Jen Thacher

Side note: I have been writing in my journal weekly but have not been able to get online regularly to update my blog. So, I will now be visiting Intermezzo, my favorite dining spot on Statia, to update my blog. I will first go back and add the weeks I missed and will also write new blogs on Sunday. --------------- Week 7: New Friends, New Garden This was a hard week! Not only did I just get back from St. Martin, the best weekend vacation ever, but we had a lot of work to get done and the first group of volunteers left. I became very close to this group and I really wasn't ready to say goodbye. We were a tight crew and all learned about Statia together as I only arrived on Statia two ... read more

What has happened since I last wrote? ..... Let's see, last week I did a mix of labor in the garden with the volunteers and personal project work in the office. I am working on building the foundation of a community/family garden plot in the Botanical Garden. I would really like to find a way to educate and excite the children of Statia with educational gardening. Furthermore, I would like the energy to continue at home by creating a place for parents to come and grow and learn. Right now, it seems like no one is using there gardens for edible foods even though the soil is rich and the weather ideal. After noticing this, I started asking around and some of the reasons mentioned were: water is too precious, roaming animals destroy anything without expensive ... read more

What a week and weekend: The volunteers arrived last week and everyone is great! We spent the beginning of the week helping them orient themselves to the Botanic Garden lifestyle and eased them into the manual labor aspect. On Thursday, we went on a guided hike up and into the Quill volcano. We saw about 5 snakes, 2 hummingbirds and their nests, an endangered iguana, and many hermit crabs...the best part was the sounds that we heard once in the crater. Inside were the sights and sounds you imagine to find in a tropical rain forest, birds, vines, beautiful flowers, and big leaves. Highs: Hiking into the Quill Singing Karaoke on Friday night (group song Bon Jovi "Living on a Prayer") Saturday Snorkeling at the beach and best Pina Colada ever at Golden Era Fondu get ... read more

Wow, I have been blessed with the luck of seeing baby hatchlings and a nesting turtle on the same day!... read more

To celebrate surviving my first week on the island, we (Caroline, Micah, Mariel and I) went for a night on the town. A night on the town is quit different here in comparison to San Francisco. There are only a couple of restaurants and they are almost all Chinese food. It's weird. We went out to Sonny's for Chinese food and I hate to say it but it was the worst Chinese food I have ever had. Almost everyone we were with had the lemon chicken and say it's really the best and only thing to order, but being a vegetarian I could only get fried rice. I wasn't too disappointed because I didn't get my hopes up and I am not a big fan of Chinese food anyways...but I do wish I brought a pb ... read more