Hi everyone! For the past two weeks I have been on Shaw Island, one of Washington State's San Juan Islands. I stayed at Our Lady of the Rock Priory and helped out the nuns that live there. For the first week, there were several youth groups there. I stayed in tents with them. We worked on some big projects for the nuns, including bringing the hay in, building a green house, and making a bridge. Here are some pictures of what we did.
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| A sailboat I saw on the ferry ride to the island |
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| One of the San Juan Islands |
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| The ferry |
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| Another ferry |
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| The tent camp all the youth stayed in |
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| The chicken house we replaced the roof of |
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| The sign on the coop |
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| More chicken coop |
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| Hosea, the calf who likes to lick things, eat boots, and kick his soccer ball |
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| Llamas and Alpacas |
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| More llamas |
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| The sign "The garden of my God" the kids made for the herb garden |
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| A gate we made |
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| Inside the herb garden |
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| My work team (the girl in black is my friend Claire) |
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| The hay we brought in from the fields and stacked |
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| A cow I got to milk |
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| The koi pond |
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| the brick flooring and wooden arbor one of the groups made |
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| A greenhouse I helped build |
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| The front of the green house |
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| The cement mixer and buckets we used |
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| The construction site |
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| Fence post caps Claire and I put on |
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| A bridge we made |
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| A bench we built by a pond |
After the youth groups left, I moved out of the tent camp and into the house. There was a lot less work to do, and I mainly weeded the garden. Some other things I did were make mustard and pick lavender. I also had extra free time to explore the island. Three other people worked there as well; Alex, a young jazz pianist, Christina, a lawyer, and Mary, an older lady who is thinking about becoming a nun.
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| My room |
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| St. Joseph's, the house I stayed in |
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| The lavender we picked |
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| The lavender drying in the sun |
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| A bull |
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| The beautiful forest |
I had fun helping out on Shaw, and I highly recommend visiting the San Juan islands. I miss you all on the ship, but I am glad I came to the U.S this summer.
