Three Years On Statia: Statia Days and Judo to name a few!

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 16^th, 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.

I know I look like death - it was a long day!

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

Sherifah Mohammed

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.