Well, I've been wanting to use this thing since I found out about it sometime earlier this semester. I guess the plan is to update this blog once a week. This is how I can update and keep in touch with a bunch of people at one time (though I do want emails and stuff!!). Just some stuff for everyone to know: * my flight is at 11:30pm tomorrow * I arrive in Bonaire around 5am on the 30th * my phone has international roaming, but emergencies only. Why? It costs $1.99/ min to call the US for me (my phone [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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I can't believe another week has almost gone by. I have been working hard all week trying to get the Children's Garden plots ready for summer club, which starts on July 6th. A typical day begins at 6am for breakfast and picking up Carlton at the office, then starting the manual labor in the garden at 7am, breaking for lunch around 1pm and then working on the planning and research for summer club in the garden. Summer club is 6 weeks long with 30 kids (ages 8-12) coming to the Botanic Garden every Monday looking to learn and have fun. This [View Full Entry]

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After almost 24 hours of traveling, Nick and Mary finally arrived in Bonaire! We picked up our rental truck. To our surprise it was a manual, which meant Nick was incharge of driving and Mary the navigator. The speedometers are in kilometers, and so are the speed limits. Mary's favorite street sign: We followed Kaya Grande through downtown Kralendijk and finally arrived at our hotel, Golden Reef Inn. The "room" they put us in was actually [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Maintenance Monday: Every Monday we go around the garden and clean up weed, mow, rake, leaf blow...it is no one's favorite day. Part 1: I actually had a Botanic Garden committee meeting that took me away from helping the volunteers on their first real day of work. I also had to get them started before 7am when I usually let them linger a little with their coffee and finishing breakfast but because the meeting was with board members in the garden pavilion, I had to make sure everything was clean and everyone was on task. Part 2: Office research for [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Another week full of new activities and people. Now, I am now giving the house and garden orientations. It is still really strange for me to fully realize that my current address is the Miram Shmidt Botanical Garden. Even more weird is that I am starting to get used to it. I don't even mind cold showers or rats anymore. I still may scream and have one of the boys in the house rescue me from the half dead mice that our cat likes to torture under my bed however, I am pretty comfortable here. This weekend I enjoyed a couple [View Full Entry]

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Wow, I have been blessed with the luck of seeing baby hatchlings and a nesting turtle on the same day! [View Full Entry]

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Day 6 on Statia: It feels like I have been here for a month now. I am still in shock that my life here has only begun... Though I am loving the weather, the cold showers and mossies (mosquitos) are definitely things I hope to get used to. However, it is also hard to complain when I wake up on a hill of flowers and fruit trees, surrounded by hummingbirds and the quiet of nature that I haven't experienced since being in the back country of the Sierras 10 years ago...eeek has it been that long? Today I woke up later [View Full Entry]

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