On February 20, 2009, a group of 17 teens and nine chaperones flew to the beautiful island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. They spent the next eight days scraping paint at the Boys & Girls Club in Christiansted (where they also slept on the floor), painting at the Lutheran church, volunteering at an orphanage—and yes, swimming and playing at the beach. They met and worked with local teens and played many games of pick-up basketball. They learned about the history of slavery and its consequences. And they formed bonds of friendship that will not soon be forgotten.
See two articles in the Brattleboro Reformer, one from the day after the group left:
and the other just after they returned:
Read the emails sent back home by the group and see photos of the trip.
Click on any of the images for a slide show.
JOURNAL ENTRIES FOR ST. CROIX TRIP
Day 1
We are happy to report that we’ve all arrived safely and happily in the lovely, albeit WARM island of St. Croix. After an exciting plane trip which was a first for a few of our group, we met Lise and Elly at the airport and proceeded to Cheri Ann’s house and the local Boys and Girls Club [in Christiansted] where we will be staying all week. We unpacked a bit and settled in, playing a little basketball and taking LOTS of pictures while acclimatizing ourselves to the weather, which is about as different from Vermont this time of year as is possible. Then we were introduced to a local artist named AJ who, along with being friends with Cheri Ann and her family, has painted some absolutely beautiful murals on the walls around here and is going to be helping us in our renovations of the Boys and Girls Club.
The rest of our day was spent walking down to the water, then heading to the church we will be working in conjunction with for a hearty and much welcome dinner. Our experience there was immensely heartwarming and we’re hoping to spend more time with not only their pastor, but with their own youth group in the days to come.
We’re now all off to bed after our first day, tired and happy to be going to sleep despite a few misgivings about some local wildlife that has found its way inside. We all send our love and thoughts to you at home and hope that the snowstorm there isn’t getting you down TOO much. You’ll hear again from us soon after our first day of work tomorrow, and then Sunday—the beach!
Day 2
Today was our second day in St. Croix, our first full day, and we’re all getting pretty comfortably settled in. Today was our first big work day, and we split up into two groups, one to work at the Boys and Girls Club and one to work at the Lutheran Church. Each group got to work in each location for a few hours, scraping and painting the walls at the club and the outside railings and fences at the church. It was hard work, but satisfying, especially the painting. We are all wearing proof of our work in the lovely paint stains on our arms, legs, clothes, and in some cases, hair. Paint chips from scraping are almost as good as sand at finding their way into crevices and places they’re not supposed to be. We still have much work to do, but we made lots of progress and are looking forward to continuing working in the next few days.
One of the best things about today was that we really had time to bond with some of the locals. The youth group from the church arrived not only to socialize and help us scrape and paint, but they ended up spending a good deal of the day with us. Basketball has quickly become a popular way to pass free time and the kids from the youth group easily and eagerly joined in several pick up games. Anna broke her flip flop in the game, but was able to fix it with the ever-present duct tape that magically appears in need from Elly’s bag.
The highlight of everyone’s day, however, was an impromptu trip to a small local beach this afternoon just before dinner. Joined by the youth group still, we all piled into the 12-passenger vans and moseyed our way to the water where it was delightful to watch everyone yell and shout as they ran joyfully into the surf. This was no Maine beach—this was aqua-colored, 75-degree water! We swam for as long as we could, throwing around a Nerf football and body surfing, and becoming the subjects of Sam’s wonderful photography.
After the beach we headed back for dinner which was cooked for us by a local woman named Annette. She fried us whole Pod fish which was quite an adventure for some as there were eyes and tails and bones to pick around. However, it was absolutely wonderful and most ended up enjoying it immensely. Annette came to cook for us for a special reason which she told us about. Every Martin Luther King Day, she told us, she tries to help someone who needs it, be it cook, spend time with a group, or just be an ear for someone to talk to. When President Obama was elected, he said for everyone to do something for their community so Annette took it upon herself to help us as we are helping her community. After Hurricane Hugo, her own house lacked a roof and it was repaired by a church group from the U.S. she had absolutely no connection to, so she was eager to become part of our church mission. We all love her and are looking forward to possibly more meals cooked by her.
It was a long, satisfying day, and we are now ending it with art projects and lots of laughter. There are a few sunburns, a bit of sand in strange places, and paint everywhere, but today we discovered that work, especially for a cause, is FUN. We all worked together fantastically and had a blast doing it. Tomorrow, as it is the Sabbath, is going to be a day of rest and fun, with church services in the morning, then an afternoon at the beach. We send our love, of course, and will send more news soon.
Love from all!
Day 3
To all enjoying the snowstorm at home,
Our third day here is finally over and we’re all tired after a long, happy day. Today being the Sabbath, was a day of rest, and we had only two main activities for the day: church, and the beach. Both proved to be exciting and quite different from what we get at home.
It felt good to dress up for church, to get out of our work clothes for a while. We all looked quite nice with our skirts and slacks, shirt tucked in, and a few ties. The church is close enough to walk to so we did, as do many here. Once there we instantly became part of a very enthusiastic service, a kind we’re not used to, but enjoyed immensely. What struck most of us was the music. While at home, the music is often slow, somber accompaniment with a break in the middle for the choir; here it is all music. The choir IS the accompaniment for the entire service, which includes many hymns as well as sometimes soloists, and some songs such as “This Little Light of Mine” that we all know and love for reasons completely unrelated to church. And all the music was happy, performed to an upbeat tempo and accompanied by an electric organ keyboard. The people here clap and dance with the music. They smile and exchange knowing glances while they sing. You can feel the community in these people.
Their community was one into which we were readily welcomed. We were announced to the church, and were invited to become part of the service. Lise gave an impassioned sermon to which the parishioners responded and Jon Erik and Nick each did a reading. During the greeting to all, our hands were shaken by EVERYONE and we felt genuinely welcome in their church. We, in turn, gave them a gift of maple syrup and a beautiful children’s Bible signed by us all. Overall our experience there was that it was very different from church at home, but a good different. Here, you can feel in the people the connection to each other, the pastor and their connection to God. As one of us said in our discussion group tonight, at home it sometimes feel like the question is “do you believe in God?” while here is feels more a given statement, “you do believe in God.” Not forceful, just fact. We’re all looking forward to going back on Wednesday to begin Lent with their church.
Although church was fun, it was rather warm, and we all welcomed the warm Caribbean beach. Before the beach we stopped briefly at Point Udall, which is the easternmost point of the United States. On top of that, it is also absolutely GORGEOUS. We then headed to the beach accompanied again by the church youth group. It was an afternoon of fun and relaxation. Many of the adults took the opportunity to lie on the sand and catch up on some much needed rest and sleep. The kids spent their time playing chicken, burying each other in the sand, and diving in the waves. By the end of the day, we were all nicely exhausted and just a tad sunburned.
So now ends our third day here. Tomorrow we’re heading to the orphanage where we’ve yet to discover what we will be doing. Our shopping day is also tomorrow, so expect a few gifts coming home. We all send our love, and it has been asked to be included that for those of you worrying about not receiving phone calls or texts back at home, our cell phones are not allowed and have been safely locked away from us until the return trip. We are using this email as our main form of communication; however, if there are any concerns, please feel free to call Lise’s cell phone, which she keeps with her.
Day 4
Today we visited the Queen Louise Orphanage in Frederiksted—the west side of the Island. The little kids were so cute! The children there are housed in a very nice set of buildings with children ranging from infants to in their teens. There is also a building for developmentally and physically disabled people in need, some of whom are in their twenties. Besides the children who live there, there is also a Head Start program for children infants to 3 years old. We were put into two groups—one group raked leaves around the complex while the other group was brought inside to help out in the Head Start program, playing with, feeding and putting the kids to sleep.
We got word that the local newspaper was waiting to interview us back at the Boys and Girls Club so we left after lunch to return, where we went to work and they interviewed us and took candid photos of us scraping, painting, and singing various Beatles songs.
After working for the afternoon, we had a free afternoon for shopping and walking around. We split into three groups and walked around enjoying being tourists and SHOPPING! We walked along the boardwalk, watched a water plane take off and then gathered at the gazebo to listen to Jon Erik give his speech as John Lewis, a famous civil rights activist, which he will be giving in Alabama in a few weeks. He did a marvelous job and it was great to see Cheri Ann so proud.
Dinner was at the ballpark, made by Cheri Ann’s sister who has a stand there. It was fried chicken, beef and fish pâtés, fries and johnnycakes with some interesting new soda drinks. After dinner, we didn’t actually watch the ballgame, but instead played basketball and tennis and freeze tag on the jungle gym. Upon our return to the Boys and Girls Club we had a nice reflection on our trip so far, then enjoyed some camp songs. More and more this trip feels like camp to us.
We send lots of love, as always. Tomorrow we’re in for a surprise in the morning (as we have to leave because they have to fix our toilets...) then work for the afternoon and dinner and a spectacular show on a nearby island hotel.
Day 5
We got back very late from an amazing night of dancing last night so journaling took second place next to sleeping. Lise sent out a brief message, but this will cover a bit more.
Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days we had. We started out here, at the Boys and Girls Club where the coordinator, Julie, gave us an exciting presentation on personality profiles. We each were able to take short quizzes and figure out which personality type we were. It’s a little complicated to explain, but fascinating so you all should ask us when we get home about it. After Julie’s presentation, we completed our work of scraping the walls and cleaning a bit. We wish we could do more, but unfortunately we are running out of time here. Our water was shut off because of some plumbing being done so it was a bit of an adventure washing the dishes and showering outside as well.
After working for several hours, we traveled out to Salt Bay to see the place where Columbus landed. We went swimming in the bay and shell hunting along the beach. Unfortunately, while we were swimming, one of the vans was [broken into due to a malfunctioning lock], and several bags were stolen. Luckily, most of what was stolen was found on the side of the road later with only a few items missing.
Despite this sobering event, we all went into the night in a pretty decent mood. Cheri Ann had arranged for us to go to an offshore restaurant/hotel for a buffet dinner with music, dancing and entertainment. We all dressed up and we got to dance with a Moko Jumbie, which is a tall, costumed man who dances on stilts, as well as watch a man break glass bottles with his bare feet, then light them on fire and walk on them. He also ate fire, breathed fire, then played a limbo game with people from the audience. Several of the group joined in and did quite well.
It was a pretty late night and we returned home exhausted. One other exciting thing was we were on the front page of the paper here with a picture of several of the kids painting. Even though a few unhappy things happened, yesterday was really amazing.
Day 6
Hi all at home in the snowy north!
Our day started with a late morning and french toast after which we were hustled to the vans for the trip across the island for SNORKELING! It was based from a beautiful hotel called The Sand Castle on the Beach, which we all wished we’d been staying at all week. It really felt like vacation for the day.
We were split into three different groups and one group at a time was ferried from the hotel to Frederiksted Pier. There, growing on parts of the old pier left in the water we were able to look at tons of different fish and reef creatures. One group saw an octopus and one group saw a sea turtle. The instructors taught us all to dive down, but it was very important that we not touch any of the coral.
The groups that were not snorkeling spent time playing on the beach and snorkeling on their own in front of the hotel. After most of the day in the sun, we stopped for some amazing ice cream and came home for a BBQ dinner.
The highlight of the night was a talent show featuring most of our lovely group. There were songs, acrobatics, magic tricks and more. Happily, the church youth groups joined in on this as well and we all had a fantastic time. At the end Golden Pâté awards were given out to each person for their own special quirks. The adults then performed a revamped rendition of “Cheri Baby” (all new words, same tune) written for our own Cheri Ann Brodhurst. It was quite a night.
Tomorrow’s our last day here and while most of us are ready to come home, there is definite sadness about leaving this place. We love it here. We’re bringing home lots of pictures and art to share with you all. See you soon!
Lots of love,
All of us in St. Croix, Virgin Islands
