Teachers make most of summer vacation

Mr. Shane Rogers is an English teacher here at Channel Islands High school. During this past summer Rogers and his buddy took a two-week surf trip to Indonesia. Together they experienced surfing in warm, beautiful waves. They surfed in a chain of islands called, Telos island. These islands were a part of a bigger island called Sumatra.

In order for Rogers and his companion to reach their destination they both took four plane flights, one very long car ride and one overnight ferry ride.

During his trip Rogers experienced and tasted new things. He experienced a different toilet that required water to be poured into it for it to properly flush, and he also tasted very plain and simple fried food.

When asked if he would do it again, Rogers responded with “Yes, but not for a long period again. I would like to also do more family trips.”

Ms. Fatima Plascencia is also another CI teacher who enjoys traveling. Summer 2018 was a big summer for Plascencia as she and two of her friends planned a trip to Havana, Cuba. Plascencia was looking forward to a few grand things such as, being disconnected from the internet and living in the moment.

At the beginning of the trip, Plascencia and one of her friends left together and planned to meet their other friend once they all arrived in Cuba. As soon as both Plascencia and her friend arrived they took a taxi to go to the apartment where they were supposed to be staying at, but once they got to the building they saw that nobody was inside, so they thought that they had been scammed. They then decided to go and stay with a Cuban family. The family was very welcoming and made them dinner.

As Plascencia and her friend had no idea where their other friend was, they went and looked for her and couldn’t find her. After concluding that she must be safe and well since Cuba is very safe they decided that both of them would continue the trip in hopes of running into their other friend as well.

Both Plascencia and her friend then explored Cuba, Havana and went sightseeing and most importantly they got to see humility, solidarity, and very loving people despite the fact that they do not have much.

Plascencia would describe the people of Cuba as “proud, very humble, and some of the happiest people.” While staying at the welcoming family’s home Plascencia experienced some of the loving Cuban traditions. She was taught how to dance very differently than her traditional Mexican dances.

As Plascencia and her friend were getting closer to the end of their trip they were greeted by her other friend and immigration. They were shocked to see both their friend and immigration together and their friend then told them that she had filed a missing person’s report for the both, and that the FBI was looking for them in Mexico and the United States.

They were both all over social media and their families didn’t know what happened to them due to no connection being available, so their families were praying for them and thinking of the worst.

After Plascencia and her friend met their other friend, she then told them that she accidentally gave them the wrong address which explains why nobody was at the building and that she was searching for them anywhere and anyway she could.

To put an end to the wild hunt for Plascencia and her friend they then both went to visit their families to explain the fact that both were safe. As soon as Plascencia arrived in Mexico to see her family she entered her grandmother’s home and she saw her entire family gathered together. They were all praying with rosaries and they had the walls of the home lined with candles and when her family saw her they instantly felt relief rushing through them.

Although the trip ended very unpredictably it was still exciting from beginning to end. Plascencia plans to return to Cuba very soon and take things like school supplies or anything that would help the Cuban residents.

Out of the entire trip Plascencia would state that the best part was experiencing Cuban culture.

“Some of the happiest and optimistic people are Cuban people. In Cuba there is a saying that goes “En malos tiempos buena cara.” This saying means “In bad times keep a good face,” she said.