by Rachel

Roatan is such an interesting place in many ways – geographically, historically, politically and culturally. We have learned a lot about the island through museums, books, websites and just plain talking to people. 🙂

There are 5 main groups of people on the island that help tell the story of Roatan. I’ve had the chance to talk with a representative from all of them and will give a brief description here.

First, a little history. There are no indigenous groups left on the islands. Spanish explorers first came to Roatan in 1502, and in the following years, the native people (Paya Indians) were killed or forced off the island. The Spanish had a presence on the island for hundreds of years, along with some British explorers and pirates.

One of the first groups to arrive on the island and maintain a permanent community are the Garifuna. The Garifuna are an ethnic group with Arawak Indian and African roots. They speak their own language and have many of their own customs. They came to Roatan in 1797 from St. Vincent after the British forced them off the island. They settled in Roatan and have over 30 communities on mainland Honduras and Belize. They mostly live in the community of Punta Gorda.

Roatan has another community of African descendants – the Black Islanders. This group speaks Islander English which is oftentimes hard to understand! Most of the Black Islander descendants came from the Cayman Islands as freed slaves after slavery was abolished by Britain in the 1830s. They settled on Roatan to start a new life. The Black Islander communities are Flower’s Bay, Sandy Bay, and Oak Ridge.

Another group that settled on Roatan are the British. Some came after slavery was abolished, others arrived when Roatan became a British island, in the 1850s. Their descendants are called the White Islanders or British descendants. They are light skinned, often with blue eyes, and also speak a form of Island English that’s hard to understand. Their main settlement was French Harbor, and Jonesville is another community. I don’t have any photos of the White Islanders we met, but below are photos from the sloth farm that a family of British descendants owns and operates.

After Roatan became a part of Honduras in 1861, more Spanish from the mainland started to migrate to the island. But it was after hurricane Mitch, in 1998, that large numbers of Spanish, or Mainlanders, started coming to the island. Now, they make up the largest group on the island. They have their own settlements but have also integrated into all of the other communities on the island.

Finally, there are the expats. This is a growing group of people moving here from all over the world. Some live here full time and some have second homes here. They come as divers, missionaries, libertarians, retirees…we’ve met people who are here for so many reasons! Most of our ex-pat friends are here doing some kind of non-profit work: running a medical clinic, teaching, or other mission work. We know folks who run dive shops and teach others to dive. And we’ve met people who just want to live on a tropical island. 🙂 Our dearest friends are the VanZees, Americans who moved here 6 years ago with their 5 kids (with a sixth child born here!). They own and operate 2 restaurants as well as the Roatan Refuge – the apartments where we live.

by Rachel

This is my third time in Roatan and every time I stay here, I learn more, meet new people and have new experiences. Like Monday, for example. My friend Elias, who is Honduran, is a tour guide on the island. On Monday, three cruise ships came to Roatan, which brings thousands of people (like 10,000) to the island for the day. Elias’s wife Rosa was helping with the tours, but she doesn’t feel comfortable driving their new car so Elias asked if I could drive Rosa’s tour around.

We started the day at 7:00 am waiting for the first cruise ship to arrive. We watched it on a mobile app (www.marinetraffic.com) until we could see it from the island in the distance. The ships are so gigantic!

Once the cruise ship docked, we joined the throng of tour guides, drivers, and peddlers all hustling their way to the passengers as they disembarked from the boat. We found our first family for the day – a Hungarian couple and their 6 year old daughter. Rosa and I took them to their snorkeling destination and returned to pick up our next group. I really enjoyed talking with the family and learning about their travels. As we drove along, Rosa and I told them about the island and answered their questions.

We returned to the port in Coxen Hole just in time to watch thousands of people walk off the second boat. We sat in traffic as we approached the port and finally found a place to park. We picked up our next load of passengers – folks from the US. Elias also had a van full of passengers. He went in one direction and I went in the other. Rosa eventually took over the car while I went back to retrieve the Hungarians who were done snorkeling. Elias picked them up and took them to their next destination. I was done by 12:30 but thoroughly exhausted from my half day of tour guiding!

Post by Lily Sandhorst

We already have less then a week left! Where did the other three weeks go? Anyways, we still have lots of stuff planned for the last few days, mostly hanging out with friends and swimming. My grandparents and their two friends have been here since the 14th and will leave on Saturday just three days before we leave. We have been swimming and eating with my grandparents and their friends a lot and showing them our favorite parts of the island.

Each of the apartments of students, and our own have cooked a meal for the rest of us. We went first and served baked potatoes. Next the group of four girls made chicken fajitas which were AMAZING! The next group of girls cooked pasta with alfredo and red sauce (which if you mix together makes really good pink sauce) and garlic bread, which was also really good but there wasn’t quite enough. This coming Sunday the boys are going to cook and I have no idea what they are going to cook but I heard a rumor that they’re making pancakes which would be AWESOME!!!!!

This coming Sunday we are going to take all of the students zip lining and then we will get a tour of Gumbalimba park which we also did last year and is really fun. It is a series of shortish zip lines and then the tour. Along the tour we see a really cool insect museum, play with monkeys and parrots and just see the whole park.

I don’t have any photos of our meals, but here is a photo of us on a water taxi with my grandparents and their friends.

By Sylvia

We are living on the north side of Roatán but we recently spent an afternoon in some communities on the south side of the island. A few weeks ago, after we did our school work, we went to Flowers Bay with the students. We traveled there in typical Roatán style, with six people in the back seat of Nic’s truck. In Flowers Bay, we went to an organization called the Abundant Life Foundation. The Abundant Life Foundation is a non-profit organization run by Americans. They opened a school in 2011, and another school and church in 2015. Their most recent project, that we got to see, is Los Sueños, the dreams. ALF has built 30 two bedroom homes on one piece of land, and they are helping islanders take out a loan to buy a house. While they are helping the islanders, they are also creating an intentional community, where they want people to want to live. If you are interested in learning more or donating, click here.

After being at the Abundant Life Foundation, we took a bus to Coxen Hole. One of the students, Tessa, was our “tour guide” along the way. When we got to Coxen Hole, we went to Made In Roatán, a small gift shop where everything is made by people living on the island. We bought some gifts, before returning to our home. It was a very fun afternoon!

By Sylvia

About 2 weeks ago, on the first weekend that we were here, a big storm blew. There was some rain, but mostly, it was wind. The temperature dropped to about 75 degrees, and we were all freezing! It is amazing how fast you adjust to the temperature.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning. The VanZees, the people that we are staying with, go to church at a kids church in Sandy Bay. The most exciting part is that it is all in Spanish! I understood parts of it, but not the whole thing! After the service, which was not very long, we did a craft, before serving lunch that the VanZees made.

After church, we went to West Bay, the nicest beach on the island. We ate lunch at Totally Taco, Nic VanZee’s restaurant. The food was delicious! Then, we went to the beach. Because of the storm, there were giant waves, but we braved the waters. At first, it was really scary, but the VanZees knew what they were doing, and helped us calm down. Once we got used to the waves, it was really fun!

By Sylvia

Where is Roatan? Why are we here? Have we been here before? Never fear, I am here to answer all of your questions about Roatan! Roatan is a small island off the coast of Honduras (see map) It is part of the Bay Islands, which consists of Roatan, Utilia, and Guanaja. Roatan is surrounded by the Meso-American reef, the second largest barrier reef after Australia.

My dad teaches at Luther College, and last year he created a new J-term course to Roatan. So we are here with 15 college students. It is definitely fun having the students around, but they stress my dad out! The course is called Ethical Engagement in a Changing World and a big part of what the students are doing here is internships. One draw to the course is that students with many different interests can find something to do. There are students at a clinic, a few different schools, and various other environmental nonprofits.

In 2017, we came here for the first time. My dad was scouting for this course, and our family came down 2 weeks early for vacation! Then, in January of 2019, our family came down with the Christmans! My dad was teaching with Victoria, and her kids, plus me and Lily, plus the 6 kids who live here had a lot of fun! This year, my dad is teaching with Scott Carlson, who is fun, but not nearly as fun as the Christmans!

If you have any more general questions about Roatan, please write them in the comment section below!

Post by Lily

We have already done lots of baking in Roatan. My mom has really enjoyed baking in the sun, but me and my sister have mostly done baking goodies to share. Amelia VanZee (an avid baker) has assisted us in making these treats. In a christmas gift exchange I had gotten a gingerbread doghouse which we attempted to put together soon after we got here. I say attempted because the icing wouldn’t stick because it was so hot here, but we still had lots of fun decorating (and eating) the pieces. The VanZees’ had extra candy that we added to give it a more ” beauty”. A few days later we made sugar cookies, and frosted them beautifully. Those were eaten and enjoyed by those who frosted them and by those who didn’t. Our last dish (for now) were cookie pops that we took to Amelia’s girls club. We made sugar cookie dough and mixed sprinkles into it. We then flattened them, put them on popsicle sticks and baked them, but not before adding extra sprinkles to the top. All of the dishes were a smash hit.

Post by Lily

We are back in Roatan again! After traveling for two days we are back with old friends, making new ones, and enjoying the heat. 🥵We got here on Tuesday the 31st after waking up at 3:45 to catch a 6:00 flight. 😴Some of us stayed up to set off fireworks at midnight, a tradition here. Some of us being Sylvia and me, while our parents were sleeping. Since we didn’t “go to school” until Monday, Jan. 6, we got to hang out with the VanZees, (the family who runs these apartments) swim in the pool and ocean, try (and fail) to cool down, and altogether have a good time. On Sunday and Monday, there was a huge storm, mostly wind but we also got some rain. The wind led to HUGE waves along parts of the coast, so naturally, we just HAD to go play in them.🌊 We had so much fun Sunday and Monday afternoon, jumping them, swimming under them, body surfing them, even boogie boarding the waves. 🏄🏻‍♀️ So far that has been the highlight of the trip for me, but I know there is much more fun to come, and I promise that I will keep you posted when it does.

P.S. I would put in more pictures but my mom doesn’t take enough.

Note: WordPress keeps changing it’s editing interface on me and now I can’t figure out how to make the captions show up when you roll over them. Sorry! I think you have to click on the individual photo but I’m not even getting that to work this morning due to really slow internet.

Our daily rhythm is usually the same: school work in the morning and free afternoons for playing, swimming and exploring. Some afternoons the kids stay here at Roatan Refuge where we are living. The VanZee’s, who operate Roatan Refuge, have 6 children, and the Christman’s have 3 so there is quite gaggle of kids to entertain each other. The kids love swimming in the pool, doing face paints or playing games. All the playing usually continues after dinner as well!

Some afternoons we go to the closest beach, West End, to swim, snorkel, and play on an old sailboat (it’s like a huge jungle gym out in the water). Gelato is sometimes involved.

My favorite times, though, are when we get out and explore the island a little more.

SOL FOUNDATION and BICA

The SOL Foundation and BICA share a building in Sandy Bay, in a relatively poor neighborhood. SOL (School Of Life) supports neighborhood kids in a variety of ways. They provide meals, tutoring, a safe place to play, a backpack program and sports teams. It is a beautiful, vibrant community center that is so welcoming and always full of kids. We helped twice at SOL, once working directly with the children and once helping with a building project. Trash, and plastic in particular, abounds on the island, and SOL has a creative way to reuse some of that plastic. Children collect plastic bottles and other plastic trash and then stuff the bottles with the plastic. And I mean really stuff – using rebar to pack it in – because the bottles have to be as stiff as bricks. These bottles are then used to help build a wall around the community center. It’s a beautiful process – and result.

BICA, or Bay Island Conservation Association, is the other organization in this building. We helped with two of their projects: the brand audit/beach clean up that Sylvia wrote about, and a study on the ocean currents around the Bay Islands. Luther students painted 1,000 yellow boards and we helped write instructions on them. The photo says it all. 🙂 We want to follow up on the results so we’ll be checking in on Facebook!

It has been great to make connections with organizations on the island, mostly because of the internships that are set up for the Luther class. We have students working at both BICA and SOL and we enjoy learning what they are doing and joining them at times. We have really appreciated meeting new, delightful people, having experiences unlike anything in the States, and learning so much – about people, the island and oceans, and the importance of connections.

By Sylvia

One afternoon last week, we had the amazing opportunity to go to Anthony’s Key Resort to look around their museum on the history of Roatan. We also attended a presentation by someone who works at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS) that is in a building at Anthony’s Key Resort. It was fun to look around the museum and see artifacts from the indigenous people, the Spanish and the people who moved here from the mainland.

https://anthonyskey.com

https://www.roatanims.org

After that, we went into a classroom area and listened to a presentation about coral restoration by one of the people who works at RIMS. It was so interesting! I want to share some of the cool things that we learned there!

When you hear coral trees, you probably think about a big tree with red flowers on it. But I am talking about a fiberglass tree structure that is anchored underwater to help regrow corals that can then be replanted out on the reef. RIMS has about 20 coral trees that they maintain with two different species of coral. Staghorn and elkhorn coral are the two fastest growing corals and because of that, they are great for coral trees. The idea behind a coral tree is to provide a place for corals to grow quickly, so that in a year, you can cut the small growths off of the bigger animal and then transplant them onto the reef.

Until about a year ago, staghorn and elkhorn corals were the only corals that scientists knew about that could regrow themselves that quickly. But recently, new research at the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Florida has found new ways to quickly grow other types of coral. Dr. David Vaughan first discovered this new method for growing giant corals quickly. He realized that if you break a piece off one of these giant corals, therefore putting the coral under stress, it will grow more than 20 times as fast as it would in the wild. Because of this, people can now start transplanting other types of giant corals onto the reef to diversify the new growth. If you would like to learn more, you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7n19msJhmQ