Telling Stories in the Virgin Islands

For the last two weeks, Nelson and I have been visiting a friend on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. We have known Martha Holder from the time we lived in Denver, where she and Gene, her husband, ran a school. They decided to sell the school and everything else they owned to make their move to the Caribbean. Gene died last year, but Martha has made her home there for thirty years.

Going anywhere on that small island with Martha is like going to a home coming because she knows everyone. After they arrived in 1978, they started a school there as well. The Rockefeller resort, Little Dix, had a small empty building on their property and let Gene and Martha fill it with kids. The kids who came were often learning disabled children who were floundering in the traditional British school on the island. The Holders ran a regular school for about 18 full time kids during the day, and they ran a tutoring program for the kids from the British school, who were asking for help.

Martha has since retired, but the Valley Day School, even though it’s in a different building, is thriving. Take a look at the picture of the kids hanging over the railing. That’s the Valley Day group. The boy on the far right is so smart, but he can’t read at all. His teacher, the lady on the left, has him tell the compositions she assigns. She asks him to write the first paragraph, which he does with help from home. She asks him to read it when they present their stories, which he does with a lot of help. She then frees him to tell the rest of the story, and he is good. The day I visited they were writing stories about leprechauns. It was so much fun to hear how one of the wee folk would do on Virgin Gorda. That boy did such a grand job. In return, I told them, not a leprechaun story, but a tall tale about Shorty and the little man who took up residence in the dumpster in the alley behind our house. I felt so happy to be visiting those children and their teacher.

I was lucky enough also to tell stories during our visit at Robinson O’Neal Elementary School. The road to that school involved driving over Virgin Gorda mountain, which means you go straight up for awhile and then straight down. The view was gorgeous, of deep blue water and faraway islands, but I closed my eyes through some of it. Take a look at the picture. That’s the lower grades. We crammed two classes into one room and right next door a big machine was busy digging. The teachers found a quieter room for the older kids, and it was much easier to listen