A trip to a Caribbean island might conjure images of long days on the beach and cold tropical drinks in frosty glasses, but not so for the two-dozen young adults from Denmark finishing up their second month of a three-month stay in the territory.
The 24 Danes, ranging in age from 18 to 30, are taking part in a "hojskolen" program. The phrase is pronounced very much like "high school," but there is little similarity between U.S. high schools and this Danish cultural tradition.
For this group of visitors, their time has been spent helping out on the islands, learning about themselves and the world, and, on one memorable occasion, playing dodgeball.
Yes, dodgeball. The game might seem quintessentially American to those on this end of the Atlantic but is well-known on the other side as well.
"I thought it was Danish," said Elisabeth Lynnerup, one of the group, expressing surprise to find the game here.
The game occurred just before Christmas, when the group was helping out the St. Croix Boys & Girls Club. They’d spent the morning at the club’s Frederiksted center, helping clean up the debris left over from its recent facelift. Then they were off to the Christiansted club, where they found themselves involved in a dodgeball game with some of the local kids.
The finale of that game was one of the highlights of the trip for Claus Marquart, one of the founders of the program.
They had played in teams mixed between the visitors and locals, but for the last round they decided to play Danes versus Islanders. But before they could start, they decided to change the rule because it didn’t feel right, he said.
"We decided to have one of our group on their team and one of them on ours," he said, crossing his forearms to indicate the exchange. "There was something about that exchange that just got me."
Another highlight came earlier this week, when they met Gov. John deJongh Jr., who they found to be very personable and approachable, not at all like some distant government figure, Marquart said.
Those kinds of personal connections are a big focus of the hojskolen program, according to Marquart. The program is for people who have completed their formal education. Schools teach you facts about the word, he explained. Hojskolen is a place to learn about yourself and your place in that world.
"They do it because they want to learn things in a nonacademic way," he said.
The 24 members of the group spent their first month on Water Island working on team building and group dynamics. Through games and exercises and conversation they learned about the different roles that make a group function—analyzers, organizers and doers, in very general terms—and which roles they are best suited for.
Then they came to St. Croix, where they’ve done workshops and been involved with not only the Boys & Girls Club, but the Queen Louise Home, the Frederiksted Community Garden, Caribbean Heritage and Nature Tours, and the V.I. Sustanable Farming Institute, where they are staying.
In fact, when this Source reporter drove up the hill to the Sustainable Farm Institute to interview them, he found very few of the hojskolers there: just Marquart and four others who were cleaning up after breakfast. The rest had driven down into Sunny Isles to spend time with the local Red Cross.
Giving back to the community is an important part of the program, Marquart said.
"It’s important that you don’t just take—enjoy the scenery, eat the food—but you also give something back," he said.
The program is "three weeks, then a free week," he added, and the three weeks on St. Croix conclude Sunday. Then the members will have a week to themselves to explore the islands. For many of them, that will involve spending five days on Roseway, the 137-foot schooner that is part of the World Ocean School and winters in St. Croix.
Then they will be off to St. John, where they will stay for a month at the Maho Bay eco-camp. Marquart pointed with pride to the fact that the group has been staying exclusively at ecologically friendly sites.
Their time on St. John will be spent on personal growth, Marquart said.
He and his partner, Thomas Carlsen founded their hojskolen program two years ago, and this maiden trip is the result of that effort. A second trip planned for March is already booking fast, he said.
There are other hoj skolen programs in Denmark, and during the summer many Danes leave home for a week or a month or more to take part. But this program takes the concept farther—a lot farther, some 4,000 miles.
