On Bonaire there aren't many annual occasions. There's Karnaval, Regatta, and then there's Rincon Day.
Now Rincon Day is a double celebration. It's both the annual parade and festivities in Rincon and the Queen of the Netherlands official birthday. Why Rincon and not the main town Kralendijk? Well it started way back when Rincon was the only real town and it's stuck.
But what's that got to do with Saint James? Up till now we've always done our Health Fair towards the end of the year and in Kralendijk, but this year we thought we'd do our bit for Rincon as well and what better time than on its own day! So there we were all set up and ready to go around 10. There were 9 faculty and some 20 students, all giving up a part of their vacation to help. We had the usual range of tests - vital signs, blood pressure, blood sugar, BMI, tooth decay, etc., but the blood pressure and blood sugar were the busiest. Over the 4 hours we worked we had about 70 visitors, including the immediate previous governor of the island, although he just looked around and didn't have any tests done! About the only thing we couldn't test was hearing, as there was so much music being played! Part the way through, the annual motor bike club rally from all three islands (Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire) came and parked right next to us and we got to check some of them, as well as some of the event organisers.
All in all it was a very successful outreach event and the students got a lot of valuable experience, both in doing the tests and interacting with 'patients'. The only change for next year would be to either start later and go on longer, or have a shift system, so we could cover more of the event.
