We finally made it out to the morning ceremony of Statia
Days! We have never been very motivated
to attend the ceremony at 6:00 in the morning on a day off. But this year I was
actually happy to because Courtney was asked to join in a group of kids from various
schools around the island to participate and a big group musical including
bells, violins, trumpets, trombones and singers to help celebrate the day!
They opened with the raising of the flags, Statia,
Netherland, and U.S.A. Statia day, November 16th, actually commemorates
the year 1776 when Statia became the first foreign nation to recognize the
Union Flag and the colonies’ of the
United States independence.
“The island celebrates
this event each year by having a national holiday. On November 16, 1776, the
cannons at Fort Oranje fired the first official salute by a foreign nation to
the American colors.
The
island played a major role as a trading center before and during the American
Revolution. The local wealth, as a result of the lucrative trade in slaves and
war supplies sent to American colonies, turned Statia into the “Golden Rock of
the Caribbean.” Ammunition was sent under disguise to the rebels in the
colonies fighting for their independence from Britain. For a time St. Eustatius
was the only link between Europe and the fledgling American colonies.St. Eustatius as a Dutch Colony should have been neutral, and should have had nothing to do with the rebels fighting for independence, but despite a warning from Holland, Johannes de Graaff continued to send ammunitions during the American Revolution. Among some of the various goods shipped from St. Eustatius were armaments, ceramics, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, cloth, cotton, slaves, soap, beef in barrels, sugar, molasses, gin, rum, wines, hides, dye wood, shoes, and others.”
Excerpt from http://repeatingislands.com/2009/10/25/statia-st-eustatius-day/
I wonder if the US teaches this in their American History classes, that it was this little island of St. Eustatius and commanding officers that had a huge hand in their independence. Perhaps would have never happened or taken much longer…?
United States, Statia & Netherlands flags.
There were poems read, songs sung, music played troops
showing off their marching drills…
The boy on the right is a friend of Jases named Julian.
and then the final
presentation - the island wide childrens
music chorus coordinated by Tr. Vasti and Tr. Dennis!
It was amazing. If
you know me I am a bawl baby and this pretty much made me cry. It was just so
sweet to hear them sing of loving one another, living in harmony, and being
proud of who you are. Just wonderful and
of course seeing your child participating in it makes it that much more
special.
Following the song was a yearly re-enactment
of the First Salute. It was carried out
by United States Coast Guard's vessel Reef Shark, which fired 13 salutes under
the command of Junior Grade Lieutenant Katherine E. Murray, which was answered
by 11 salutes from the island. It was
pretty neat to see and hear. They fire
the salutes from the harbor and down by the bay for safety measures.
Island Governor Gerald Berkel and some
other gentlemen from the Netherlands, I believe, then survey the troops. But I
liked this picture best with just the Governor – you can see him smiling at all
the kids!
The troops and the drums then march out
around the main part of town playing and showing off their troops followed by a
drum play off in the centre of town!
There they sell breakfast food including salt fish, which we LOVE and
they continue the sales for lunch, dinner ect.
It was a fantastic ceremony and I highly
suggest experiencing it at least once!
Katie too a picture of me with my friend Jacintha, her husband Keurt,
and of course Mae-rubya!
Todd having to hit the books for some
studying me and the kids we out to hit the attractions. Well small town things sometimes don’t always
go as planned and the kids games were canceled until later on in the day
because of a low attendance of showing – people tired from the early
ceremony. We went back to the fort to
walk around, the kids like to run around and play. – It really is always nice
to just go there and see how fantastic it looks! There were huge balloons that the girls, Katie,
Courtney & Mae-Rubya – who joined us for the day, really wanted so we asked
the lady there – I can’t remember her name and I even asked her for the blog –
gave them the balloons.
We found out that she was there to
collect the chairs and other items from the ceremony. So like little bees the kids and I helping
her collect the chairs – we’ve got some pretty amazing kids!
Yes Jase was even on crutches. We were at the beach and he was jumping on the
sand and caught his toes funny and fell rolling his foot in a way that all of
his weight was carried on the top of his foot.
It’s hard to explain but I thought he broke his foot at first. But thank goodness for good friends. Josh and
Hannah Farrell came to the beach that afternoon too and Josh carried Jase to
the car for me so we could get him home.
Anyway 2 weeks on crutches and he is as good as new!
Driving around after collecting chairs
in the fort we ran into one of Jase’s friend from school who was just wandering
around with no family around. So we took him home with us to eat some lunch, and
hang out for a bit while we waited for the next event we wanted to attend. Swimming at the pool with the swim club and
friends. Katie really wanted to swim in
a race or two. It was a fundraiser for
the leatherback swim club so we paid for her to swim a couple races. Courtney and Mae-Rubya hung out and took some
cool quick dips in the pool between races!
Katie with Niz Vos and S’Ade Williams
Katie did very, very well and the
coaches again this year asked why she wasn’t on the swim team! Katie wavers back and forth, but with all the
things she has going on already it’s hard to squeeze in more. I don’t think she really wants to pursue it
anyway or she would just do it. But we are really proud of her for sure!
Doing the breast Stroke
Jase’s friend Orville had just joined
the swim team and swam his first race that day.
His mom told me that he actually had no idea how to swim but really
wanted to join the swim team and convinced his mom to let him. His first day of practice he just jumped in
and made himself swim and basically taught himself with the help of the
coaches, this was only a few months before, and is now trying to race. Amazing!
He was being tough of himself this day. Jase saw this and went right on
over to give his some encouragement and friendship. I had to snap a picture of
these two friends.
I was a little worried because we were
an hour late for the kids games - the activity Courtney and Mae-Rubya were
really looking too. But lucky for us
they were pretty much just starting! For the kids they had an egg (ball) and
spoon race and the winner of the race got to go to the table and pick a
prize. These were some pretty awesome
prizes! It was a table full of things like peanut butter, cleaning supplies,
diaper – which are really expensive on the island, drinks, ketchup, oil, pretty
much anything you can get at Duggins here.
And then they had a super fun game for
the women. They would arrange some items
on the ground and you would have to throw a homemade metal ring around the item
to win it. Some of these ladies were really good shots! They would
wait around in a group but had an order of when everyone was to take
their turns and Philomena, a sweet lady whom I first met at the beach about 2
years ago, grabbed my arm and put me right in where I was to go in the order of
the ladies. After that is was really fun
cheering with them all over their wins, and getting advice on how to throw it
to win. They were all very sweet in
making sure that I had my turn and that no one budded. Which they did here and there and the ladies
would say something, but it was really neat being included in the game.
Katie decided she really wanted to win
the toddler pull-ups so she could give them away to some little person! So that’s just what she chose after winning a
race and gave then to little Liam from our Statia church group. He didn’t seam to mind that they were
princess pull-ups!
Honestly that was the best Statia day
that we have had here! And I’m glad it
was because it will be the last – for now – who knows.
At the university there are some
groups/clubs that get together and have meetings, or dinners. Among them is our group, 1 out of the 2
Christian groups, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (most people
know it by the nick name Mormon, but that’s not the real name), the Christian
Club, and the Muslim group. Of course
everyone and anyone is welcome to participate in these groups. I know we, as member of The Church of Jesus
Christ, welcome all from the University and the Island to attend Sunday
mornings 10:00 at the University Swares Building.
This particular night, one at least
every term, was the Muslim dinner and devotional. They always have a very nice talk about some
believes and misunderstood believes of the Muslim life. Our friend Abdul has a wonderful singing
voice and sang for the crowd followed by an intriguing devotional by our really
good family friend Saad, who is actually the leader of the Muslim community on
the island.
Abdul
Saad
The dinner, this was at the beginning - there were lots more people.
Dishing out left overs of the huge tray of Thai Papaya Salad, Som Tum, that we always make for the Muslim Dinners. It seriously takes a few hours to get this together. With all of the green papaya usually available on the island - sometimes not, its a hit for everyone we make it for. It is a pain to make though!
Everyone loves to play with Saad!
After Potluck drawing.
Muslims believe in the same God as
everyone else. This can be misunderstood
because they reverence him using a different name, that doesn’t automatically mean
they worship a completely different person.
Its like me being known as Tiffany, Tiff, Biff, sweetie, mom, mommy, or
crazy lady, I’m still the same person known by different names. I honestly
didn’t know that. Their women dress the
way they do because of their love and respect for our Father in Heaven. They make promises to our Maker, and choose
by their own free will to follow or not.
I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t really think of it that way until Saad
mentioned it. Which made me realize I
can relate to these women and see their point of view because as a member and
women of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I do things by my
choice out of my love and respect for my Heavenly Father and what he wants and
see for me which some do not understand.
Some believe the Muslim women are
forced by their spouses to wear what they wear and behave the way they do – in
some cases perhaps but that is not the true Muslim way. Like any religion there are unfortunately
the extremist who take things to far. I
did not know any Muslims before I came to this Island and I have learned that
if you find a true Muslim, one striving as we all do to do - what is right,
which is serving, being kind, loving, honest, obedient, seeing everyone as a
child of God then you have found a great friend because that is what the
religion truly teaches one should be like.
All of these are the same basic beliefs I feel everyone has or should
have.
We have appreciated the kindness show
to us by Saad and his mother, you will see pictures later, who have sweetly
wish us Merry Christmas even as they don’t believe in Christmas, and sent us
gifts of celebration, appreciation and friendship. These are fantastic people, fantastic
Muslims.
Living on this Island I have learned
more about loving, forgiving and respecting different people for who they are,
and learning more how to see them as our Father in Heaven sees them. (These I
am always working on) Everyone is struggling,
learning, striving at different paces or being stuck in their old ways,
nonetheless it is not my place to judge.
After the dinner when everything was
all cleaned up the girls were dying to try on Saad’s hijab so he let them try
it on and they thought it was pretty cool!
Pic
56 – 58
A cute little tiny lizard!
STATIA JUDO!
For such a little island you would be
amazed at the amount of activities out there to do! Swimming, soccor, field
hockey, singing lessons, music lessons, dance (well there was for a while),
Junior Ranger, Snorkel club, scuba diving, I’m sure there are more I’m
missing. But it is amazing to see what a
variety there is out there for the kids – and some of them are free! And now
JUDO! The kids decided they really wanted to try it out and they absolutely
LOVE it! Its really fun watching them do
their thing at Judo! Their Teachers name is Vienna Buitink and she started Judo
when she was 4 years old and became a black belt at 17 and has since earned 2
stripes! She came from the Netherlands in the fall to
teach at the Golden Rock Catholic School and brought tons of Judo supplies. A
Judogi to use until you can get your own (the outfit), and she even has an
official training mat to work on! She
has got a fantastic set up and the kids love her! So I’m pretty sure we will be doing Judo for
the rest of our time here! Oh and it is seriously an amazing price - $20 for kids
11 and under per month and $25 12 and older.
That’s twice a week for an hour each class!
The first few times Katie tried the
classes with the kids in her age group, 10 – 14, but they were way to big for
her and had a hard time so we moved her to the class with Courtneys age group,
6 – 9, and Katie still isn’t the biggest!
Look at what the Dog dragged in! – Our
sweet little Dusty decided to drag in this old dead smelly rat that was
poisoned to death. Mmmmm Good!
Pic 79
This is probably the biggest tarantula
we have see on the island. The pictures
don’t do it Justice!
Lost another palm tree to the disease
going around – big palms!
We were getting into the Christmas
spirit early this year! We put up the
tree made our first batch of cookies, and danced by the tree to Christmas music
at the end of November! The kids became
really into the song ‘Old Toy Trains’ apparently Todd knew it as a kids – I had
no idea what it was. But now it is one
of those Christmas songs stuck in our heads! We really couldn’t wait and it was
a perfect time to do it with Daddy between exams
We decorated our little peeing boy festive as well!
As we were decorating Jase noticed that
Daddy didn’t have a stocking again this year so he rushed off without telling anyone to make Daddy his
very own. With very little to work with
in our craft cupboard this is what he came up with and we used it all season!
A Yummy cakey sort of thing from
Italy! They have it in strawberry too!
Courtney has been having an amazing
time going to an after school group called ‘Growing in Love’ run by Teacher
Chris. It is absolutely fantastic. It basically a set up for parents who work
and their children need somewhere to go until they are finished work or 5:00pm
when its over. But we use it as a play
time for Courtney to spend more time with her friends and give her something
that is just her own to do once a week Wednesdays after school. Court
absolutely loves it! Tr. Chris has
themes each month, and does arts and crafts, lunch and snack time, field trips,
special guest, homework help, French classes and Dutch classes (the last three
optional for a cost), free time, and has a great set up in her building on the
Lynch Plantation – the same area as the SDA school so Courtney just walks with
the kids and TR. Chris after school.
Planting parsley on this day!
This particular day they were going on
a field trip to the museum, fort, and the tourist office. Teacher Chris asked me to join and help out
during the trip. I of course too some
pictures too!
At the Museum.
Holding hand with her field trip buddy, Aidan, walking from the museum to the fort.
WE LOVE THIS PLACE!
