A
dance party!
A
softball tournament!
Traditional
foods!
Today's
fun and games in the Caribbean island of Curacao are in celebration
of the country's Flag Day. (Curacao used to be part of the
Netherlands Antilles but is now “a constituent country of theKingdom of the Netherlands.” It's also the “C” part of the “ABC
islands,” along with Aruba and Bonaire.)
Curacao
used to be the home of some Arawak Amerindians, but the architecture
and languages show more influence from Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese,
and African peoples. Many people on the island speak four languages:
Spanish, Dutch, English, and a “creole language” called
Papiamento. (Apparently, an awful lot speak FIVE languages, because
they add to this list either French or German!) A creole is a
language created from a mixture of two or more languages—created
largely by children from different language traditions trying to
communicate with each other! This particular creole comes from
African languages mixed with either Portuguese or Spanish, with some
influence from Dutch, English, and Amerindian languages.
Today
people in Curacao celebrate their “melting pot” of peoples and
cultures by eating such dishes as intestine soup, cornmeal paste,
papaya stew, fried plantain (banana) and coconut sweets. Yum?
One
of the most famous scuba dives in the waters of Curacao explores the
“mushroom forest.” You might guess that divers don't really see a
forest of mushrooms (which are fungi), but instead see a variety of
coral formations and loads of fish. Many of the corals (which are
animals) are called “mushroom corals.” Check out this lovely dive!
Also
on this date:
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