Mal Tempu - Bad Weather

[charlescroes]

MAL TEMPU
Bad times (weather)
August 26, 2006

There is a saying on the island (mostly used by the elders) that goes like this;
“Tempu ta na betro” I could be off a letter of two here or there but that is real close. This saying deals with the weather we are currently having.

Tempu – Time or weather
Ta - is
Na - at
Betro - an alcoholic drink you can swig down like a shot of rum.

This normally refers to the kind of drizzly weather that invites laziness and a good sit-down under a full DIVI tree to take a shot of your favorite rum with some friends. There is absolutely no better time to shoot rum shots, tell stories, and amplify the facts until they become an outright lie. Great time for it and great stuff to do. Imagine being able to actually catch that elusive huge grouper! Well - when “Tempu to na betro” your imagination can soar and your listeners will soar with you – at least until the hangover subsides and becomes a mere ravaging headache. That is when you will be referred to as a drunken liar. But AHHH the great fun that it is.

Normally you look off to the South in the direction of Venezuela and that is there where the rain tends to come from. At this point the dark threat is all around us but not many actual drops have fallen yet. They sit out there and “Hunker” (Hunker - a North Carolina word and not an Aruba one) and look at us and seem to want to ask permission to rain on us.

There is some sort of a pact that exists between the weather gods and the residents on our island. It must have to do with rain and sun quotas per year. I suspect that the weather gods cheat once in a while but then our promotional ads aren’t always the crystal-clear-truth. Quite possibly there is some fudging on both sides (Fudging - a Betty Crocker word)

It is cool now – a rare thing here, there is little wind – also rare and
“tempo ta na betro”.
Be well
charles

[jsusanne]

Originally Posted by charlescroes

MAL TEMPU

Bad times (weather)
August 26, 2006

There is a saying on the island (mostly used by the elders) that goes like this;
“Tempu ta na betro” I could be off a letter of two here or there but that is real close. This saying deals with the weather we are currently having.

Tempu – Time or weather
Ta - is
Na - at
Betro - an alcoholic drink you can swig down like a shot of rum.

This normally refers to the kind of drizzly weather that invites laziness and a good sit-down under a full DIVI tree to take a shot of your favorite rum with some friends. There is absolutely no better time to shoot rum shots, tell stories, and amplify the facts until they become an outright lie. Great time for it and great stuff to do. Imagine being able to actually catch that elusive huge grouper! Well - when “Tempu to na betro” your imagination can soar and your listeners will soar with you – at least until the hangover subsides and becomes a mere ravaging headache. That is when you will be referred to as a drunken liar. But AHHH the great fun that it is.

Normally you look off to the South in the direction of Venezuela and that is there where the rain tends to come from. At this point the dark threat is all around us but not many actual drops have fallen yet. They sit out there and “Hunker” (Hunker - a North Carolina word and not an Aruba one) and look at us and seem to want to ask permission to rain on us.

There is some sort of a pact that exists between the weather gods and the residents on our island. It must have to do with rain and sun quotas per year. I suspect that the weather gods cheat once in a while but then our promotional ads aren’t always the crystal-clear-truth. Quite possibly there is some fudging on both sides (Fudging - a Betty Crocker word)

It is cool now – a rare thing here, there is little wind – also rare and
“tempo ta na betro”.
Be well
charles

Charles, we used call those times when a hurricane to the north of us sucked up all the wind and then turned it around in the counterclockwise direction...making the Aruba wind come from the west...as the days WHEN THE WIND BLOWS BACKWARDS. I think that only an Aruban would understand that the wind can blow backwards...only an Aruban can understand a Divi divi tree is SUPPOSED to look that way! It is the wind, the wind, OUR wind...which knows which way it is supposed to blow...our skies which know how blue to be...our seas which know what colors of blue to be...our frigate birds which know just where to ride the thermals at Colorado Point, our chuchubis who know how to scold us, our cadushi which know how to survive without rain...but, always, it is OUR WIND which knows just which way to blow...on our beloved little island in the wind...

and, Charles, thank you for your help in June when I was back in Aruba for the Lago Aruba Reunion...your assistance and quick thinking when I had no paper/pen, but did have two rental phones...was terrific...you told me to put the number I needed into the second phone...while I was talking to you on the first phone...what quick wits you had when I needed help!!!!

Masha danki, Arubano!

Pas un bon dia!

Susanne Gravendijk born at Lago Hospital
now living in Chicago

[charlescroes]

Yes,
it is the wind. Sometimes I think of Edgar Alan Poe and his "THE BELLS" and somehow tie the two together.

I was then and will alsways be at your services.
charles

Originally Posted by jsusanne

Charles, we used call those times when a hurricane to the north of us sucked up all the wind and then turned it around in the counterclockwise direction...making the Aruba wind come from the west...as the days WHEN THE WIND BLOWS BACKWARDS. I think that only an Aruban would understand that the wind can blow backwards...only an Aruban can understand a Divi divi tree is SUPPOSED to look that way! It is the wind, the wind, OUR wind...which knows which way it is supposed to blow...our skies which know how blue to be...our seas which know what colors of blue to be...our frigate birds which know just where to ride the thermals at Colorado Point, our chuchubis who know how to scold us, our cadushi which know how to survive without rain...but, always, it is OUR WIND which knows just which way to blow...on our beloved little island in the wind...

and, Charles, thank you for your help in June when I was back in Aruba for the Lago Aruba Reunion...your assistance and quick thinking when I had no paper/pen, but did have two rental phones...was terrific...you told me to put the number I needed into the second phone...while I was talking to you on the first phone...what quick wits you had when I needed help!!!!

Masha danki, Arubano!

Pas un bon dia!

Susanne Gravendijk born at Lago Hospital
now living in Chicago

[charlierat]

Originally Posted by jsusanne

Charles, we used call those times when a hurricane to the north of us sucked up all the wind and then turned it around in the counterclockwise direction...making the Aruba wind come from the west...as the days WHEN THE WIND BLOWS BACKWARDS. I think that only an Aruban would understand that the wind can blow backwards...only an Aruban can understand a Divi divi tree is SUPPOSED to look that way! It is the wind, the wind, OUR wind...which knows which way it is supposed to blow...our skies which know how blue to be...our seas which know what colors of blue to be...our frigate birds which know just where to ride the thermals at Colorado Point, our chuchubis who know how to scold us, our cadushi which know how to survive without rain...but, always, it is OUR WIND which knows just which way to blow...on our beloved little island in the wind...

and, Charles, thank you for your help in June when I was back in Aruba for the Lago Aruba Reunion...your assistance and quick thinking when I had no paper/pen, but did have two rental phones...was terrific...you told me to put the number I needed into the second phone...while I was talking to you on the first phone...what quick wits you had when I needed help!!!!

Masha danki, Arubano!

Pas un bon dia!

Susanne Gravendijk born at Lago Hospital
now living in Chicago

Susanne, have we met? Your last name is very familiar.

I know exactly what you're talking about when the wind blows backwards. In the colony, that would mean that all the smoke from the refinery blew back on us. And you're so right; if the winds blew haphazardly, the divi divi trees would point out in all kinds of directions!

Bon bini to the board, Susanne!

[charlierat]

Originally Posted by charlierat

Susanne, have we met? Your last name is very familiar.

I know exactly what you're talking about when the wind blows backwards. In the colony, that would mean that all the smoke from the refinery blew back on us. And you're so right; if the winds blew haphazardly, the divi divi trees would point out in all kinds of directions!

Bon bini to the board, Susanne!

I am not going to tell anybody's business but my own (nor am I going to hijack charles' thread) but we have established that I am a bit younger than Susanne but there was a period of overlap for us in Seroe Colorado.

Frankly, I'm surprised that I haven't met any of my classmates on this board. Where are you guys?

[jsusanne]

Charlierat, and the younger grads from Lago High School...it is time to be coming home to Aruba for your class reunions...you all missed a great Aruba Lago Reunion, the 11th triennial one held for all Lago Colony kids and parents...this past June, 2006...next one in June 2009...BE THERE!

The Lago High School Class of 62 is gatheirng the week of 16 June 2007 at home in Aruba...calling all Lago Colony kids to join us for a week of the fun of being home, again...we will be headquartered at The Boardwalk. We expect to fill the entire little resort of casitas...but some will rent houses via Anneke Gorter and others will stay at the Amsterdam Manor or their timeshares...so, come on back home, Lago kids, for a week of summer recreation, with us!

And, a flagrant plug for Charles Croes' Fastphones Aruba where he had the two phones I rented, all set to go when I stepped out of Customs...there is nothing like having instant communication with the other friends who are on the island when you are there!

Thanks, again, Charles, for service beyond measure...no one can understand the feeling of security it gave us to know that Charles was there, at the other end of our rental phone, when a major difficulty happened to us within two hours of arriving back in Lago Colony (Seroe Colorado).

Enjoy our beloved little island in the wind!

Susanne Gravendijk
Lago Class of 62

[charlierat]

Originally Posted by jsusanne

Charlierat, and the younger grads from Lago High School...it is time to be coming home to Aruba for your class reunions...you all missed a great Aruba Lago Reunion, the 11th triennial one held for all Lago Colony kids and parents...this past June, 2006...next one in June 2009...BE THERE!

Unfortunately, I don't qualify as a graduate of Lago High School since they closed the high school circa 1965 (after I completed 4th grade). From then on, American kids had to go to boarding schools in the States to complete our high school education.

The Seroe Colorado I grew up in was a community in transition. I remember when the Junior Esso Club closed; then the Commissary closed; then the high school; then the dentist's office; then the barber shop (which actually didn't close but moved into the Esso Club). I remember picnics at the picnic grounds and fireworks on the 4th of July. They were both history by the mid-60's. I remember little league baseball at Lone Palm Stadium and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts (and Cubs and Brownies) - all discontinued by the mid-60's.

At the same time, the gate that separated Seroe Colorado from the rest of the island was removed, Rodgers Beach and the Esso Club became hangout spots for local kids from San Nicolas, and Seroe Colorado truly started being more a part of Aruba and less of a "colony."

I wouldn't trade the memories of the old Seroe Colorado for anything but the new version that came into being during my grade school years was also a very special place.