In November we had a few different tings going on. Butter Nuts – as seen in the 2 pictures below, were falling from the tree. Courtney found this one, we actually didn’t eat it probably out of pure laziness. You take the little nut out of its fleshy caseing and you boil them. They taste almost like potatoes. You just have to squeeze them out of their soft brown shell.
The kids, and the drd. We’ve tried the coconuts in all stages, jelly, soft, and then firm. All of us like them firm, the older coconuts, because the milk and coconut is nice and sweet. We don’t like the bitter milk from the green ones. So we usually let the coconuts get brown and ugly before we crack them open. But if we want a lot of juice to make some smoothies, where you don’t taste the milk but get all of the nutrients, we open younger ones because the heave a ton of milk.
Todd and his main fishing boys. The addiction has spread. Todd got these fellas, Joel and Saad lov’in the spearfishing too. This night Todd took them out to get a bunch of lobsters, I think Todd said he caught pretty much everyone but they all have fun together with their fancy underwater night lights where you can see them a longs ways off underwater. The picture of Todd with the fish is currently not his biggest fish but at the time it was.
Off to the swim Meet! The kids have never participated in any sort of swim competition, and honestly never really trained for it but they really wanted to participate! So we spend all of Statia Day, November 16th, at the swim pool watching the kids do their thing. Todd volunteered to be one of the timers. So he was busy doing that but was still able to watch the kids swim. I loved it! Cheering them on and seeing how proud they were of themselves. It was fun to have some of their little friends there as well lending their support! Courtney swam more that day then I had ever seen in her life. Swimming 25 meters and then 50 meters over and over! Front crawl, back crawl, breast stroke, relay’s, and all the different length categories. Of course Jase and Katie did fantastic as well. Jase even did a 50 meter butterfly and has never done it ever in his life. We just gave him a general idea and he did it. It was tough but we were all quite impressed, even the swim coach Jeremy. Jeremy kept asking and telling us we need to put our kids on a swim team because they are all really great swimmers and could do really well.
I almost completely forgot one of the funniest parts of the day! When the announcer was calling the kid's name to go to their numbered block he kept calling Jase "Jose" - Hosay - because there are a lot of Latino kids around so it wouldn't be uncommon to have a Jose or two in the swim meet - but jase was the only Jose there. So unfortunately he missed a few races when they were calling him Jose because we had no idea the announcer meant him. So for the remainder of the meet for fun we were calling him Jose!
On to the metal presentations. I figure there were about 40 kids participating and each of the kids got at least metal, and our kids made off like bandits! Katie got 4, Jase got 2 and Courtney got 2. T the end of the metal ceremony Jeremy was giving metals to the kids who didn’t get any. Courtney was one of them. She was old enough to realiae that her name was never being called to the podium, and she has swam her heart out against 9 year old girls. But eventually she got her chance and stood on the #1 spot for her picture! You can see the red around her eyes from crying – But I think the end result made her day! They all did such a wonderful job, we were so proud of them and it wouldn’t have even been an event without Coach Jeremy!
I had a primary party at my house to get ready for their primary presentation. Time was running out to have their primary presentation and a couple of the girls were asking me about doing one. So long story short I put together a presentation and these are pictures of our practice party. These are the primary kids of Statia as of mid December 2011.
More swimming except its in the rain! The rain use to feel warmer to me when we first got here, now it just feels cold. But the kids still don’t seem to mind and here they are having some fun in the crazy rain that wouldn’t stop coming. You can see our pool getting close to the top. I thought for sure the front of our yard was going to fill and then poor into the house. It was just and inch away from doing so!
Thanksgiving in November! It was so nice to have some American friends – Debbie, Jose, and kids, to have a wonderful American Thanksgiving at their home. I was definitely not motivated enough to do anything in October so we were ‘thankful’ for friends who were for November. Good food, good friends, we had a great time and the kids did too, jumping in the bouncy house!
Of course with Christmas coming, it wouldn’t be the same without our little Statia Tree! Back living in Magrath we once had a paper tree so we are very lucky to have this cute little one. We used it last year, bought at Duggins, and we have one more year to use it after this one! Its just perfect and is decorated by the kids choice of decor. Home made, store bought, and from bits of Christmas crafts they’ve made last year at the Family & Youth Centre.
Here in the Netherlands they celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas. He is one of the sources of our Holiday figure Santa Claus in North America. I didn’t know that. His arrival is celebrated on December 5th (the eve) or early morning of the 6th. He did come to Statia, but unfortunately wasn’t very advertised so we didn’t even know about it, and there were few people that did know. Which is too bad because they had a while bunch of stuff for everyone. He is an old man with a long white beard, he wears a red cape over a traditional bishop’s alb (like a long sleeved long dress thing), he holds a gold colored staff (crosier – small and handheld, about a foot or two long), a long ceremonial shepherd’s staff with a fancy curl top, and a ruby ring. He has a book he carries to tell him if a child is naughty or nice. His helper, servant, is called Zwarte Piet – a direct translation being Black Pete. A black adolescent with black curly hair, dressed up like a 17-th century page in a colourful dress, often with a lace collar, and donning a feathered cap. They carry bags of candy for the good kids and a chimney sweep broom made of willow branches to spank the naughty children! (that’s what it said in Wikipedia – I don’t remember see that! But I wouldn’t put it past)
So the kids of course have heard about the Sinterklaas tradition from their dutch friends who leave out a shoe by the door with a healthy snack in it for Sinterklaas’s horse (white horse) which he rides into town. Put out some water for the horse and some cookies for Sinterklaas. They do this for 5 nights. Jase, Katie & Courtney did this for two nights. But the trick is you have to be Dutch and you have to be able to sing the special Dutch song to call Sinterklaas to your house! But the kids have it down pat ever with the ‘gagging throat’ accent and everything! They really are very good, we’ve recorded the event! This is the version they were taught by Niz & Zay Vos and the translation.
Sinterklaas, kapoentje
Gooi wat in mijn schoentje,
Breng wat in mijn laarsje,
Dank je Sinterklaasje
Nicolas, Capon (Capon - tradition in the song, but in this case alludes to a ‘flying bird’)
Throw something in my shoe,
Bring some of my boot,
Thank you Sinterklaasje
With Mrs. Vos’ help – Anike – Sinterklaas even left something at Anike house for Jase, Katie & Courtney!
It was really fun to bring in some of the local traditions to our home – after all we are living in the Netherlands!
So after a year of grilling work Todd graduated with his Pre-Medical courses!! He did an amazing job, studied hard, and passed with remarkable scores.
9 classes with Honors
6 classes with High Pass
3 classes with Pass
And in order to just pass you need to have at the very least 70%. Not bad for an old guy how hasn’t been to school for over 15 years. This is Todd with Mrs Alexander handing him his paper, a sweet sweet lady who adores Todd and our family. We’ve visited with them, Mr. and Mrs, Alexander, on different occasions exchanging fruit, music and friendship.
A couple other stories to go along with this night, we found out earlier that day that Todd was graduating but we had no idea if I was invited or the kids; organization is a bit of a struggle here. 15 minutes before it starts Saad, Todds friend, comes driving up to tell me that they have a seat for just me to be there for Todd graduation. I was concerned about just ditching the kids, but they have been home alone – pretty much at that age, so I got out of my sweatpants threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera and walked in just as they were calling Todd’s name and got these pictures. I was disappointed that things weren’t organized enough for the kids to see all of their Daddy’s hard work being awarded that night, but I am thankful that at least I was able to make it.
As it turned out Todd was asked to serve food to all the graduates – including him! However students who were not even invited were helping themselves to huge plates full of food!! Todd didn’t even get any of his graduation dinner!! A plate full of salad is all he got. It was very disappointing to have those students just come and take what food they wanted with no concern for those who earned it. The organization had a little bit to do with it as well, but more than that its just common courtesy to let those who earned it eat their food!! You would definitely expect more from future doctors!!
And here is a picture of the newspaper clipping from ‘The Daily Herald’ servicing St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Anguilla, Saba, Nevis & St. Kitts. You can barely see the top of Todds head behind all the Medical graduates. He was one of three pre-med graduates. Our friend Sherifah being one of the others! (The cute girl with the white head cover)
A few random stories:
When we first go to the island Todd and I were walking down behind and past the Smoke Alley restaurant looking around for some cool old stuff and Todd found a cannon ball! Yes an old shot and fired cannon ball corroded by time and covered in some hard ocean barnacles. I didn't have my camera so we never got a picture, and we never got to bring it home because the archeologist happened to be walking by giving a meeting tour to some off Islanders and he took it for number it and put it in a box somewhere. Bummer! Todd actually found another cannon ball their earlier, a bigger one and I can't remember what happened to that one either. Would have been nice to have at least gotten a picture. He also found a little chain of bayonet balls which he gave to Tony and Leontine to put in their glass display case. Didn't ge a picture of those either!! But hopefully I can get one of them before we leave the island in April 2013.
When the kids are at school and some kid makes a stink they don't say "ahhh... who farted!" They say "Ahhh... who poop!" (The kids think this is hilarious!
In our house we get a lot of rats. We go through stints where we don't have any come in because we kill the last tenant and wait for the next one to realize how easy it is to get into our place. Some nights we hear one who has snuck through all of our pathetic security measures, you'd really have to see our house to understand its just a welcome mat, and we go out for the chase. I hate it when I'm home alone with one of them in there - its just creepy, but make me soooo mad! We get brooms, bats, and once I tried to stab one with Todd's Hawaiian sling. This one night we were trying to chase this one huge rat out. Todd was chasing it my way, I was so mad I stomped on it. I got his back honches and realized, as he was turning his head back, that he could bite me so I quickly picked my foot up and off he ran. Stupid Rat!
Another one of Todds scooters was stolen. This time the whole thing disappeared from the school. The local guys who steal them just pick them up and chop them up for parts. There's no way getting it back and no insurance here will cover theft. No wonder! But he's got a new street bike coming from the States, one that will not be wanted for parts.
