Three Years On Statia: The Beginning of a New Year

On New Years day we had a nice surprise visit from our friends Rachael, Team, and their friend. Not really having any family on the island I think we are pretty much their family. They are always so kind and sweet and again are giving us too many gifts! They absolutely love the kids!

Jase got another remote control helicopter – must be the in thing this year down here. It took him a little while to figure it out – after about a week at the most, but this one from Team and Rachael is his favorite and its really cool to see him fly it!!

Todd took the guys out and tried to teach them how to throw a football. They were all having a really good time – it not often at all that our friends are able to get out of the shops and really enjoy some free time – we are always flattered when they want to spend some of their precious time with us. The guys did pretty well at tossing the ball and Teams friend has quite the arm! With a little practice who knows! Team on the other hand made a valiant effort!

We gave them a little snack of veggies and dip and they have never had veggies and dip before! They told us they didn’t know that you could eat your vegetables this way! They loved the ‘cream’! It was just nice to sit and visit with them for a while!

When we fist came to the island and lived above the Chinese store in the golden rock area we met Rachael and Young – not an item they just worked together. And Young had a little girls friend who would come a visit him from St. Maarten any chance they could get. Long story short they both ended up back in China and ended up getting married! I wish they were someway we could communicate with them but right now there is not. But Rachael gave us a bunch of pictures from their wedding off of a site much like Facebook but for China!

They are so cute! I couldn’t figure out how she had so many amazing dresses and outfits and Rachael told me that there are places in China where you can purchase a package that allows you to use a whole bunch of different dresses and take pictures at different places and sceneries. I thought it was an awesome idea. If they had that when I was getting married I would have done it for sure! Perfect for the bride who’s not obsessed with having to have her own dress but want a bunch of fun and different shots! I wonder if that would ever take off in the West. People tend to have to have their own things.

Also during our break we had some other little friends show up to play. Adolfus and a young fellow named Sigfritz came over to hang out for the day. It seamed to work out because we didn’t really have anything planned that day and they both came on the same day. Adulfus is our neighbour boy and Sifritz is the son of one of the ladies- Maritza - that works at the University. It was flattering that she brought him by because she said that she is very selective about where her son is allowed to play. So we played some games, took them to the field to try and practice flying helicopters and just enjoyed the day.

Then Saad came back to the island always baring to many gifts for us! The kids where spoiled with books, Lego, and lot of treat, as well as Todd and I with lots of treats and goodies. Saad has been such a wonderful friend and we will miss him after he is done this semester.

Courtney and Mae-Rubya having a play date

An afternoon at the beach had an interesting twist of adventure. Courtney came running up to us with this round but squished browned leathery thing. We new it was a turtle egg but it definitely wasn’t alive or could have been alive at the time she found it. We walked a little way down the beach and found more of them just kind of scattered, flattened brown/black, and then we found the nest. It looked like the mother turtle hadn’t made it onto the beach far enough to lay her eggs because the nest was open to the ocean and the waves were moving the dead eggs around and because it wasn’t far enough on the beach there was not enough heat from the hot sand to incubate them – so they all died. We tried to dig and find some survivors but by the time we had got to them there were holes in a lot of the eggs from something eating them, or they were crushed, or just rotten smelling. Too bad. The kids were really sad so we ‘re-nested’ a few that they thought might ‘recover’.

And of course Dusty being a dog and smelling the rotted turtle eggs snuck himself a rotten turtle snack. At first I thought no way, but then again something was going to eat them. – Poor little turtles.

A new year a new resolution right! Well Todd decided that he was going to do the Adult Judo class with some of his buddies, Saad, Ahmed and Mansour. I think they had a lot of fun doing it together for the first little bit. I got some pictures with my phone but they are terrible. Well the resolution didn’t really last when one class Todd hurt his back/neck and then more trouble with the skin on his leg being melted off by his motor bike while I was on it with him. We were pretty much at a stand still when the bike just caught some loose dirt and we made a slow motion fall to the side. And I found out it was slow motion because Todd had fried his leg on the side of the bike making it fall slow so that it would fall on me! Yikes! It was really horribly sore – 3^rd degree burns and he’s got a scar to show for it. But here the boys are having some boy fun.

We had our friend Nikila over for dinner and she was so sweet to come back to Statia with some t-shirt gifts for us and the kids and some yummy home made mango and chicken pickle – an amazing Indian treat made by her mother! Soooo good!

I’d say Todd has had the worst luck for health out of all of us. Here he is not long after passing his 3^rd kidney stone here, having some lunch cooked by the hospitals very own chef . She made Todd extra large plate of food to help him feel better. She has been one of our waving friends for some time – many people who we just wave to too be kind and part of the community. Then we start taking when we run into each other and we’ve given her a lift sometimes – she is a sweet lady, the sister of another friend of ours named Bernard. Anyway painful kidney stones.

Fishing off the dock is another one of the things we wanted to do on our Christmas break and its some fun family time! The kids are actually really good at casting out the line! We’ve never caught anything here but its all in the name of being together and having fun.

And the girls kept fishing and fishing!

School started again for everyone. Todd doing Pharmacology and ICM absolutely fantastic breaking up the classes like that! He wasn’t half as stressed; he has been able to absorb more information because he isn’t trying to jam in his brain so much information in so little time. It’s been the best term by far. And we are not is a rush to leave here like most of the students so we don’t mind stretching out our stay a little longer – four months longer.

The kids school started out with a community health fair with in the first couple weeks of school starting. It was meant to bring awareness to the community about good health, taking care of your body and what the island has to offer in that way. As a field trip all of the kids were able to go with their schools! Little do people know there are many different services offered on the island and many that I don't know. ie: Dentist, Dermatologist, veterinarian, orthodontist, psychologists, physiologists, midwife, nutritionists... a lot of them fly in from their clinics in St. Maarten to service the island once a week or every other week.

Courtney with her class.

Fire department hat for the Dutch Caribbean

I wanted to take some pictures of some of the kids Christmas crafts they have done because we would be taking them home with us.

Another small cruise ship came to the island. Everything new and different coming to the island is exciting so we had to have a little peek. We had some friends with us Xavier and Azaria Hudson. Another great tour put on by the island and especially our friend Francine Harrington for organizing most of it.

This is the Sea Cloud II that came to visit the island.

Picture off of their advertizing site of what it looks like during its sail.

With our friends we went to look at the big boat and we picked some yummy pomme surette while we were by the dock. They are almost like little crab apples we get at home.

Checking out the tents and the Killy Killy Band set up bu the museum.

Another leisurely trip to the Botanical Garden and we saw that they had cleaned up a part of the garden we have never seen – it’s the fruit garden. There isn’t much for fruit in there right now, a few trees here and there but it’s coming along.