Ocracoke, Year 2: The Adventure Continues

Approaching the island on August 20, 2017 as I begin the second chapter of my Ocracoke adventure… you know you are there when you see the lighthouse! So now I am more than two weeks into the new year, and I am about to feel settled back into both the house and my classroom. But the sight of the lighthouse was preceded by a fully packed car

which, as days go by, I realize did not contain some things that would have come in really handy! Like a real raincoat. (See “storm” below!) Ocracoke School shirts. Somehow got here with only one. Dolphin Spirit Fridays will be a bit monotonous until I get back home to pick up some more!

Let’s not forget why I am here! Without the school, I would not be living on Ocracoke Island. I am the entire high school math department, with some outside help in the form of online opportunities for our students. There simply is not enough time in my day to teach all the courses our students need, so I teach the ones with the highest enrollment or the greatest need for a face-to-face teacher. My classroom is about 12′ X 15″ and this year sports newly refinished floors along with a strip on the outside wall that is all new, replacing wood damaged by hurricane waters. There is lots of technology available to us- Chrome Books for all the students, a laptop cart, SmartBoard. Lots of the technology across the state is supported by various grants. Unfortunately, schools (all across NC) have not been allocated funds for new textbooks in far too long and I do believe we need print media as well as technology and the internet. But that is another story for, perhaps, another day!

The first teacher workday of the year also happened to be the day of the solar eclipse. Ocracoke had about 90% of totality. Girl Scout that I am, I made three different viewers and was able to not only see the eclipse but also to take pictures of it with my cell phone inside my biggest box, a camera obscura! What fun! And then it was back inside to move furniture, unpack boxes, and start planning.

And now in the first two weeks, I have boarded the ferry for a couple of stocking-up trips to the grocery store and brief visits to a couple of other lighthouses.  The entire Outer Banks offer so much to see, so much beauty, so much history. I really need to take a week and spend it taking in everything that is there on the islands north of here!

And then there is another reality of life on a barrier island: the storms! Last week we had the threat of a tropical storm. The storm was never named and we did not even miss an hour of school, but still there was flooding. Enough flooding to remind us of the power that Mother Nature holds over us. (This flower pot was in my post last September after Tropical Storm Hermine passed through here three weeks after my arrival on the island. The water level rose to the very top of the pot then!) And this very night (9/6/17) we are all on alert as we wait to see what path Hurricane Irma will take. She is a huge and powerful storm and wherever she goes, her impact will be immense! As we watch and wait, we are aware of all the damage and suffering in Texas after Hurricane Harvey.

The beach. Ah, the beach! These impromptu trees, decorated over time by beachgoers, are such fun, so inspirational. This one has lasted longer than any I have seen so far. Just yesterday, a couple spent a long time (it seemed like a long time because I wanted to take a picture of the tree and the spot where the lifeguard stand stood beside it just the day before!) hanging a couple of shells and taking photos. And this little scene on the right shows the small but happy cluster of sun-and-sand-and surf-lovers hanging out at the lifeguarded part of the beach before the stand was removed at the end of Labor Day. And then a few hundred yards away, there is nothing but wide open space and an occasional walker like myself.

And of course there have been almost daily walks (sometimes more than one a day!) around the island and on the beach– hence the lovely view of Silver Lake Harbor. This is my time to think, reflect, pray. Wherever I am, as long as I am able, I will walk. But what a lovely place to do that during this time of my life.And at the end of the day…