Our new intern Rory arrived this week. Rory has deferred admission from Davidson College for a year and lives in Vermont with his parents and four younger siblings. He has been shadowing our tour guides for the last few days, as well as learning about the famed Molasses Reef Wreck. Today he successfully led the last two tours off the Carnival Glory. He proceeded to jokingly declare himself “The #1 Tour Guide on the island,” to heated debate from the museum’s other guides. Rory will be with the Museum for the next two months. If you happen to be by, please request his #1 tour!

By Pat Saxton
Museum Administrator

The Hutt family carefully cataloged grave sites at St Thomas Church on Grand Turk.

The Turks & Caicos National Museum has been very fortunate to have a lot of wonderful volunteers doing some very interesting jobs! Among the most interesting is cataloging the grave sites at St. Thomas’ church in Grand Turk. Many of the grave markers have been weathered beyond recognition, so the Hutt Family has been recording the headstones which are still readable, so that there will be a record for the future.

Duncan, Sally and their son Fraser have spent many long hours in the sun so that this bit of history will be saved. They came up with a schematic of the graveyard, and were able to record most of the site, using death records to help identify the graves. These records are now housed within the Museum and should one day find a home in a National Archival Building. The Hutts were in Turks & Caicos doing volunteer work on Middle Caicos for the National Trust, and for their Christmas break, decided to come to Grand Turk to volunteer for the Museum.

By Pat Saxton
Museum Administrator

Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow? This old English children’s rhyme had more to do with politics than gardening—but the Museum’s Arboretum/Botanical Garden is all about the garden!

Through the years the Turks and Caicos National Arboretum has metamorphosed into many things. After its establishment, native trees planted in the garden grew unexpectedly well into a cool, shady forest of green with winding paths and fragrant blossoms, where Museum events were held and people walked.  After Hurricane Ike in 2008, when it was nearly destroyed, the Arboretum was left to fend for itself and further deteriorated. Unfortunately, it had much help from invasive plants as well as non-caring folks who used it as a dumping ground for trash and stolen items.

The botanical and cultural garden will be divided into zones reflecting the landscape diversity found in the TCI. It will also eventually include a butterfly garden and local plants used for medicinal purposes.

Flash forward to August 2010, when a new team of Museum staff saw the endless possibilities for the garden. A proposal was made, and with the help of a local botanist, a scheme was set in motion. With seed money from a Wilmington Hurricane Relief Grant and hopefully other funding, the National Arboretum is changing into the Turks and Caicos Botanical and Cultural Garden.  Oh, and did I mention that all of this work was done with volunteers? From the proposal, to the layout, to the removal of years of garbage, to the lovely benches that were donated by Caribbean Tours International, (see Gazebo Renovation, October 22, 2010), the work has been initiated through the in-kind donations of individuals and companies.

When we started the clean up last Fall, we stumbled across a cash register that had been dumped there after a recent robbery of a famous fried chicken establishment. The Police were called, and after getting the facts, the policewoman started speaking about how lovely the garden used to be and how peaceful it was. We explained that we were trying to turn it around, and she was extremely pleased.

This seems to be the consensus of the island.  The Garden’s focus will be expanded to include many different native plants, including those with uses in the local “bush medicine” pharmacopeia. Well-grown mature trees will be pruned properly and labeled with identification markers, and facilities for caring for the garden will be upgraded. Strategic use of native plants will showcase their value in landscaping to encourage homeowners and businesses to choose landscaping schemes inclusive of TCI’s own botanical heritage.

We hope the Garden will again be a peaceful place for both residents and day visitors to observe and learn about nature, be it the resident yellow crowned night-herons, the numerous butterflies, or whale watching in February. The garden is coming back to life and we hope to improve it into a true national treasure. We are still in the first stages of the transformation. Keep checking the blog for regular updates and when you can, come by and see it for yourself.

By Donald H. Keith, PhD
Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Sapodilla Hill, the southernmost point of Providenciales is one of the most important sites of historical significance in all the Turks and Caicos Islands. For centuries, passengers and crew members whiled away the hours spent waiting for their ships to load and unload in Sapodilla Bay by carving inscriptions into the soft rocks. The inscriptions include the names of many of the most prominent families in the TCI as well as dates and images of houses and ships. In recent years population growth on Provo and resulting increase in visitation to Sapodilla Hill has resulted in breakage, vandalism, and theft of many of the portable stones bearing inscriptions. Concerned that the inscriptions would be stolen or destroyed if left unprotected, the National Museum, DECR, AND Construction and the Do It Center, joined forces to save all the portable stones bearing inscriptions.

AND Construction team with the “stretcher.”

The feat was accomplished on Saturday, December 11, in only a few hours. Because the path from the top of the hill is steep, rocky, narrow and impassable for motorized vehicles, plenty of strong backs and several “stretchers” were needed to man-handle 40 stones, some weighing several hundred pounds, more than 100 meters to the nearest road.

Loading was done carefully and professionally.

The stones are safe and sound at the Grace Bay building.

There, the largest stones were loaded into the bed of AND Construction’s truck, thickly padded with heavy insulation material.  The remaining stones were placed in the trunks and back seats of four private vehicles for the slow, cautious trip to the Museum’s facility in Grace Bay where they were off-loaded for storage until the next phase of the project begins.  Amazingly, there was no damage to the stones or injuries among the work crew.

The National Museum wishes to thank Chris Haggie and ­­­­­­­­the entire AND Construction crew, Ken Adams of the Do It Center, photographer David Stone, architect Jeff Lee, volunteers Duncan, Fraser, and Sally Hutt, and Tom and Jill Linette — two tourists from Allentown, Pennsylvania who stopped by to see the inscriptions but pitched in immediately when they saw we needed help.

The Sapodilla Hill “Rescue Squad” after a hard day’s work and still smiling.

It was a great day with a great team! Many thanks to David Stone for taking all the photos.

By Jackie Garbarino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manager

Hard at work

With the help of hardworking and precise volunteers, Pat Saxton’s dream of a map room is now complete and open for business. Painting, carpentry, interior design and sheer muscle power came together in the best possible way.

Our local and visiting customers are very impressed with the result.

Checking out the new maps for sale

The shop is happy to be selling more maps than usual, so all is good at the Guinep House Gift Shop. Come in check out our maps and pictures.

Our "bowsing" chair

By Jackie Garbarino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manager

What would the holiday be without a party!?!  And this one was to thank all our staff and volunteers for working so hard these past four months.  Not everyone could be there but we still want to thank everyone.

In the picture are Ann Dempsey, Candianne Williams, Nikki Jennings, Alessio Girotti, Pat Saxton, Melanie Clifton-Harvey (she ducked down as I took the picture but I know she was there!), Joseph and Johnnie, Donald Keith, Deborah Kigozi, Derek Taylor and Claude Bagot.

The food and the company were fantastic

Missing are Pat Cassidy, Catherine Foley,  Mitchell Loeb, Katja Rauber, Stephanie Human, Neil Saxton, Meg and Gordon Ward, Daniel Oselette, Roger Hartley, Barry and Gwen Garbarino, Hedley King and me. Someone had to take the picture.

By Jackie Garabino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manage

Catherine, the master of restoration, is going to make these shelves shine.

The work continues to transform the shop and kitchen area. Catherine is the champion restorer of all things decrepit! Catherine, Joseph and I will move the restored shelving back into the kitchen and work on dismantling that shelving in the middle room.

Mitchell and Joseph studying the intracacies of door dismantling.

The idea of a map and book middle room is coming into reality. Mitchell and Joseph removed the door and brought my desk into the kitchen area. Joseph had to saw off part of the desk, but you do what you must to make it fit.

Pat Cassidy making like a government worker stamping bags. Paper of course because we are "going green."

Pat Cassidy can stamp and sell without working up a sweat.  She said she felt more like a prisoner stamping out license plates.  Maybe we need to improve working conditions at the museum….hmmm.

Vladimir and his sidekick inspect their work.

What’s especially exciting is that our new alarm system is finally complete. The guys said they stand by their system, which means is it tough and ready!

By Jackie Garbarino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manager

After some trial and error, we finally got our credit card machine up and running. So now we can shout to the world, “yes, we take credit cards!”

Our first credit card customer. I am smiling for two reasons –
the sale and the fact I figured out how to use the machine.

By Jackie Garbarino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manager

Joseph is still smiling in spite of the hard work

Joseph and I decided to tackle a small part of the Mother In Law infestation to make more room on the portico for the cruise tour visitors. It took 2 hours plus.

We can even see a little bit of the ground now.

The root looks like a large carrot and if we don’t dig that out the plant comes back like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.

Working for the next 2 weeks every day and we might just make a dent in the problem. These girls have definitely been growing out of control. Time to establish discipline in the museum yard!

Progress is slow but steady.

But it won’t happen in

By Jackie Garbarino
Museum Gift Shop and Volunteer Manager

Well, soon we will take credit cards. First we have to get the internet working in the gift shop. Again our volunteers to the rescue.

The internet elf . . . how to get a signal through these thick walls he asks?!?

Dan Boucher came all the way from Canada to help us out. Dan is a friend of Mitchell Loeb in the sort of Panama hat. Mitchell and Catherine spend most of their winters here. Mitchell has a plane and tomorrow he goes to Provo to pick up Catherine, and he is going to bring back 300 feet of Ethernet cable saving the museum $93! Price in Provo $42, price in GDT $135…not exactly priceless!

More to come.

At the end of the day the volunteers gathered on the front porch for a well deserved break.

Coffee and pastry on the balcony provided by the workers… it can’t get better than this! Finbar Dempsey and Meg Ward are in the chairs. Gordon Ward (who happens to be the chief justice and helped put up the curtain but does not want to be named) is on the bench beside Meg’s chair, then Mitchell, Dan and Ann.