Even voorstellen....

I am Donna van Heukelem-Kock. Born and partly raised in The Netherlands. My 'roots are in Aruba' with Aruban parents. The desire of my parents to return to Aruba brought me to this beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea.
Different cultures live side by side on Aruba, meaning that different Aruban traditions have their origins in different countries around the world. Living in Aruba I have learned that cultures can enrich and strengthen each other.

27 years ago I moved back to the Netherlands to study in Groningen. My short childhood in the Netherlands made it feel like coming home and made it easy for me to find my way and navigate between two cultures. I have friends with whom I can go out 'the Dutch way'  and I have friends with whom I go out 'the Caribbean way'. Living in the Netherlands I have learned to cherish two cultures and enrich my life with the best of both worlds.
In the Netherlands I met the love of my life, we got married and have three beautiful daughters together. The Netherlands is the home base for our family, but for my family Aruba feels like their second home. Besides the Dutch cuisine my family also enjoy traditional Arubian food like pastechi, cheese balls, pica balls and the bolo di cashupete. At Christmas we not only serve Dutch dishes like stewed pears, mustard soup and roulade, but also the traditional Arubina dishes like ham di Pasco, ayacas and pan de jamon. 

Music was my biggest hobby in my youth. I attended cuartales and was in various children's choirs and sang in bands. Besides loving making music, I also love listening to music. I like to be creative and really enjoy cooking and baking. I also like watching Spanish and/or Mexican series on Netflix. It takes me back to the time when I would watch Mexican or Venezuelan 'novelas' with my grandmother.
I love reading and that is partly why I am lingual. I regularly create songs or speeches at parties or special occasions. The traditional Dutch Sinterklaas festivity is therefore a festivity that I really like to celebrate. I love coming up with surprises and poems for family and friends. During my years as a lecturer I also really enjoyed writing and giving speeches to the graduate students. While writing the speeches I always made sure I paid attention to the international students' background and 'roots'. I challenged myself to create something personal every time and.

A long cherished dream....

During my best friend's wedding ceremony on the beach of Bonaire, I addressed a bridal couple for the first time. I translated the pastors words so the groom and the Dutch guests who had flown in from the Netherlands, could follow the ceremony.
That experience left me wanting more and only fueled a long-cherished dream of being an independent wedding officiant and ceremony speaker.

I think it is fantastic to create a wedding ceremony for every bridal couple that they will never forget and that the guests will talk about for a long time.
Looking back, I cherish the moments during my own wedding where my 'roots' were visibly present. Texts translated into Papiamento. The traditional 'bolo preto' and of course I enjoyed swinging with my family and friends to the  sounds of merengue and salsa and (Dutch) pop music. This is what I wish for every bridal couple. A wedding that fully suits the bride and groom and makes no concessions to their background.