Bon Bini from Bonaire: On the Island

The island of Bonaire is a big mountain, mostly under sea level, consisting of igneous rock mainly covered with limestone that emerged out of the sea. The Spanish and Dutch were the first explorers and were not impressed with the island because there were no precious metals like silver or gold nor much vegetation. Later however they discovered the great value of the salt pans on the island and the Dutch made it big business. Salt was very important for preserving food and the Dutch were shipping 30,000 tons of salt per year to Amsterdam. Their supply was cut off from Venezuela because of a war so they had to find a new supply. Bonaire was the place. The white gold was just lying in the natural salt pans for them to grab.

We finally arrived in Bonaire on January 24th. The couple we replaced (the Bawdens) picked us up at the airport around 4pm. We drove to the apartment, dropped off our stuff then went to the grocery store. The next day we jumped right in and started visiting investigators, members, and less active members. They showed us around the island and we saw several of the sights. Bonaire is a small island only about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide.

On Seru Largu with the Bawdens. This is the highest point on the Island

Our first impressions of Bonaire. Tiny narrow streets, (Brigham Young had nothing to do with the layout of this city!), confusion, bumpy roads, fast drivers, no traffic regulations, not quite as much honking as in the DR, but there is honking. It is humid, hot, not nearly as dirty as the DR, hot, a desert island, tall, tall cactus, fences made of cactus, beautiful blue waters, (did I mention hot and humid?), bright, sunny days, cooler, clear warm nights (we can see all the stars), wind from the northwest, always blowing providing natural evaporative cooling, beautiful flowers - not in abundance however- and it has the salt pans and salt mountains and did I mention it is hot? .The people are very friendly they will let you in when driving, they always greet you with Bon Dia! Which means - Good Day! We thought we would never find our way around but now we even know the short cuts!

On the street where we live

Home sweet away from Home

Bas and Ellie Noij are our landlords. They are from Holland. Ellie is a member of the church and comes with her children......darling daughters. Mayra who just turned 5 yrs. and Yali, just about 3. They came to Bonaire to get away from the rat race in Holland and live the dream. Bas loves diving and owns VIP Diving, It is an award winning scuba diving company.
We live in the basement apartment in this big lovely home on Kaya Rubi which means Ruby street.
At first we thought all the fences were to keep out the criminals but it is also to keep out the wild donkeys and goats that are all over walking in the street and yards.

We live up on a hill so the view from the Noij's balcony is great. We are welcome to use the pool since we are Senior Missionaries and our rules are different from the Elders. Elder Vander Veur has gone in the pool a number of times and really enjoys it. It is not heated so it is not my favorite, but I understand in August and September it will be (are you ready for this???) HOTTER. So then I will probably jump.... in the pool that is.