Day 51: A Great Find!

Last Monday, I was doing Snorkel Club with the kids and Hannah down at Crook's Castle (the place where you can find blue beads). I went into shore with one of the kids and decided to stay right on the shore and snorkel a bit more. I was sifting through the sand and the pebbles when I came upon an old piece of glass.

I had no clue what it was and I thought it was some sort of bead. I looked it up online the next day but I found nothing about it. I went to visit a lovely woman named Gay, who lives on the island. She told me exactly what I needed to know. She said that it is the same age as the blue beads but that it was used as a pour spout for either an essential oil bottle or a vinegar bottle. She also said it is much more rare than the blue beads and it is even more rare to find one with all five holes in tact.

It was a great find and I'm really excited about it! :]

More pictures!

Here are some of the photographs I've been making while I'm here.

Please don't copy without permission.

Day 44

Well it's been an eventful week here on Statia.

Last Friday, the volunteers discovered nine puppies at the dump in a cardboard box. They brought the puppies down to the office and we've been caring for them ever since. We've adopted out all but two of the puppies. Sadly, one did pass away but the likelihood of a litter of nine surviving is not great. Eight are happy and healthy puppies though! They were estimated at about ten days when we found them; they didn't even have their eyes open. The Botanical Garden is caring for two puppies, Anna, a ranger is caring for two, and Kate, the Director is taking care of two as well. It's incredible to be a part of although it is a lot of work. We take shifts for nighttime feeds and puppies aren't capable of going to the bathroom on their own so we have to do that for them. It's also extremely rewarding and I'm so glad we could give them a second chance at life.

Feeding a pup pup :]

This weekend, we also went diving at STENAPA Reef (very appropriate considering I work for STENAPA!).  It is an artificial reef made up of a large barge, and several other small watercraft. We saw a lot of fish, a few sting rays, and a very curious barracuda. The barracuda swam right up to the back of a woman's hair and it was checking all of us out. It was a good dive and I can't wait to go again!

Me! On my first official dive!

Jean and me! Jean is doing the Single Ladies dance ;]

This weekend, we're hiking up to Venus Bay and, weather permitting, getting some beach time in.



Hoping all is well on the home front!

Day 35

Today has been a great day! We are having a Phase 1 week in the garden so all of our work is being directed to the Senory Arbors and the Lookout Garden. It's looking great and the work is really paying off.

This morning I looked into my coffee tin to check on my lizard eggs and I found a baby lizard! I was so excited to see it alive. I'd been worrying because the eggs are very fragile and I thought perhaps they were injured when I found them. But, alas! A lizard!

This is the baby! The egg on the right still has to hatch.

As you can see, I'm still waiting for egg number two. It was a different size and shape from egg number one so we shall what comes out of it!

Also, I touched a Statia Dove this morning. It was sitting on the railing of the stairs and I noticed it was missing half of its face, so it could not see me. So I touched it! I was trying to get it to sit on my hand but the dove didn't think that was a good idea, so it flew away.

It was a great start to the morning. Tonight there will be a night hike where Joe, our spider-man intern goes searching for spiders and scorpions. I haven't decided for sure if I'm going to go or not but it seems like it would be really neat.

Oh! And yesterday! We had our snorkel club, we decided to go to Crook's Castle to snorkel. It's much different from going off the pier. There are bigger corals and a wider variety as well. We were seeing lots of neat stuff when out of no where a nurse shark comes swimming right under me! WOAH, I said to myself as I tried to remain calm and remember that it was only a nurse shark. The kids were really impressed and a little scared. Hannah, our National Parks Ranger and Educational Director got some up close shots of it.

So there it was, my first shark sighting! And I've lived to tell the tale!


Until next time :]

Pictures!

The group on Zeelandia Beach just before the turtle release! From left to right: Clair, the Garden Ranger. Sarah, Jean, Me, Randy (below me), Heather, Joe, and Ella

Nuts, our new Garden cat. 

Itty-bitty turtle on its way to the sea.

Thanksgiving on Statia.

Some of the group at Statia Day festivites.

Me, shooting wooden skewers out of a BB gun.

Day 30

Well, tomorrow marks the one month mark of my stay on Statia. It's been an adventure already!

Some things that have happened while I've been on island are:

-I got certified to dive.  (Yay!)
-I cut my hair really, really short.
-I nicked my shin with a machete. (Ouch!)
-I learned how to use a grinder to sharpen machetes and how to use a weed whacker.
-I made Thanksgiving dinner with the help of friends and spent my first Thanksgiving away from my family. It was a great occasion with lots of good food!
-I swam with turtles under the water and saw a seahorse in its natural environment for the first time!

I'm having a great time here and learning and seeing new things all the while.

Tonight, I think we are going to have a bonfire and this weekend we are going to do some hiking. It should be a great time!

Missing all of you on this Thanksgiving Day :]

What day is it? I've been here almost a month!

It’s been quite a while since I have updated but I’ve been busy and internet connections aren’t quite what they are back home.

I’m not sure where to begin.

This past Tuesday was Statia America Day. They celebrate the day they recognized the United States as an independent nation. There is a week full of celebrations leading up to that day. In the morning they have a reenactment. An American ship fires off a thirteen-gun salute and Statia fires back with eleven rounds. They pack gunpowder into coconuts and then light them. It is supposed to make an incredibly loud boom that can be heard from all over town. There is also a regatta (sail boat race) on Statia Day. We had fifteen sailboats in the bay for the race. There is tons of food and different bands every night. You get to meet a lot of new people too since there’s a bunch of people coming in off the boats.

On Statia Day I began taking my PADI Open Water Diver certification course. I read the book and we began our pool skills that day. I learned how to clear my mask, how to use my dive buddy’s alternate air source, how to take my mask off, put it back on, and then clear it, and many more things. On Wednesday we finished our pool skills. Yesterday, we got to go diving in the ocean! We went to a site called Twelve Guns. Surprise! There are twelve cannons in the water. We saw them and we also saw lots of different corals. It was really neat to be breathing under water. I felt like a space explorer, wearing technical gear and breathing from air in a tank. I am now officially a PADI Open Water Diver as of Saturday! I did my last two dives and took my test. I also saw four sea turtles, one seahorse, and a flamingo tongue fingerprint. It was really cool :]

In other big news, I cut my hair off. It’s very, very short now. I look quite a lot like my mom. I really like it. It takes less shampoo, less time to style, and it’s good for diving! Plus, I can wear lots of headbands.

That’s about it for now. This past Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner. We made a turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie, banana crunch muffins, oreo truffles, and a few other delicious things. We had seventeen people at dinner so it was full of merriment. And the food was really really good.

Missing everyone back home! 

Day Thirteen

My oh my, a lot has been happening since I last wrote. Friday was Family Friday which means that everyone from the garden gets together to work on a community project. This Friday we did road maintenance. I’ve decided to do a little “How To” on fixing a road using cement.

Step One: Mix dirt fill and cement together until you make a homogenous mixture.

Step Two: Form a hole in the middle of the dirt/cement mound and add water. Slowly add the mixture to the middle of the hole using the sides of the mound.

Step Three: Turn the mixture over with a shovel and repeat Step Two.

Step Four: Continue the process until you have formed a nice bit of sloppy cement.

Step Five: Wet the area you wish to pour cement on. Take shovel-fulls of cement and apply to said area.

Step Six: Smooth out cement.

Step Seven: Write your name or draw a picture of Foxy Dog in cement.

And voila! Road Maintenance in seven steps!

Now, on with the rest of the weekend. After work, we had a bonfire up at the garden to celebrate Bonfire Night. It’s an English holiday where the people celebrate the unsuccessful attempt of Guy Fox to burn down Parliament. It was good fun. Ella and Heather made curries and I made oreo truffles. The food was delicious and we all enjoyed shooting skewers out of a BB gun after dinner.

On Saturday, the sun was out in full force. Joe, Randy, and Ella hiked the Northern Hills. Heather went to dig up turtle nests with the Marine Park and Sarah, Jean, and I went to swim and lay out at the pier. When it got too hot we stopped in at the Spanish Bar for a cold beverage and then walked Crook’s Castle in search of blue bead treasures. In the evening there was a turtle release at Zeelandia Beach. The Marine Park had found a nest that hatched successfully so they removed the turtles in the morning and scheduled a release for that evening. By removing them from the nest it saves them the energy of having to dig themselves out and gives them a better chance at making it to the ocean. There were 120 hatchlings and almost all of them made a quick dash for the sea. It was an incredible experience and it was wonderful to be able to share it with people who have worked really hard this nesting season to ensure the safety of the turtles.

When we awoke on Sunday, the weather was overcast and windy. We packed our stuff up and headed down to Lower Town to check out the beach. The swell was big and the waves were washing over the end of the pier. It wasn’t sunny enough or warm enough to lay out so we again walked over to Crook’s Castle for some blue bead action. We didn’t find any but we found a lot of neat pottery and shells. In the evening we had dinner over at Gay and Hank’s. We had steak and potatoes with broccoflower and salad. It was delicious.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We relaxed and had good food. What more could a girl ask for?

Day Eight

Well, it's been a productive two days since I last wrote!

Yesterday, Ella, Claire, and I worked up in the Fruit Garden. Claire and I weed whacked a huge amount and Ella did some weeding in the banana patch. Things are starting to shape up in the fruit garden. A few days ago Claire and I were working up there and we were looking at the fruits, we have some papayas that are starting to ripen as well as some dwarf pomegranates. There is also a pineapple plant that is flowering.

In the second half of the morning, I took down a fallen tree that was leaning on our clothesline. I got to use a saw and some big clompers to do it. It was lots of fun. Ella picked the cucumber that had ripened in our Vegetable Garden. We're going to eat it tomorrow.

Today, it was a damp morning. It rained hard at about 5:30 this morning thus, the Fruit Garden and all of its grass was much too wet to weed whack. Instead, I read a booklet about the Botanical Garden and helped Nadio and Randy build the new pavilion on the backside of the toolshed. We cut down a gum tree and then we had to burn the stump because they will grow back. It was good fun and good work.

This afternoon I am reading a survey on the butterfly population of St. Eustatius and figuring out what I want to do for my personal project. I think I am going to do a biodiversity survey in the second half of my mornings and then in the afternoon I am going to work on a native plant guide that visitors to the Botanical Garden can use. I will keep updating about these projects as they develop.

Day Six

I've been here nearly a week and it already feels like I never left.

It was a bit of a slow weekend. We had Hurricane Thomas (I think it was Thomas) come through to the south of us. We just got a tiny bit of it on Saturday night. There was a huge rain and wind storm. I slept through all of it, didn't hear a thing. I must have been really tired. It rained all weekend, on Saturday morning I began reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and I finished it on Sunday night. It was a good story, I have never read a murder mystery novel before. Halloween was very mellow, we were going to have a bonfire but all of the wood got wet in the rain so we ended up just relaxing instead.

Today, I got to weed whack again. Afterwards I worked on the vegetable patch with Ella and Heather. We planted carrots, luffa, hot peppers, and lettuce. Hopefully we will begin to see sprouts within a few weeks.

We also have a new garden cat! His name is Nuts. Hannah, the National Park Ranger, gave him to us. He ran away about a week and a half before I got here but he came back on Thursday or Friday! Now he hangs around and he loves to cuddle and be pet. He's been a real hit in the intern house because he scared away the little rodents who come in to the house.

This afternoon I am doing Snorkel Club with the little kiddies. I'm excited to get in the water. Hopefully we see something really neat. :]

Day Two

So I'm in the Caribbean! It was quite a journey to get here. First, I went to IAD with my mom and dad. My ticket would not scan on the little self-scanner machine though. I asked the nice lady at the counter what the problem was and she then proceeded to tell me that my flight was out of Richmond! I had a small panic attack and then they told me they would be able to switch my flight so I could fly out of IAD.

After I got on the plane and we got out on the landing area, the flight delayed 45 minutes. I only had an hour in between flights so that was a bit of a problem (bring on the second small spaz attack!). I finally arrived in Charlotte and my next flight was delayed by about an hour so I was good. I got some breakfast and waited to board my plane.

I arrived in St. Maarten and had a four hour layover. I read "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and I actually finished it. I cried in the end of the book so I must have looked like a total weirdo in the airport. Never the less, my next flight arrived and I got on a third and final plane to St. Eustatius. It's a 19 passenger plane and there is very little legroom, armroom, or anything-room really. The flight started out a bit rough, the middle was decent, and the end of the flight was turbulent, but I made it!

When I got back to the garden, Jean had prepared tacos for all of us. They were delicious. I unpacked my stuff and then went to bed. In the morning, I had training with Claire. We went around the garden talking about all the plants and then she began to show me how to use a weed whacker. Joe came back to the garden and had cut his hand up so Claire helped him get cleaned up and then Sarah finished the weed whacker demo. It was fun! I really like whacking weeds down now.

I did a bit of weed whacking today in the fruit garden. The grass was really tall so I got to whack a lot of stuff down. It was really cool, I got grass all over myself and accomplished quite a bit.

Now, I'm down at the office preparing for my first day of Junior Rangers. The kids will come in from school and learn all about the different parts of STENAPA (St. Eustatius National Parks). I'm not sure what we are going to be doing today but I've got silly bands and I'm excited to pass them out!

Two Days Left!

I have only two sleeps and a wake up until I'm off on my journey to the Caribbean. I had a great weekend. On Friday, I went to Brusters (for the last time for six months!) with my family. Saturday, I got snorkel gear with my daddy and then saw "Red" with my mom and dad. Today I went to church with my whole family and then we went to Target (no more Target for six months!) and Sonic (Sonic too!). After we got home, I packed my bags...for the most part. I've got about 100 pounds worth of stuff but it's all things I will need and use on my trip, lots of sunscreen and bug spray, a few can openers too. :]

I'm excited to go back. Here's some more photos!

One of the main roads in Statia. 

Treasures I found on a trip to Crook's Castle.

A few of the kids in Summer Club. They were using my camera to take pictures of each other.

The kids playing in the Childrens' Garden during Summer Club. I can't wait to see them! 

Ashley hanging out with some of the kids on the Signal Hill hike.

The kitchen at the garden.

Delicious avocado and tuna sushi we had one night.

7 Days Left!

Well time just keeps ticking away. Only seven days until I'm in the Caribbean. Technically six, because by next Tuesday morning I will be on a plane on the way there. I'm praying there will be no hurricanes or tropical storms because that would just be no fun on that little island hopper.

Today, I went shopping with my grandmother to get some supplies for my trip. I suppose tomorrow I should start packing my bags!

Last night I dreamt about blue beads. I was picking them up by the handful. I had so many I couldn't carry anymore. So I set them down on a table and organized them by color and by how much wear and tear they had. It was all very exciting until some random lady showed up in my dream and took my very favorite one! The rest of the dream was spent chasing her around trying to get it back. So much for not thinking about blue beads! At least it wasn't in waking consciousness :]

And some more photos for your enjoyment!

A nice sunset over the bay. And a little tiny plane going by overhead :]

We had a dress night. Left to right: Little Ashley, Big Ashley, Katja, Me, Claire, Sarah, Alli, and Makyee

Some of the kids making turtles in Turtle Club. Anna (left) is helping them.

12 Days To Go!

My departure is fast approaching. It's amazing how time flies when you're busy. I've filled my time with two jobs, one class, and some photography appointments.

This post is going to be about the elusive blue bead. It's a tiny little thing and yet it occupies much of my waking thought.

The blue bead dates back to the days of the Dutch East India Trading Company. They were used as a currency by the slaves and as a form of barter, it is said that Manhattan was purchased from the Indians using blue beads. They are five-sided and many of the beads were stored on Statia. When the slaves were freed, many of them through the beads off the cliffs.

Image from: http://www.statiatourism.com/articlebluebeads.html

Most everyone says, you don't find a blue bead, it finds you. And once you find one it is a sign that you will return to the island again and again.

So here's to putting thoughts of the blue bead behind and waiting for one to find me :]

Image from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkhitmrqdUjWRtezR6-5F2nDVb3ZxZ-L7GXxeBPPywrXanK50gZi0YT0pYZtW_n1uCXyuMH8DrquYauYqTG-s0QHgaqwdaNEPrbKh7AReT6ytLIuwHK6ggHGV6Nd19ha62zPVBMDeyFx7/s320/IMG_6876.jpg

23 Days to Go!

Today, I wanted to post a few more pictures and tell you a little bit more about the island.

Many, many years ago St. Eustatius was a huge trading center and as many as 20,000 people lived on the island. That's a huge amount of people compared to the 3,500 people that live there today. Benjamin Franklin had his mail routed through the island on its way to the Americas from Europe. This tiny island also had a major hand in the formation of the United States of America. An American ship sailed into the harbor in 1776 (the year our nation was created) and fired off a 13-gun salute. St. Eustatius fired back, acknowledging the United States of America as a sovereign nation. They were the first nation to recognize the United States as independent from Britain. That was incredibly interesting to me when I found that out, they definitely didn't teach me that in middle school! 

So those are my little facts for the day. Now for some more photos!

This is the fort. It is on a cliff overlooking the bay. 

This is Crook's Castle. This is a place where you can find blue beads. There will be a whole blog entry devoted to this subject later. :]

This is Corre Corre (Corey Corey). It's a beautiful beach on the Atlantic side of the island.

This is my view of the Quill, from the garden. It is an extinct volcano with an intact crater on the island. The hike up there is beautiful and the view of the inside of the crater is awesome.

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed the post and maybe even learned something :]

25 Days To Go!

I got really bored today and I decided to make a list of all the things that I would need to bring with me. It was a pretty long list and I'm not sure if it's all going to fit into one bag. I shall have to wait and see.

Anyways, I just wanted to give you a little preview of the place I'm going to be staying. I want to give little pieces at a time so here's a photo of the Intern House at the Botanical Garden.

So there it is :] This will be my home come October 26th! I can't wait!

Less than a month to go!

I've just crossed the one-month-to-go mark on my countdown until my return to the Caribbean. I will be returning to the little island of St. Eustatius. It's a remarkable place filled with lots of history, beautiful landscapes and seascapes, and friendly people.

This summer I spent a month there in July. I volunteered with the National Park Service on the island. I spent time gardening, working on some trails in the park, snorkeling, and working with the local children at Summer Club. I had so much fun and didn't want to leave so the nice people there offered me an internship in the Miriam C. Schmidt Botanical Garden! I accepted and I'll be headed their way on October 26th. I'll be there until May and I can't wait to have lots more new adventures.

The purpose of this blog is to keep those I love and miss back home up to date and informed about my life on the island. Feel free to share with those you know :]