Benita Arcadia Balentien-Janga
1Teacher/Scout Leader/ Composer/
Singer/Conductor Kanta Orkidia
Maestra/Lider di Scout/Kompositor/Kantante/Dirigente di Kanta Orkidia
* January 12th, 1938
+July 30th, 2012

Rincón, 24 October 2021

Born January 12, 1938, on the island Bonaire.

Benita is the second daughter of her parents, Maria and Alberto Janga. Her siblings are Yùfrou (teacher) Chemmy Cicilia-Janga, Luciana Janga, and Virgilio Janga; he passed away some years ago. Benita lived until the age of 11 in Rincón, the village where she was born, and left her island to continue studies in Curaçao to become a teacher. She was not alone in Curaçao, because her elder sister Chemmy was already living there, also for studies; in those times there were no schools for secondary education in Bonaire.

Together with other girls from Aruba, Curaçao, and the Windward Islands, they were in boarding school “St Martinus Gesticht.” In Curaçao she first attended the 6th grade at Coromoto College, followed by the secondary school Maria Immaculata Lyceum, the department of the teachers’ training college.

During holidays, when she visited her island Bonaire, she volunteered at the market in Rincón, and contributed to fundraising-projects of the Roman Catholic Church in Rincón, Misa San Luis Bertran. Together with some friends, they entertained the community with theater-, music- and art-events.

In 1958 Yùfrou Benita started her career as a teacher at the so-called ‘Skolnan di Frater’, the former boys’ school St. Stanislaus School, run by religious Brothers from Tilburg in Holland; nowadays the building serves as a day-care and training-center for Special Children, directed by the Foundation FKPD. Subsequently, she worked as a teacher at Kolegio San Luis Bertran, the former St. Michael School, in those times run by religious Sisters from Roosendaal in Holland. This was the school she attended in her youth.

From day one when she started her career as a teacher it was visible that Yùfrou Benita was a promising and dedicated professional; she took her mission as an educator very seriously. She was loved by her students, and appreciated by their parents. She was also active in the parish, with among other things, helping the priest prepare the kids for their First Holy Communion.

After her retirement in 1993, she was regularly asked to replace teachers in several schools over the island. Yùfrou Benita served her island as a teacher for about 45 years, and the 1st grade had her preference. She loved to teach her children the art of reading, writing, and math.
She was also very active with the Boys’ Scouts.  As soon as she became a teacher, she joined her sister Chemmy and a good friend Yùfrou Carmita Beaumont who together started the St Michael group in Rincón. When her sister Chemmy went to live in Aruba after her marriage with Guillermo Cicilia, Yùfrou Benita became the Akela of the group. She remained active in Boys’ Scouts until her death. Being a leader in this Scouts group she happened to meet Pachi Ruby Balentien who later on became her husband for life. Together they had the lead over the group: she as the Akela, he as the ‘Hopman’, the scoutmaster.

She also played volleyball and ‘korfball’ in the sports team Real Rincón, and it was an honor to become the first ‘madrina’ of Real Rincón; their patroness.

Yùfrou Benita was active in several choirs, and at Christmas time she had the lead over the Aguinaldos group ‘Los Canarios’ together with a.o. Pachi Ruby Balentien, Emma Crestian, Yùfrou Maria Koeks-Sintiago, Yùfrou Mamita Martijn, and Max Sint Jago; the last two passed away. She was also in charge of the children’s choir, the adults’ parish-choir Santa Cicilia and Kanta Orkidia. Yùfrou Benita founded the latter, and it has a long trajectory of different shows about slavery-time and Christmas presentations. The musicals in Lent and Christmas time have been recorded for life under the lead of Pader Plata, a priest from Curaçao, together with the parish-priest Pader Vásquez. These huge works were named “E yu di Dios” (The Son of God), and “E yu Salbador” (Jesus, our Saviour).

The two sisters Chemmy and Benita together have succeeded in rescuing many songs, stories, words, habits, and traditions of former times. They did so by interviewing the elderly and by allowing them to transmit their knowledge. In doing this they managed to save and preserve this cultural and historical heritage for future generations. Until her death, Yùfrou Benita was a fervent member of their choir “Kanta Orkidia.” The Orkidia is a typical and beautiful flower of our islands in the Caribbean.

On August 18th, 1968, Pachi Ruby and Yùfrou Benita tied the knot, and their marriage was blessed with 2 children, Chella and Tico, and three grandchildren.
In 1989 Yùfrou Benita received the Medal of Honour in Gold from “The Order of Oranje Nassau”, awarded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1997 she received a Condecoration from the Pope of Rome. From the Foundation for Arts in Bonaire she received the 8th M-Rose Award on board of Freewinds, this on the occasion of Duofest’99, a songfestival. Together with her sister Chemmy, in 2010 they received the “Tapushi Literario” (the symbol “tapushi”, an ear of grain), for their merits on the Literary Level, in this case, Papiamentu, the language of our islands.

After a short period of illness, Yùfrou Benita passed away on July 30th, 2012, at the age of 74.

(Images courtesy of Ubaldo Anthony.  All rights reserved.)