Maritime Missions
Cultural Bridges through Teaching
Azure seas, white beaches, brilliant coral gardens
and huge smiles of perfect white teeth. These things make thoughts of
the Kingdom of Tonga bring a smile to my own face. There is much more
though.
Along with many of the cruising fleet we arrived in Tonga in September
and anchored in one of 36 mapped anchorages in the Vava'u Island
group, the center of the country. With two months to spare before the
hurricane season commenced we decided to stay put and get to know
Tonga. While basking in the beauty of this tropical paradise my friend
on another boat and I decided to, "do something challenging". After 8
months of passages crossing the south Pacific ocean playing "tourist"
on various islands we created a unique opportunity to re-engage our
brains in the main town of Neiafu, Vava'u.
One sweltering afternoon I visited the local primary school with
Vernita, another cruiser, and introduced ourselves to the headmaster.
He was delighted with our offer to teach English conversation for a
week. Four of the teachers welcomed us into their classrooms of grade
4 and 6 students. Exams were over, so the timing was perfect.
Having little teaching experience we were not sure what to expect. The
teachers kindly offered suggestions for the level of English the
students had achieved in each class. We jumped in and created a fun
lesson plan for the week realizing it needed to be very flexible. The
easiest most successful lessons were magazine pictures which we used
to stimulate discussion and draw vocabulary. We also drew a map of an
imaginary town and practiced all the phrases necessary for giving
directions and describing locations. Many of the young people in the
islands haven't travelled outside of their country or been on a yacht,
so they are intrigued by our experiences.
The children were delightful. They were attentive, enthusiastic and
eager to learn. It was quite a novelty to have two Americans lead the
class. We were able to relax and have fun interacting with them. Their
bright smiles warmed our hearts and were more reward than we hoped
for.
At the week's end we were showered with gifts of heartfelt thank you
from each class; fruit, handmade seashell and woven jewellery and
accessories. For the duration of our time in town we received friendly
greetings from youngsters and their parents everywhere we went. This
simple act helped to bridge the gap across cultures and experience and
greatly enriched our memories. We are proud to have real friends in
"the friendly islands".
Kimberly Coldren
Editor's Note;
This is what Maritime Missions is all about; bringing you, the
traveller and adventurer into closer contact and relationship with the
people in the places you want to explore. Take home more than pictures
of sunny beaches and palms. Take life-long friendships to hold in your
heart.
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