Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine APRIL 2019 | Page 518

MOUNT THE DONKEY
Mr. Berkel is an engaging
story teller. So life on a small
Caribbean island that had to
look after itself truly comes
to life when he recalls his
memories of what it was
like. Practically the whole
population of the island lived
in its only town, Oranjestad. So
the day started with riding to
the plantation – on a donkey.
Donkeys were the only means
of transportation in those
days. They transported people,
produce from the plantation
(in baskets placed in the
crook), wood for cooking
(obviously, there was no gas
or electricity), and grass or the
tops of sugar cane as fodder
for the cattle. “Some donkeys
were also trained for pulling
donkey carts,“ Mr. Berkel adds.
Mr. Berkel remembers how his
mother used to make butter
from the cream of the milk. He
and his siblings used to help:
“The cream was poured into
bottles. And then you shake
and shake and keep shaking.”
The manure from the cows
Every day, the children also
was used as fertilizer – and for
went to the plantation early in
cooking! We will get to that
the morning before going to
school. Because the cows were later.
milked in the morning and the The goats (kept for their meat)
children then distributed the
were put out on a pasture as
milk to the extended family or
well. The chickens were given
to regular customers in town.
their feed.
The cows were then taken to
pastures for the day.
Berkel
Plantation
A day in the life of a planter
on St. Eustatius
On the east coast of the small Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, between the lavish green of
the slopes of the island’s magnificent dormant volcano and the intense blue of the sea, lies a little
paradise bursting with a plethora of colors. It is the Berkel Family Plantation. And even though it is
as vibrantly alive as can be – with flowers, trees and fruit – it is also very much a place of history. Its
custodian, Ishmael Berkel, established a museum on the grounds to illustrate what life was like in the
early 1900’s when the isolated island had to rely on itself for everything. For this year’s Black History
Month, Mr. Berkel took it one dimension further and revived a day in the life of a St. Eustatius planter.
Mr. Ishmael Berkel explaining about the donkeys and cows