Thanks for a wonderful and rewarding stay

We owe thanks to a lot of people on St Croix. During our stay we experienced a warm hospitality from everybody we met.

 

We thank National Park Service for letting us stay in their pleasant houses at Sion Farm. A special thanks to Mr. David J. Goldstein for inviting us, we hope we fulfilled some of his expectations and are more than willing to continue the work we started on. Thanks to Park Ranger Benito Vegas Jr. as well for some really interesting and rewarding guiding tours in Christiansted and Frederiksted.

V. Celeste Fahie gave us an insight on many aspects on the culture of the island along with the many stories about residents in the gut areas of Christiansted and Frederiksted.

Thanks to Professor Olasee Davis for the wonderful experience of hiking the Maroon Ridge and to Dr. Chenzira Davis Kahina who, together with Professor Davis, showed us campus on VICCC and introduced us to the research center for Caribbean Culture.

A warm thanks to Good Hope Country Day School who invited us to join classes and participate in discussions about the school systems and societies of US VI and Denmark. We look forward to continue the collaboration. We can’t thank our host families enough for letting us in to their homes. We really appreciate what you did for us. 

Thanks to headmistress Charmaine Hobson for letting us visit Juanita Guardine Elementary School. We met a lot of wonderful students and enjoyed the session we had with the 6^th graders.

Mr. George Tyson showed us remains of plantations from the Danish period. He probably gave us the most eye opening experience when he showed us the ruins of the prison for enslaved people in Christiansted. 

Our sincere thanks to Daina King-Sall from InterXchange who tied all the knots in our program. Your commitment is an inspiration to all of us. You made our stay on St Croix memorable.

Thanks to Mr. Duane Howell of Landmarks Society for opening doors and keeping an eye out for us.

Last but not least thanks to Mr. Bannis for taking us around the island. You showed us the Cruzian way…

And a big and direct thank you to our groupmember, Ida. 

American-Danish Rose

American-Danish Rose 

This beautiful rose was made by one of our lovely guides, V. Celeste Fahie. It represents the meeting between cultures, and we think it illustrates how diverse and multi-cultural the US Virgin Islands are. Celeste has been taking us on tours around Christiansted and Frederiksted and is a great story teller. She also told us about the traditional religion and medical plants and how the African culture has impacted St. Croix. Celeste is not only a great story teller and culture bearer she is also an artist, and her poetry and artwork is very interesting because she often combines different aspects of history and culture.

Maroon Ridge Hike

Sunday we went on the Maroon Ridge Hike. We met at the parking lot and were introduced to our tour guide Mr. Olasee Davis. He made an introduction about the history of Maroon Ridge and what have happened there.
He led us through the forest and talked about the different types of trees.
He took us to a sugar mill which once was a part of an old plantation and then further on to the ocean - down to the tide pools. Mr. Olasee wanted us to climb the rocks so we could see the light house. We did it but got really wet because the waves were really high. He introduced us to some of the vegetation and how it was used by the people on the island. During the hike we started to understand the conditions of the maroons and those who were enslaved during the Danish period. The forest was where the enslaved escaped to, and we saw a cliff from where some actually chose to jump off in stead of facing an unknown punishment for their action. It is important to notice that this was not considered as suicide but rather as an alternative to the horrific conditions under which these people lived, and it was seen as a reunification with their traditional African culture.

We walked back through the forest, and at the end we were met by out host families who brought us home again.

 

Beer drinking pigs

Friday we got up really early in the morning. Mr. Bannis picked us up and drove us to the Domino Club in the rain forest, and we met with our tour guides, Celeste and Bernito. Celeste started off by doing a presentation about the jumbies and how the old African spirits are still a part of the people and culture here on St. Croix. After that she wanted to show us something - something that turned out to be really weird...  
"You have to see the beer drinking pigs!"
There were these huge pigs in stalls eager to get non-alcoholic beer. So we bought beer cans and fed it to the pigs.
After that weird experience, we drove off to see Frederiksted. Celeste and Bernito gave us a guided tour around the Free-Gut neighborhoods and showed us some historical places.We saw the Catholic Church, the former Danish School, which now houses the government offices and the Liberty Hall. The last thing they wanted to show us was the fort, and they gave us a quick tour.
At this point we were very tired and hungry. Celeste knew a vegetarian place called Uca, which made some really good vegetarian food! We all had burgers and fries. 
We did not have any plans the rest of the day, so we used the time to relax and get ready to meet our host families the day after.

The Danish School

Beer Drinking Pig 

Jeppe feeding the pig

The Fort in Frederiksted 

Good Hope Country Day School

Thursday we visited Good Hope Country Day School. Haderslev Katedralskole and Lillebæltskolen have a cooperation with this school, and it was interesting to exchange knowledge and experiences and discuss culture, history and society. We visited different classes and the students were really good at participating and asking relevant questions - so we had several profitable discussions.

Their school system is very different compared to the system in Denmark. The studentes take different subjects and for every class they attend they change classmates. In that way the students get to meet a lot of people and practice their social skills. The students at GHCD were very interested in our educational system, and by comparing the two we found that there are several fundamental differences between the Danish society and the American society. It was fascinating to present the students to the Scandinavian welfare system and listen to their thoughts on e.g. our educational benefits, the high tax levels and the issue of social equality. We also had an interesting dicussion about the American Dream and the various challenges that our respective countries face in the future.

After that we went to our local supermarket and got the most needed. Our sweet taxi driver gave us his cd, Ain't nothing like the Virgin Isles, so we could burn it. The title from our last post is the name of the cd and our "theme song". (You will be able to hear the song later on).

For dinner we made sweet fries (made from sweet potatoes), salad, minced beef steakes and fried squash.

We were very tired after a long but exciting day.

Goodnight.

Tour of Frederiksted Free Gut

Class at GHCDS

Chemistry with Mr. Summerhayes

”Ain’t no place like the Virgin Islands”

On our second day, we visited Good Hope Country Day School, which is a combined school. That means that kindergarten, middle school and high school are all in the same place. We participated in some of their lessons and talked to some of the teachers. Our driver, Mr. Bannis, drove us to the school early in the morning. We all loved their way of educating. It's really different compared to the Danish way.

The Prison

Later on we went to meet George Tyson at his house on the remains of an old plantation. After 15 minutes of interesting lecture on the different sections of a plantation, Mr. Bannis drove
Mr. Tyson and us to se some other plantations, two churches and last but not least an old prison where enslaved people were imprisoned convicted of various (according to the law at that time) criminal activity. Sadly, it is very close to collapse. Bushes and trees have taken over the old prison and because of lack of interest in maintaining the place, it is very, very run down. But it was also very beautiful in an odd way. The whole “Nature is dominant” really shined through. We decided to stay a little in Christiansted. Henrik and Henrik (our teachers) went to a Sea Food restaurant called “Angry Nate’s”. We went to Protestant Cay in Christiansted harbor for a swim. When we came home we made our own dinner. Chicken sandwiches. Then we had some ice cream and after that we went to bed.

The Cay at Christiansted Harbor

"History is Industry"

V. Celeste Fahie

After we arrived monday we have had our first real day on St Croix. We visited a range of historical sights such as The Steeple Building and Christiansvaern in Christiansted. We participated in an event called "Connections through Conversation and Culture" created by Daina King-Sall of InterXchange. Her first introduction was V. Celeste Fahie who began by telling us that "History is Industri" It also involved interesting presentations from e.g. Dr. Chenzira Davis-Kahina from The University of the Virgin Islands who introduced us to the significance of the Maroon Ridge. At the event we also listened to some Quelbe live music and we had a delicious traditional lunch. We also met Leslie Hamdorf and her students from Good Hope Country Day School whom we are going to corporate with during our stay. Afterwards we went on a combined Christianssted and Free Gut Tour with Benitio Vegas from National Park Service and V. Celeste Fahie. They introduced us to the difference between the free blacks and the free coloured people. We also got a sense of the horrors of the enslavement, and we are beginning to understand the significance of our common history and the importance of history in general. Finally we had dinner on a local restaurant. We are very excited about the hospitality of the Cruzians, and we are looking forward to the following days.

GHCDS