"TULA BE PATIENT !"

I have been asked as a Role Model for this exhibition "SLAVERY. AND THE GRONINGERS?”. Here inside the Museum aan de A, you can see two photos of me, taken by the photographer Dave Graanoogst.
I was also asked to lead the public with our Black/Golden Dragon from A-Kerk to here, Museum aan de A and back again later tonight.
My name is Earl Blijd. I was born on Curaçao and came to Groningen after high school to study Technical Chemistry at the RUG. I befriended a Vietnamese fellow student Buu Trieu. On November 1, 1979, he took me to a Kung Fu training of Sifu (master) Trieu Trung La.
However, today I mainly want to talk about the song called “Tula Warda” in Papiamento, which translates in English as “Tula Be Patient”, the big musical hit from my high school period. This hit was written by Rignald Recordino, better known as Doble-R, a great Curaçao composer, musician and arranger. His great merit is the large amount of Papiamento-language songs that he has written.
On Curaçao, August 17 is always celebrated as 'Day of the fight for liberty’.