Participants in bush skills program learning to rough it

 The Virgin Islands Daily News  ::  Cristian Simescu

Local students, residents and visitors are sharpening their primitive survival skills during a four-day program in St. Croix's rain forest this week while establishing a better relationship with nature.

The Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute is hosting the fourth annual Bush Skills Rendezvous at Creque Dam Farm in Frederiksted and teaching hands-on workshops.

The workshops started Thursday with primitive survival skills and continued Friday with the importance of local trees and herbs for medicines, crafts and food. Today, participants will learn how to make hunting tools, how to gather wild plants and how to cultivate plants. The program ends Sunday with an all-natural island feast.

VISFI program director Nate Olive said the program is part of the Natural Mentors Youth Heritage Exchange Farm Excursions, which was named by National Geographic last year as one of 10 finalists from more than 600 entries from across the world in the annual "Geotourism Challenge" competition. VISFI was also named one of National Geographic's 10 Stellar Global Geotourism locations and products for sustaining the future of destinations.

Twenty visitors from across the country and about 85 students from Ann Marie Gibbs' environmental science class at St. Croix Educational Complex participated in the event on Thursday and Friday.

"By including the youth, we're investing in our future here at the farm and in the Virgin Islands," Olive said. "We're teaching them to connect with nature and make it better."

"It's important for us to instill a strong connection with nature and culture, not just in children but adults," he said. "We invite all adults and families to come and take part in these workshops."

Gibbs said she plans to have her students demonstrate the survival skills they learned at the farm during a camping trip as part of her class curriculum. She said the trip will take place in Annaly Bay during the Memorial Day weekend.

"I think it's important they get skills that are for life beyond the classroom," she said. "They're exposed to skills that are for life-coping for natural and man-made disasters."

Vincent Anduze, an 11th-grade student at the school, said the skills he learned during the workshops are useful. "They will come in handy if a disaster comes, be it a hurricane or earthquake," Anduze said.

Each day begins at 9 a.m. with a morning greeting followed by a craft workshop or class, an organic lunch and more workshops or classes. On Friday, the students brought in a potluck to feed the instructors and themselves during lunch.

Specific skills taught during the program include primitive pottery, stone tools, shell craft, forest foraging, spear and net fishing, calabash craft and starting fire with friction. Instructors from around the island and around the country have been brought in to teach the various workshops.

The event is open to the public and all ages and skill levels are welcome. The locals' daily rate ranges $25-$45, which includes two classes and lunch.

Those attending also will get a chance to help finish building a traditional Taino structure, known as a Bohio. Olive said the structure has been under construction for more than a year and, once completed, it will be the only structure of its kind on the island.

A grant from the Lana Vento Charitable Trust with partnership from Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism paid for part of the high school students' fees for the program.

For more information, contact Nate Olive at 706-534-5033 or e-mail nate@visfi.org or contact Sylvie Augustin at 340-332-8255.