Lost in translation

Curacao is an island of many, many cultures. Growing up here has the benefit of knowing many languages, nationalities and their customs and enjoy all the different cuisines. It is only after being away for a few years, that I came back and saw that what I considered typical Yunan di Korsou (child of Curacao, someone born here) were in fact 2nd generation arabics, 10th generation portugese imigrants and so on. (Trying to leave the island married to a Dutch immigrant has shown me another whole new side of the community). Some things, though, are just not translatable. There just are no words for that specific feeling, emotion or custom in another language.
In the last few weeks everybody on the island was wearing their original national colors out and proud, during the World Cup. Slowly but surely the favorites were being sent home and by default for some, by conviction for others, the island started to color Orange. Every match that NL won, brought on spontaneous honking parades of many, many cars through our street and the students next to us would play Andre Hazes and Guus Meeuwis until our ears bled.

At times like these, being part of the Dutch Kingdom is at it's best. The ambiance is great and is us against the rest of the world.

Trying to get to the beach was a big goal for Joris and I this week, but impossible to achieve, so for the last match of the Cup we decided to go to Port Mari to watch the game at the beach. It was a nerve-wrecking match and the ending was not at all what we all hoped, but we are proud of our team anyway.

The one thing that will stand out the most of this afternoon is this: as it was almost time for the match to begin, Marieke and I started to dry off and put on our orange gear. Marieke's Bavaria dress got a lot of attention, especially from the other Dutch people on the beach. We got a lot of weird looks from the non-Dutch visitors. One of them came up to me and asked: 'What does it mean that: hup?' (He pronounced it hoop oftewel hoep in het nederlands, I still have to laugh everytime I think about it)