Three Years On Statia: February 2014

It was the day of the Balloon Jump up July 21, 2013! It is a kids celebration parade with a party at the end. We were driving around town because I really wanted to make a video of the island before we left so we could remember it really well. We got to the community centre and saw some trucks and vehicles being decorated and saw the DORA character in one of the trucks driving away! A friend of Todd’s – Tino - was there helping out so we asked him what was going on and he told us about the kids Jump up Parade sponsored by the NuStar oil terminal. – They sponsor a lot of different activities on the island – especially for the kids. Anyway he gave us a time and place to be for the start of the parade. Down by the stage and old movie theatre. We made some phone calls to some friends we knew would love to check it out and off we went.

The kids all got t-shirts, big ballons, face painted, the girls got tiara’s and the walked in the parade.

I can't remember this first little girls name - I'm going to have to find out! , Vencha, Cheaney (Sharique's sister) & Katie & Courtney.

And then they were done. I love the fun celebrations on the island but they seam to take so long to get going. It was two or so hours from the time we got face painted and walking what would have normally taken 7 – 10 minutes at a slower but reasonable pace. So we called it a day. The walk eventually went down to the Lions Den where there were snacks, loud music, and friendly characters – but the kids didn’t seem to mind missing it. But we are glad that we went.

S.O.S got together again Spouses of Students at Ruth’s house – her husband at this time was the acting Dean of the school. We really haven’t done much as a SOS group but everyone has been busy with live and other things but it was a really nice get together. It was a cool rainy day that put us in the house for a while with the rain and the wind but it was still a nice visit before people started to leave the island. I was leaving the Caribbean permanently and the other girls were leaving Statia permanently to go to St. Maarten where we were told the school was moving. So there will be no more St. Eustatius School of Medicine on St. Eustatius anymore. It will be called St. Eustatius School of Medicine on St. Maarten. It all has to do with accreditation, student loans, and all those school/government politics. It will be a sad time for Statia to loose all those students.

Ms. Hannah was then off for Canada. It was just before she was to leave for home when she was told the school was moving and she wouldn’t be going back to Statia when she returned.

Sweet Miss Joanna! For the summer she went to visit family and when she returned she brought Katie a very special gift. Miss. Joanna had ordered this cute bracelet to be delivered to her home in England so she could bring it back just for Katie. It was so thoughtful and kind. I know Katie will miss her very much and so will I. We’ve had some fun times and conversations together. Thank you Miss Joanna.

As life goes on on Statia we are always meeting and making new friends. We’ve met Marta and Leon a while ago but I’m not sure I have posted any pictures of them yet. They are a fun young couple – he’s from the Netherlands and she’s from Spain. Minure Leon was Courtney and Jase’s Gym teacher for the school year since after Christmas. Marta came and went swimming with the kids and Leon love to talk with Todd about fishing, diving in the water lifting underwater logs over your head, and all that stuff. We had a fun little date with them out in the ocean while the kids played on the beach. We were teaching them to dive down and stand on the bottom of the ocean. Then we were lifting this huge log and spying Lionfish and starfish. It was really a lot of fun and yes we were quite deep!

Leon signing one of the kids memory books!

As time is drawing closer to our sad departure date we have been trying to squeeze in beach time the best that we could. I decided this beautiful sunny morning to make our way down to the beach and enjoy it before the sun got too hot. We would go down at about 9:30 – 10:00 for a 2 - 3 hours but no more because even with lathering on tons of sunscreen we would still get burnt if we were out much longer and later than that at mid day. We wanted to take a bunch of pictures jumping off of the bent pier pole so we did! The kids loved jumping off of that. Its not high at all but you have to be careful because it is slippery but quite rough and you can get cut. All in the name of fun! And Todd and I have jumped off of this fun little thing too.

One of the main purposes of going to the beach this day was to take the treasures we have found throughout our time here and throw them back to where they came from. We decided to do half today and then take some to another beach the next time. I think the kids were a little sad a first but I let them keep some of their favorites to always remember Statia. I have to admit it was a little emotional. The best part about it was – for the last few time we went to the beach after that day we watched as other people found the treasures we had thrown back. That made my kids happy to see the smiles on other kids’ faces finding their treasure.

I really, really wanted to hike to white wall. After our failure to hike around the mountain with my miss calculation and the down poor we had to do it. I had each of the kids invite their special friend – and I invited my special friend too! We had:

Jase and Sharique, Katie and Sarah, Courtney and Mae-Rubya! We started early in the morning because it you don’t it just gets way to hot! I think it was about 7:30.

Having a little water break – And Dusty came too. We’ll I don’t think we had much choice. He kept escaping from the house and running down the road after us. We tried to lock him in the house but he crawled through one of the windows that don’t close. So that’s how he was able to come.

We made it to the White Wall sign and off we went.

We made it to White Wall. Its not a difficult hike but always beautiful.

You can see the white wall area that you drive to in your car. If you look toward the bottom right of the picture above the rope close to the sea, you can see the parking lot and from there you can see the cannons that we have sat, played on and also where we have sat and just stared at the amazing view and have always been in awe at the beauty. We have always said as we would sit there, “I can’t believe we live here.” For three years we have said that.