I was in a little art gallery in Grand Case on Friday with Andi and Tanner and saw a collection of photos that gave me an idea for this slide show. The photos were random but aesthetic snapshots of the kinds of things you see every day around St. Martin, but hardly notice. It was a timely reminder that good photographs don’t always need to come from grandiose subjects. Sometimes beauty is all around us, but we look past it. Read the rest of this entry »
The girls after church standing by Moby Dick.
We have a car!
It took a while to find a vehicle that is 1) big enough, 2) affordable, and 3) in good condition. But I think we managed to get all three. Our branch president, Rinaldo Kasanwidjojo, called us last weekend to tell us his neighbor was selling an Isuzu Trooper and if we want to see it we should call him fast because he’s asking a great price.
We called the owner, he brought it over, we test drove it and kicked the tires and looked under the hood… and then we bought it.
The thing is huge! Most of the cars on this island are little sub-compact smart cars, and the big ones are little mini SUV’s. This thing is a monstrously huge SUV.
We wanted to give it a name and it didn’t take long to come up with something. It’s a big white whale… so we named it after the fictional giant white sperm whale, Moby Dick. We’re grateful to have Moby in our family and we look forward to exploring the island with him. (Or her?)
 An actual giant white sperm whale |
 Our giant white sperm whale |
Sometimes it’s the little things that make life more enjoyable, and often times we don’t know to appreciate them until they aren’t available.
Fruit smoothies for breakfast, I admit, are a little thing. Yet we made them pretty much every morning in our previous life, and when we arrived on the island sans blender, we all agreed that we missed our smoothies. A lot.
Sometimes, however, it’s also the big things that make life more enjoyable. Or more challenging, depending on which side of that big thing you’re on. This has been a week of solving a few little things, while also tackling some big ones as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Mom Studying
It’s Saturday morning. 6:55 am. Only Tanner and I are awake. When tonight rolls around, we will have been here for a week. And what a week it’s been! To be honest, the kinds of things we’ve been doing are the same things anyone would do after moving to a new place and trying to settle in. We’ve just been doing them on a Caribbean island. And in the process we’ve been given a healthy dose of island craziness. Read the rest of this entry »
In the six days that we’ve been on the island, it’s become obvious that while we’re here we won’t ever have the “normal” to which we were accustomed in the States. And that’s okay. And even good. We knew heading into this adventure that we were leaving America and heading to a foreign country. The kind of normal I’m talking about is a routine. A schedule. A feeling of knowing what you’re going to do that day when you wake up in the morning. Instead, for the first couple of days we woke up thinking “We have no car, no internet, no phone, and low prospects for getting any of them”.
We all felt the most pressing was internet access. It’s amazing how disconnected and lonely you can feel when you have no way to communicate. But getting that connectivity was a mini-adventure of its own, and I suspect a good foreshadowing of what’s in store for the next 20 months. Read the rest of this entry »
We overslept on Sunday morning. Luckily not by much. Scurrying around prepping for church in a hurry was complicated by our unfamiliarity with our new condo and by our hasty unpacking done in a haze of fatigue the previous evening. The Daniels picked us up about 8:20 a.m. in two different vehicles and we caravanned to church.
Welcome to the St. Martin Branch, Mon!
For friends who may read this who are not Mormon, here’s a quick crash course in Mormon vocabulary: A congregation of Mormon’s comes in two types: wards and branches. Wards are big. Branches are small. I don’t know the definitive number where a ward becomes a branch, but I do know that the St. Martin branch is a long ways from reaching it. Neither is better than the other, they are just different. And each has their own peculiarities and challenges.
I had no idea what to expect of the St. Martin branch. None of us did. And yet trying to keep an open mind, it turned out, didn’t help ease the culture shock very much.
Ok, it didn’t actually help at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Our arrival at Prince Julian Internationa Airport on St. Martin... along with our mountain of luggage.
Our five hour flight out of winter and into perpetual summer was uneventful, which is good. Cheers to Sun Country for offering cheap, affordable flights direct from Minneapolis to St. Martin! Piper was an absolute trooper and drew smiles and amiable comments from fellow passengers.
Upon disembarking, we blew through customs with a breeze, which was a relief. With the help of some island porters (one of whom asked for a larger tip) we hauled our mini-mountain of luggage to the curb where we were picked up by our new friends, Karla Stephens and Cheyenne and Michael McGlue. Karla and Cheyenne are fellow spouses of AUC students and the three of us have been corresponding extensively via email and Facebook the last few months.
Our Condo:
The Daniel’s and McGlue caravan drove us to our new Condo at Rainbow Beach. It was a short drive but still long enough to introduce us to island driving. (We also learned a new vocabulary phrase: “Island Car”. Any vehicle that still drives but is otherwise falling apart is called an island car. Missing a mirror or a door handle? No problem, mon! I think we’ll own one of these cars sometime soon.) Read the rest of this entry »
The seven days leading up to our departure on December 31st, 2011 was an absolute grab-bag of emotions. Christmas was wonderful. It was just the five of us and the house was still fully intact, complete with all the usual and beautiful Christmas décor. That evening we were joined by Grandma and Grandpa Holm, Michelle, Hanna, Tommy and Jordan.
The next morning, however, packing began in earnest. By noon Christmas had been packed away, walls were made bare, and shelves emptied. By bedtime the house was hardly recognizable. Walking around and looking at the empty walls and gutted bedrooms was hard, and more than once I fought back tears. Read the rest of this entry »
In the 11th hour, things fell into place. We put our house up for sale back in August, and as December ticked closer it was getting harder to keep a positive outlook on what would become of our house.
At first we dismisses the possibility of becoming landlords outright. We didn’t want to worry about someone trashing our house when we were not around. But by late November and early December, we began to realize that renting might become a reality.
A few weeks ago Cari got a phone call from Jill Erickson, a good friend from church. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Monday, December 19th. All of the final details of this move are finally falling into place. Here’s a summary of the highlights:
The House:
I think we have found renters. There are a few formalities to wrap up, but so far it looks good. We met them last week when they came back for a second look. Nice people! No kids, which is sad for the neighbor families but good for our house. We should hear sometime very soon (like, today) if they are fully approved.
Fingers crossed. Read the rest of this entry »