Report from November to January

I know it has been a long time since my last report but finally I am going to make it.

The latest adventures were Junkanoo, both Junior and Senior. For the People who do not know what Junkanoo is I will explain it. It is an African festival that was brought over by the slaves and they were allowed to perform it on the night of Boxing Day (26^th of December). It is not exactly known where it comes from but the most reliable version is that John Canoe, a black slave trader, is worshipped in this festival due to the fact that he conquered the fort Brandenburry from the English in the 17^th century. Junkanoo is also a competition and you get points for your costumes, your music, if everybody is smiling and has a look on his face that says: “Yes I have fun”, the performance of the dancers and so on. The one who wins is allowed to carry the title “Junkanoo Master” for one year and gets $100,000 of price money.

First I rushed in Senior Junkanoo with our Rotary group. Enrico and I were pushing the banner, an 8 foot tall wagon with the Rotary Sign and Motto, the Sponsors and a lot of decoration on it. We danced when we had to stop what was probably every ten seconds and had to animate the crowd, with whistles and every kind of free dancing movements we were able to perform. In the second lap I rang the Cowbells to produce the beat together with the drummers. During the two laps I saw some of my friends and other people I know. Believe me when I say it was really fun. They even interviewed me and showed me on television. Plenty of people said:”Hey I saw you on the television last night.” and as soon as I went back to school on Monday Mrs. Roberts , the GGYA and Junkanoo leader, came to me and said that she saw me during Junkanoo and wanted me for Junior Junkanoo next weekend. So I accepted the opportunity to join also my team of my school team together with my friends. 

During Junior Junkanoo they gave me one of the really big costumes that are like 9 foot tall and they put it on your shoulders and then you have to shake it and dance with it. Due to our motto  “Our African Heritage in the Bahamas” we all dressed like Africans and got our faces painted with stripes so we all looked pretty native, especially the Black persons.

This time I rushed just one lap so I was able to see Junkanoo once and it was magic.

They had some really good groups with fancy costumes and experienced bands who played pretty good and the most important part, their groups were huge like 170 people.  The groups I was in were always small so they made a big impression on me with all this big bands and plenty of people in these big costumes.

The holidays here in the Bahamas were nice but quiet. During Christmas eve just Dr. Brian Blower came for a visit and we had typical Bahamian food, deep-fried fish. On Christmas day there were ten persons additionally in the house, including Sanae’s family, Brian and a couple of other friends and we had a nice, big turkey like on Thanks Giving. But it was still a quiet Christmas and it did not feel like a real at all, therefore your own family and friends are missing.

But we still exchanged presents under our real Christmas tree (Bahamians prefer an artificial one). We went out in the bush to get it and you find people there living in the middle of nowhere building an even good looking house without any neighbours. The road is hardly called a dust road and there was so much garbage on either sides of the street you could not believe it if you did not see it. We where there for like half an hour and I counted 30 rotten, rusted cars, plenty of stoves, fridges, freezers and piles of other garbage. It was sad.

I spend New Year’s Eve at a friends place and we had a nice party. We all watched the Firework down at Port Lucaya because you are not allowed to make your own one here what I really really miss. I love Fireworks and you are raised with this tradition in Germany to buy firework and to make your own one. It was still a nice one we saw though.

During the rest of my break I chilled and helped Greg. We (Greg, Murray, Sherman and I) bottled 3200 bottles of beer on one day at the Brewery. This is more than many of you will drink in your whole life. We also had a party there. We call it a Christmas party, we have food, friends, a good mood and of course enough to drink, only the decoration is missing.

During that some stoned (drunken and also maybe high from Marijuana) persons came in, eat and drink without buying anything and when we went to the liquor store for Christmas shopping guess who we met, right, the same persons buying five bottles of Vodka and other stuff to get drunk over the holidays.

Greg, Murray and I also built a 20 meter long dock over the holidays. We really put some effort in this, first we dug holes behind the stone wall , than hammered one into the wall, put two stringers in, fix them to the poles and after all fill the hole with self-made concrete. We did this four times and finally we screwed the joists across the stingers and then boards on the top, these are plenty of screws but now hopefully, it will survive every hurricane after the last dock was ripped down by one.

I went with GGYA to a camp practice which is generally fun, we cleaned up the beach and believe me we found some garbage, even the well known fridges and finally we went to the “Rand Nature Center” for an art exhibition. The funny thing was that I read “Art Center” instead of “Nature Center” so when I went to the Art Center nobody was there and my ride was gone, so I stood there lost and it took me then one hour to get to the right place because first I did not have the right taxi phone number and secondly the taxi driver even did not know the Nature Center. But it was still a nice exhibition.

At the end I want to tell you that I really enjoyed the Disney Trip with all its’ attractions, shows, fireworks and the opportunity to meet so many other people.  I want to say thank you to the club that gave us extra food-money. Thank you very much, it was useful.

Finally I changed my family on Monday. It is a very nice, Dutch family with two dogs and three cats, a nice, tidy house and a big backyard. I will see what the time brings for me with Peter and Annemarie Koster. I am sure it will be great.

There is one more thing to say:

Thank you Sanae, Murray and especially Greg for hosting me, showing and teaching me so much new, different and exciting things. I had a great time with you and you shall know that I will never forget you.

These were one of the best five months in my life. Greg, it was great to live in your house, I had a lot of fun.