) used the island of Erraid as the place for his novel, Kidnapped! The hero of the book David Balfour is shipwrecked and comes ashore on the south coast of Erraid at a sandy bay. (Stevenson's uncle built lighthouses and cottages on the island) So it was generally a fun week. It was basically our spring break as we had no academic work, just physical work. Pictures will be up shortly, no worries.

On Sunday I laid outside in the sun all day and ended up getting sunburn on my face! Since it was April Fools my house snuck into the boy's house and put logs in their beds. I realize that it doesn't sound funny, but it was slightly humorous Nobody did anything for April Fool's day and we decided around 11PM that we had to do something. At that point, logs were the best thing we could come up with.

Monday was the only day that we didn't have beautiful weather. I worked in the kitchen in the morning to help make lunch (I made flapjacks, exciting, I know) and in the afternoon I helped turn over a garden plot by pulling up the turf/grass.

Tuesday I don't remember. I think I worked in the Garden in the morning and took a nap in the afternoon?

Wednesday was the sheep round up. Don't worry I have pictures.

Thursday was our free day. Most of our group decided to take the ferry to Iona. The Island of Iona is the symbolic center of Scottish Christianity. In 563 AD Saint Columba landed there to establish a monastery and to convert Scotland and Northern England to Christianity. Iona is known as a place of learning and Christian mission spread throughout Europe and it has become a major site of pilgrimage. Several Kings have been buried there, including Macbeth. It was a very beautiful, holy and peaceful place. If the opportunity arises for me to go back there again, I'll do it.

Friday we cleaned up in the morning and hiked to a prayer pole that Tim had made earlier. We all wrote out a prayer and tied it to the pole. The idea is that future generations of FCS students will return to the pole and be able to read what we prayed for and also add their own prayers.

Erraid was also beautiful with white sand beaches, coves, and turquoise water. All the girls hiked to Balfour's Bay (named after the character in Kidnapped) and sunbathed and read and just relaxed. It was so surreal to be on a tropical looking beach then look over and see sheep grazing.

Saturday we came home.

The past few days have been pretty low key. I have a lot of academic stuff to do. This is a long update so I'll post more later. Thanks for bearing with me and this 'simply the facts' post!

xoxo