End of May Beginning of June - 2012

If you are someone interested in attending the Sint Eustatius School of Medicine and have been reading our blog for information about the school and island use the link below to apply.

https://www.applyweb.com/apply/eumed/

Please use my husband, Todd Erickson, as a reference.

We get a credit credit for every person who decides to attend using us as a reference.

 Thank you.  :)

After Todd’s exams in May we went for a little outing together to Zeelandia Beach.  Its always a great time after exams to just be together as a family.  There really isn’t a lot of time during studying to be together.  Its been a hard couple of years so far at different times but we are still chugging along.  There was only a 2 week break between the Jan - April term and the May – August term which was extremely hard, especially for Todd, just being mentally worn out – but it will be worth it in the end.  That’s what we keep saying anyway ;)

So Zeelandia – together and with all 3 dogs!  You can see one hiding in the picture in front of Todd.

Courtney Jumping and going for a swim in her clothes!

Todd and Jase were determined to open a coconut that had drifted onto the island from the ocean.  They opened a few different nuts that could have floated there from St. Maarten, Anguilla, or even Africa – who knows!  There have been huge hunks of tree that has floated here all the way from Africa! There was one that wasn’t too bad and the dogs ate it, but the rest were rotted, and had the most putrescent smell!  But it was fun for them to do together anyway, as long as you didn’t get to big of a whiff!

Katie having some fun and doing cartwheels!

Jase and Dusty

It’s always great when you can go as a family and find a place to hang out and ‘get away’ with no other distractions or people. – That’s hard to do sometimes on this little 8 square mile island.

On a Sunday afternoon the kids and I went for a walk to Round Hill!  It’s a beautiful lookout spot, and we took some pictures for fun!  I just realized I never took any of the view!  Next time!

Jase took this first picture!

This next picture is of  a Yummy Dutch chocolate drink!  The kids don’t really like it very much, but I really like it!  It not your typical ‘American’ chocolate milk, it’s a real chocolate drink.  The only thing I can suggest it trying one!

Happy birthday to Todd!  This is the only picture I have of his b-day.  It was a come home for lunch sort of b-day with the kids.  Not a lots of time with the life of a student here but Todd and I did go out to dinner which was nice.  Here is opening the little gifts the kids made for him, including a fantastic party hat!!

Toward the end of the last days of Katies school year they had an Olympic sports day to commemorate the Olympics happening in the UK this summer.  It was a lot of fun being able to go and watch the kids run, throw balls, kick balls, skip and just have a great time together!  They made it into a mini competition and Katie was the Olympic champion of the elementary kids of the terminal school!  She thought it was pretty awesome!

All the elementary Kids from Left to Right:

Xavier, Azaria, Sarah, Jasper, and Katie

That same morning Dusty has to go to the Vet for shots!  He was a little stinker and clawed the heck out of my neck, but my friend Debbie volunteers there and was great to have her there! I thought it was something fun to document! 

With another year under their belts Jase and Katie graduated from Junior Rangers 2 with a fun end of the year BBQ.  They have learned some amazing things about this island, its wild life, marine life, plant life, history, and have enjoyed many fun activities with STENAPA volunteers and with Hannah Madden heading it all.  It was another fantastic year!  And with finishing JR. Rangers 2 they were given a free Discover Scuba dive with Golden Rock Dive Centre – one of the 2 dive centers on the island!  They are SUPER excited about that!

  

 

So if you remember last year I posted pictures of these giant yellow and black poisonous caterpillars, well this is the type of moth it will turn into.  This is not one of the biggest ones we’ve seen but it was caught on our rattrap so I pulled it off to get a picture of it.  They are pretty

Katie finished school one whole month before Jase and Courtney.  One lucky girl!  And with that, one pretty awesome last day of school! Water slides, water balloons, good food, fun teachers and friends!!

Water Balloons – Matt protecting Tr. Hilda from Katies fierce attack!

Katie with some of the best teachers ever!!  First Tr. Hilda – Katie’s classroom teacher, then Tr. Victoria, and then Tr. Joanna – the principle – Love these Teachers!!  Thanks again for a wonderful year!

Thanks to Carolyn – the fiancé of another University Student – we heard of an opportunity to do a little bit of a service project for the island! It was hot and sweaty but so worth it in the end.  Hopefully if the plants live we will have something to come back to – if we come back for a visit ever – to say; “hey we planted that.”  There were a couple local volunteers, STENAPA, a few other volunteers and us.

These first 5 pictures are from Carolyn!  Thanks Carolyn!

And the rest -

The tree Courtney and Katie have measured themselves up against to see how big the tree will grow!

We found a cocoon in one of the pots.  It was the weirdest things.  It wiggled back and forth like a worm of sorts in its shell. Katie was brave enough to pick it up, gross!  J

This isn’t all of the volunteers but everyone I could get into the picture. Left to Right: Matt, Katie, Carolyn, Courtney, Claire, Jase and Me.  (Locals not pictured – Man from the meat market – got to get his name, and Emrol.)

We were working so hard we were prepared to jump in the ocean right after we were done!!  Now every time we drive by the planting site the kids are excited to see how the plants are doing.  I really hope they survive with the dry weather we have been having, and the Corolita - the parasite plant that tries to take over everything.  But here’s to hoping!

A few little things:

So I have somehow become one of the main organizers of the Statia Ballet program.  My friend Jacintha has helped co-ordinate a man from Motion Dance in St. Maarten to work with the High School kids on the island, and then after school has asked him to put on a class for the young children of Statia - What the kids were doing the first year we got here.   Jacintha has a lot on the go on the island and had a difficult time trying to manage everything on her plate.  I offered to drive the ballet Tr. to and from places he needed to go and make her some charts, and I ended up the registration and accounts receivable honcho. More than I really wanted to do because of the things I have on my own plate - but hopefully it will work out and I won't go crazy!  :)

 At home in Canada if something hurts on your body, like you've sprained your ankle or something, you would say, "It hurts!"  But Courtney from her friends at school has learned to say, "It pains me!"  So that's what she says.  Just something fun, cute and different from home!

A while back Katie was in her bathroom singing with her IPod eyes closed, you know getting into the music, and opened the little mirror over the sink to get something out.  She told me she felt the feeling that she should open her eyes as she was reaching into the cabinet and in the cabinet was a scorpion, one not very happy either.  She screamed and yelled for me and I can running and checked out the situation.  I saw the scorpion and then ran to grab the Bop.  Some serious bug killer in the Carribean that is illegal in Canada and the United States - its that killer!  I sprayed it real good, and then shut the cabinet for it to die, it usually take just seconds for it to start dying so I opened the door.  It wasn't dying, I think it was because of its hard exoskeleton, and was reared up, if thats what you could call it, to attack so I squished it over and over with the bottom of the Bop can.  Bop can do amazing things :)  We were just glad no one was stung.