CLASP 2010: Jollification Time

SHANTEES: FUN FOR ALL

Jollification” was just as popular in the Boating trade.  Anguilla men-folk used boats for fishing and travelling to St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Martin and as far as Santo Domingo to work in the cane fields.  As with “Jollification”  on land when the people would sing as they worked the ground, so did the seamen. They sang ditties or short songs that became known as chanteys, also spelt with an ‘s’, thus the name of our group.   In the spirit of sharing during jollification time, the group teachers (Joyce, Julie, Kurlida, Joselyn, Verrin and Carmen) decided to impart some of their knowledge of a life long gone by, the life we knew growing up and that of our grandparents.  Not only did the teachers educate the children, it was vice versa as the children collected jollification stories from their elders and read them to the group.

The Shantees enjoyed two fun and activity filled weeks.   The Shantees along with the Jollies benefitted from a visit to Desert Green Organic Farm where they saw many species of plants that are used for food.  In addition to this, they experienced mixing fertilizer and dirt as well as weeding the ground and feeding the turtles that live at the farm.  The Shantees and the Jollies had a special treat on this field trip as they witnessed Teacher Kelley creating a fireplace out of three rocks with the added bonus of Teacher Carmen cooking a huge pot of corn and pea soup like our grandparents did in the old time days. Mmmmm, that was some tasty soup, makes our mouths water just thinking of it.  This trip was enjoyed by all and Mr. Leroy Browne taught us many interesting aspects of natural farming. 

The boys from the Shantees and the Jollies teamed up together to build rollers. This brought back memories to the teachers as they thought back to the days when they too used to make and play with rollers.  Teacher Kelley was very patient with the boys as he taught them to hammer home a nail and to line up the pieces of wood. This was a hands on job that the boys enjoyed immensely, they also painted the rollers.  The girls created dolls out of wire and sponge; they enjoyed the painting of the bodies and painting on the faces.  The Shantees also made whistles out of an aluminium biscuit pan and made bush tea.  Not only did they learn about sharing and jollification, they also learned recycling and creativity.  The children had a wonderful time.  They were taught new ring games such as “dollar, dollar” and “fishes swim.”  They in turn taught us, the adults, new games.  The Shantees had a wonderful time at CLASP 2010.