Tonga 2

What an amazing few weeks!  As we sailed south through the Ha'Apai group of islands in the Kingdom of  Tonga, we realized just how far from resources these people really are.  Often with no way to get supplies, they rely on small fishing boats to deliver all that is needed.  This makes these folks very resourceful.

I suppose by North American standards, they live in "poverty", but my sense is that they might just be more wealthy than we are!  We almost never saw anyone with a frown, people always greet even a stranger with a smile, and with little more than enough food to survive, Shelley and I have received the generosity of these people time and time again.  From vegetables from their gardens to fruit from their trees, they often give as much or more than they receive in "real" terms...

After leaving the first school, we visited 6 more schools and delivered a total of 467 pencil cases leaving us with about 150 for the islands here in the Southern Group of Tonga.  We are currently anchored near the capital city of Tonga Tapu where we are waiting for a weather window that will allow us to sail the last 1100 nautical miles to New Zealand in time for cyclone season.

In New Zealand we plan to re-stock our supplies for our journey that will take us to Fiji, Vanuatu and beyond next year.

Here are some pictures of some of our deliveries.  Last week, the children were on an "official" school holiday, but in almost every school, the older children were studying for the tests that would allow them to continue on to "college" (the equivalent of our high school).  Higher education here is an earned privilege... One that is taken very seriously by most of the young people we met...

We are seeing whales everyday!

 The picture below is at the home of the principal of the school on the Island of Ha'Afeva.  His wife is not being lazy, she has diabetes and with no medical clinic, by the time she got to a doctor, they had to remove half her foot...  This is their reality... Despite her predicament, she was full of joy and good humor.  When we get to NZ we will try to find a wheelchair for her so she can get mobile again...

Pitre, the principal and his wife.

The school  -  3 classrooms and a library with no shelves and very few books...  None in Tongan.

MATH! 

Many of the window panes are gone....

A Tongan language metronone

The principal's office

The Library

One of the classrooms - most of the furniture is broken in some way or another.

A desk for four to five children

The school on Oua Island - The fence was donated by Canada....

Meeting the principal

Sharing what we have....

 

Children studying for their exam next week...

Between Oua and Nomuka we caught a 20lb Tuna and our freezer was full so I cut it into 4 big chunks and gave it to the villagers of Nomuka.

Women weaving on the Island of Nomuka

An average home

The main road...

More kids studying for their exams.... ON THEIR HOLIDAY!

The village dogs smell the tuna!

The school run by the New Apostolic Church

Up to this point, we have only been helping government schools.  This was our first experience visiting a church run school.  While still in need, they were much better equipped than the regular public schools.

We finally arrived in Tonga Tapu, the Capital of Tonga.  We met a beautiful Tongan woman called "Big Mama"who hails from a northern island we never made it to.  She will be sending a bunch of supplies to her islands in the far north that almost never see cruising boats...

More soon,

God bless,

Kyle and Shelley

Tonga...

After a crazy 12 hour sail with 30 knots wind on our nose we arrived last week in the beautiful Ha'Apai Group of the Kingdom of Tonga.

This is an area seldom visited by tourists a so a wonderful place to share.

We have delivered just over 100 pencil cases so far and are sailing around the archipelago looking for more village schools.  We invited another cruising couple to join us.  Lanny and Ginger from the Swift Sure not only helped us deliver the goods, but were kind enough to help us put everything together.

We needed the Principal to translate..

we also found a soccer ball for them!

While in the school, someone borrowed my shoe.....

the children's playground

While here in Tonga our plan is to empty the boat of everything we have and arrive in New Zealand empty so we can re-supply during cyclone season.

As most of you know, we are no longer supported by my old churches, so now entirely rely on donations from people like you.  We have some very big expenses coming up as we make some major repairs to Blowin' Bubbles while in New Zealand and completely re-stock her for our trip to more South Pacific Islands after cyclone season.

Please use the "DONATE" button on this page or send donations to "Right to Write Ministry" c/o Ms. Glenda Rose, 100 Barnet Cr. Fergus, Ontario, Canada N1M 3E5

Blessings!
Kyle and Shelley

Palmerston Island

While visiting Palmerston Island in the South Pacific we were introduced to the principal of the Palmerston school where we were invited to speak to the children about our experiences with our work with "Right to Write".  We made a picture presentation and answered many questions from the children just before we gave all 24 students their own pencil case and school supplies.  We also gave them a band new soccer ball.

We are introduced to the school principal, Kat

To be clear, the people are not poor.  They simply do not have access to many of the things most of us take for granted.  It was refreshing to share what we had with these beautiful children.  The ages of the school kids are 4 to 18.  Around 2002 the old schoolhouse on the island burned down and the island was left with no school.  We were told that kids who are around David's age (20) didn't get any formal education during that time. The Cook government decided there wasn't enough children to afford the expense of replacing it.  In 2005, the people of Palmerston took matters into their own hands and built their own school.  Before we left the school we were treated to a song sung by the kids about their island. .  This would be the first of many chances to hear people of this community sing.  And WOW, can these folks sing!

The school has 4 teachers and a principal now.

We are in the South Pacific....

We have travelled some 4000 nautical miles from Panama to the South Pacific.  We journeyed some 32 days before we arrived in Hiva Oa in the French Marquesas.

After checking in we learned that the French government is very supportive of the schools in their territories.  Thus, we found no school children who we felt needed our help.

We are now in Tahiti, and plan to work our way further west before we head south to New Zealand for the coming cyclone season.

Our hope is that after we leave the French territory (in about another month) we will discover new places who may want or need what we have to share.

Our boat is PACKED with school supplies and we are looking forward to continuing our work as we travel.

At this time we want to thank the wonderful folks from Speedside and Barrie Hill United Churches who have supported us in such a generous way over the last two years.

They have decided to disband our support group, which we completely understand.  We are getting too far away for them to economically send us supplies. We hope that people will continue to support us financially.  We are NOT stopping our work, and will continue to give away school supplies as long as we can afford it.

Financial support must now come to us directly, either through our daughter in Canada or via direct PayPal donation. We promise to use whatever we get to purchase more school supplies, and distribut


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Getting Ready to Leave Panama

We left the San Blas at the end of January.  For the last few weeks we have been in a marina on the Atlantic side of Panama. For the last few weeks we have been preparing ourselves and the boat for a journey through the Panama Canal, and then on to the South Pacific Islands...

Since we decided in October that sending school supplies from Canada was no longer cost effective, we spent time while at a marina to explore the "Free Zone" in Colon, where we eventually found over 8000 colour pencils and 100 notebooks and a few hundred erasers...

After some negotiations, we settled on a price, made our purchase and got the stuff back to the boat.  We have stored it all in preparation for the months to come...

While here at the marina we also met some people from a local indigenous community who come every Friday to sell their crafts.  We learned that there are 21 children in their village so we sent them home with supplies for everyone...

We will share more, as we travel the Pacific Ocean....

Thank you all so much for your support!  Without your gifts, we could accomplish nothing!