A Sunday afternoon

We really do live here! Pinch me, please!

Last week we took a walk to see Clover. Clover is the pig that we found down at the old English plantation ruins. Someone keeps a bunch of pigs there and some are penned and some are roaming freely (who decides that?)She is tied up to a tree and wags her tail every time we see her. Adorable! Can you say Babe? Oh, so cute. Smelly, but oh so cute. We took her some delicious food like banana peels, rinds, sour almond milk, stale bread, and even an avocado pit, which she crunched on like an Atomic Fireball.

Sophia is holding her second-grade class mascot, Spunky the monkey, whom we keep forgetting to include in the photos. Spunky really liked the pigs.

Clover has neighbors, a couple of pens of little piglets. They are not the usual variety either. They have long furry ears, and I discovered months ago when I chanced upon them while taking a run in the countyside, that if you scare them, they will all squeal unanimously and jump up, all fours in the air, at the same time. It is one of the funniest things ever and I hope to capture it on video! This pig won't be wooed.

After our noses could take the foul smell no longer, we headed down the hill to the coast.

Everyone, meet Frances! This our our adorable niece who came to stay with us for about 6 months for the island experience (ya, mon). We waited until she settled into take her to see smelly pigs. She first had to get used to chickens everywhere and goats standing on walls and buildings and donkeys braying first thing in the morning. AND she had to slap a cow at least twice before we would take her to this place. I would say she has adjusted heartily and is now part of the familia. She even smells like us now.

This was meant to be the family picture. Charles ruined it with his usual antics.

And this is Charles' favorite photo. He made me take it. It captured his attention as he was running down the trail and he spent at least 15 minutes analyzing and admiring it. Can you tell what it is?

Overlooking the beautiful Carribean coastline

OK, anyone remember the most recent Pride and Prejudice film? You didn't have to have seen it 148 times like I did to remember Keira Knightly standing on a cliff just like this. I made Frances do this. Let me emphasize, for her sake, that this was entirely MY idea. I think it captures her lovely British-romantic-countryside self. Besides, I may need to use it someday, like when I need a favor from her, or maybe at her wedding.

Another try at a family photo, and Sophia decides to wear her batman mask, Ethan tries unsuccessfully to hide the stick he used to prod cows and his siblings along the path, and Charles whistles on a blade of grass (or perhaps he is trying to hide a finger in the nose). Mission aborted.



By the time you are in junior high school, posing for a photo is absolutely ridiculous. But I got a little smile out of him anyway

This is most of the tiny island!

Spunky meets the pigs

Finally, a winner! The only reason it worked is because I promised to take Charles back to his favorite site of the day if he would keep his tongue inside Mr. Mouth.

Anyone guess what it was that so captured his attention? It was....(drumroll , please) a cow patty with mushrooms growing in it! Fascinating!

Charles heading down the path to the glorious shroom-patty

Are they gone yet? (snort snort)

A really bad fall and a really great aunt

Poor Charles, always in a predicament. After a terrible fall face-down onto a jagged rock from the huge tree in our backyard, his little face looked something like this:

Cheerful little guy trying to smile:

We are glad that our dutch neighbor is a doctor and that he was working in the yard when it happened. It was frankly a miracle that he did no more damage than he did. His gums got the most damage, but the nose didn't even break and he lost no teeth!

It is amazing how quicky children's cells recover. Within one week he looked like this:

I am taking advantage of this to post a photo of my new, adorable sister-in-law, Annie. Annie married my brother Jon recently and they came for a visit. Annie is a kindergarten teacher and clearly a serious kid magnet. Charles couldn't stay away from her the whole week. The funny thing is, Annie didn't even have to try! He followed her around, did what she did, ate what she ate, and rode in her car wherever she went. He tried to be subtle about his affection, but his efforts to hide it made it even more charming. When she had to leave, he refused to go to the airport because he said he didn't want to cry. But he went, and he did sob. It was oh-so-sweet. For a boy who is ordinarily only drawn to men, Annie was a real exception. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou Jon!

Annie is fab-u-LOSA!

Thanksgiving at the QUEENS

We love our friends the Queens! Whenever they are in town there is never a dull moment. This posting for our Thanksgiving day is a little late, but not forgotten. We had a wonderful time with our island friends there that day, eating, playing , talking and laughing.

Tennis courts on the Queens property. It kept everyone busy for hours.
Wim helping charles with his forehand
The Adorable Nikki, Sophia's dear friend.
Kai, Ethan, Charles, Maggie, and "little" Sam, chillin' on the deck. Check out the view of the island.
Buffets are not an American thing, even though Thanksgiving is.
Manny, the owner of Smoke Alley, and Kathy, the hostess with the mostess.

This is the coolest dune buggy ever. It floats effortlessly over the rocky, beat-up roads. Charles decided to strap himself in thinking that if he did so he would get a ride. However, no one was willing to leave the feast, so Charles sat for a long time and just pouted.

On deck: Two Dutchmen, A Spanish-Portugese Caribbean, and two New -Yorkans.

This is the best island drink ever; family members will confirm. Ting is dy-no-MITE!

A Dutch family holiday: Sinterklaas

All the way from Spain on a 15-foot dinghy, it's Sinterklaas!

Accompanied by Zwarte Piet, Sinterklaas made his grand entance to Statia on a dinghy at the harbor, then took a tour through the town in the bed of a pickup.

To be honest, it was sheer conincidence that we saw him arrive that day as we jumped off the dock. We saw a little boat floating through and Ed told Charles that there was a "party" boat. I looked and saw a strange figure at the bow of the boat, standing in a red robe and cheap paper-bishop hat, with a staff and a gaze at the horizon like a noble sailor chancing upon land after months at sea. I remembered reading about him and looked towards the harbor where there were a few dozen children gathered and the black Ford "horse". We quickly jumped up and followed the party.

It was a parade which lead to a party with presents, a pinata (which they held up to show everyone, then simply put it away and threw candy out to the kids), cake and donuts and bitterball, croquette, juice boxes ( we picked up at least 398,944 of them thrown on the ground). Then they gave all the kids presents and played loud Caribbean -beat Christmas carols for hours.

For those of you who don't remember learning about this holdiay in the fourth-grade, this is the most popular Dutch holiday of all. Here are some interesting facts:

• Celebrated on the 5th of December
• All about the presents he distributes!
• Average Dutch household spends 130 euro on Sinterklaas gifts
• Like Santa, Sinterklaas is good to good children and strict to the naughty
• Children leave a shoe by the chimney with a carrot for the horse in it
• According to tradition, he rides over housetops with the grey horse and drops gifts through the chimney into the shoes
• He leaves chocolate letters and cookies for the children
• He leaves unusual gifts for the adults including humorous poems making gentle fun of each other and wrapped in very unusual ways

Zwarte Piet getting the kinderen ready to chase him. Attention, everyone, Please! Piet was a real jokester.

So who was Zwarte Piet (Black Peter)?

• Based on exotically dressed servants from the Dutch colonies
• He guides Sinterklaas' horse through the streets of the Netherlands (rides in the flatbed with him in the Caribbean I guess)
• Carries a burlap bag and chases children through the streets, attempting to stuff them inside
• Tradition has it that he takes the naughty children back to Spain in the bag
• Children love running from him and after him!
• As the Netherlands became more multicultural, it became a moral dilemma for the Dutch, but politically correct experiments with blue, white, and even multi-colored Pieten have been unsuccessful. Tradition remains strong!
  

Charles, recovering from facial injuries, and friendZwarte Piet getting ready to run from the children. On the broken up rough concrete streets, there were more than a few tripping injuries. This game Never EVER would have happened in the sue-happy streets of the USA.

I am not sure that the formal and traditional Netherlands Sinterklaas and Zwatre Piet do the Electric Slide through the streets either.

Our Caribbean Piet, is noted, doesn't really look much like the Dutch Piet. Check out the high top Nikes, gold jewelry, and sunglasses, and MJ glove...

My favorite Carribean twist to the whole thing: Sinterklaas painted his face white......is that politically correct?

Announcing the winner and a new list!

OK, since no one has commented on the last post (despite much whining about not posting enough blogs) I am going to assume that you are all sick and tired of reading about how much darn fun we are having on the ocean. I am going to have to send you some photos and posts about the real lifestyles of your rich and famous Packards. In the meantime, I hereby commit to post no more beach photos. I know it is making you all mad and resentful.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Dave Buck for winning the last list contest (only 5 months ago!) It was a very close run, with Robin only being beat out because of Dave's single best response to the challenge: Describe the food labeled "picks in blanket", to which Dave responded "where your boogers go at night". Slam dunk.

Now for a new list! Check out the names of some of children in Charles' kindergarten class (all names are spelled correctly):

Sineille Lieuw

Wenson Saladin

Zique Pandt

Deshendree Jack

Xaviera Smith

Reeshandres Mercera

Madani Berkel

Ra'myah Brown

Jertino Marsdin

Raishel Lopes

Shamaria Schmidt

Kayvaughn James

Leon-Pozas-Esteban

Chanel Scmidt

Nusjheeli De Graf

Amarykecia Busby

Dejeanee Maduro

Khadija Skeete

Giovandris Harrigan

and there are more....The dogs tend to have names like Fergie, Tilly, Buster, and Roxy. I can pronounce those.

Any one getting any new baby name ideas????

Are you ready for MAD house?

These are the words I found posted on a note for me from Stefan the first day I got to Goldenrock Dive. The past two weeks I have had been helping out at the local dive shop while the owners, Glen and Michele, were at a dive show in Miami. What a great two weeks! The shop is small and located right on the shore. Stefan, our Dutch friend, is the dive master and instructor.
Basically my job was to help Stefan with whatever he needed, answer phones, help out the customers, and wipe eye goobers out of Glen and Michele's beloved brown lab, Duncan.



There were so many interesting people that came to the shop to dive, there was never a dull moment. Ok, there were a few that occurred while Stephan was out on the dives, but those were spent napping in a hammock outside the shop, overlooking the ocean. Oh, dreadful life!

We assisted customers from exotic place, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brazil, and Detroit, Michagin.

Ethan went with me each day and was able to do school because internet was connected there. However, he didn't really do much school. This was also the week that, due to the generosity of some dear friends, both Connely and Ethan were able to started on their dive certification!


Stefan instructs the boys on their dive gear .

Charles and his new friend Rowan , waiting for the dive show to begin.

Sophia came after school was out and played with Duncan.

Duncan is a swell mate and fine swimmer in the high seas

Getting ready for their first jump in the water. Getting final instruction from the Master Diving scuba Instructor. It is important to note that in this word there is a BIG difference between master and instructor. First level is master, the next level is instructor. And if you are the most qualified and have the most training you are a master diving scuba instructor. Voila, Stefan!

One great thing about moving away from everyone you know is that you get a chance to reinvent yourself. Connely changed his name to "Kai", since it is very difficult for locals to pronounce his given name. Scott, a new med student, joins Ethan and Connely in certification. He now goes by "Scubascott" or just "Scube". Scubascott, Scubakai, and ScubaE.

Here I am trying to pretend I have something important to do. Actually, I am just sitting on the quad because the seat is much softer than the dock. I never even drove it...

I have an itch right underneath...

If you see a shark, pop him in the nose, right between the eyes!

Checking to see if the heart is still beating

Some final instructions

Ready, set.....

Aaaaar, Jump right here, divers, right into the dinghy!

JUMP!

The real driver of the quad, Bion, a boy who works at the suba shop. He is from the Dominican Republic, and is in training to be a dive master

What Charles did to entertain himself since he wasn't invited to dive.

Anyone want to come visit yet?