A Different View of Education

 

One place we tend to visit wherever we stop is a local school. There's a reason for this beyond curiosity about educational systems in other countries. It's a wonderful introduction to the community. Both kids and teachers are usually outgoing and pleased to see visitors and they welcome us warmly into their classrooms. There's a lot of pride is showing what kids are learning and what they've done. They happily perform songs, dance and generally entertain without hesitation.

In Trinidad, we participated in a Kids'n'Cruisers program where cruisers went to the local schools to help tutor local kids in the basics … math, writing, reading. In most places, however, there's nothing quite so formal. On one of the San Blas Islands of Panama, for instance, the school master rang the bell and all the kids came running. I was asked to take a group picture of all of the school kids … and the teachers … which we printed on plain bond paper and which was proudly displayed on the community bulletin board for the whole village to see. We were quite popular after that and were invited to sit and chat with many of the locals.

In Ecuador, we were invited to judge a talent contest at the Interamericano School. These teens worked at speaking English and trying to be very hip and American when quite honestly, they were better off as Ecuadorian teens.

As we ventured further into the South Pacific, we made it our business to visit the small island schools. Matamaka,Tonga was a delight. We visited the two-room schoolhouse and had quite the performance from the kids.

When we learned that John, the schoolteacher, hadn't had an electric light in his hut for over six months, David offered to fix his solar panels and shed some light on his evening hours. Word got out and before you know it, David was fixing lots of solar panels and generators. We met lots of villagers that resulted in being the guests of honor at the school graduation feast and David attending a kava circle with the local men.

In New Zealand, we visited the local school in tiny Opua as part of a fundraiser. Later, the kids performed a “haka”, a traditional Maori dance, for all the cruisers. This school was more akin to a small, rural American school, except for the Maori influence that is.

Probably the most memorable school visits, however, were in Vanuatu. People here live at a subsistence level, but take pride in their community and educating their kids. The country does not provide a school building. That's up to the community to build and maintain for their children. Teachers are trained in state schools, but the cost of all supplies and books, as well as teacher's salaries must also be borne by the community. We contributed lots of baked goods and attended many a fundraiser during our stay there.

I met Natu, the first grade teacher in a little village on the island of Aneitym (Anatom), shortly after we arrived in Vanuatu. We spent many hours together talking about teaching English, improving parent participation in the education process, life in Vanuatu and just life in general. While David went with the men to repair generators and solar panels, I spent time at Natu's house, learning more about her and her way of life. As fascinating as her lifestyle was to me, my lifestyle was just as interesting to her and it was easy to spend hours comparing those things that were so different between us, but also those things that were so much the same.

Whether you're traveling on a boat or just traveling the countryside, if you're interested in learning more about a community, check out the schools. Beyond the cultural exchange and experience, we also succeeded in lowering the waterline by unloading most of the school supplies we carry aboard. Glue sticks and colored markers were never so popular!

Looney Lawn Ornaments

 

We haven't had a lawn in about 15 years, so perhaps we're behind a bit on lawn ornamentation trends. Just like everything, you can underdo and overdo. We always thought a lawn looked good with some landscaping, a berm with some flowers, shrubs. The usual thing. The boat has a foredeck and an aft deck … no lawn and no ornamentation. No grass to mow either, though we do have to scrape the grass off the bottom once in awhile.

We've been land-bound for the last few months and I've started to notice people's lawns and the ornaments they add, beyond the natural, to enhance their lawn experience, as it were. For instance, there are those metallic balls that sit on pedestals. I can't figure out what they're for. I must admit my parents had one at one of our houses when I was growing up and at age 11, I thought it was beautiful. Even then I was easily distracted by shiny things.

I've seen mini-wishing wells (wishing someone would mow the lawn?), Virgin Marys housed in bathtub halves, Buddhas surrounded by pansies, all manner of animal statues and even a bicycle with a scarecrow rider wedged in the V of a tree.

The most bizarre display, however, is not far away. Lin and I were looking for yard sales one morning and came across this spectacle quite unexpectedly in the midst of a rather nice neighborhood. It's a cross between “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “The Griswolds Do Lawn Ornamentation”. It's over the top. A stately Statue of Liberty stands in a cement pond with a large American flag backdrop. Very patriotic until you see the elephant spouting water, the King Kong statue and the alligator. Exactly what were they thinking?

Roman statues adorn other parts of the lawn as well as fountains adorned with angels, frogs, turtles, cranes and dogs. It's pretty visually intensive.

Then there's the huge Jesus statue midst a herd of deer just in front of the basketball backboard.

When we were in California last year, we came across Poor Man's Bronze, a place that specialized in large, unusual lawn art. There's obviously a market for this stuff. I really should put these people in touch. It would be a marriage made in heaven.

I've been looking for lawn gnomes, but haven't found any on display yet. I did find a Lawn Gnome Superstore on-line which not only boasts the world's largest collection of lawn gnomes doing all manner of gnomish things, but it also offers motion-activated talking gnomes. How good is that? David has indicated that the chance of us selling the boat and having a house with a lawn on which I place talking gnomes is probably nil. One can only hope. By the way, one of the biggest garden gnome displays? Canberra, Australia. And I thought Yanks were the only crazy ones?

Media Overload

 

One thing about living on land that's both time-consuming and sometimes overwhelming … access to too much media. When we're aboard Nine of Cups, we're quite insulated from many world happenings and even local occurrences sometimes. We rarely give a thought to politics or which famous people have died. Out of sight, out of mind. Ignorance is bliss ... and all those other overused cliches apply.

So here we are 20 minutes from Boston, USA and we're absolutely overloaded with news. On the boat we have limited internet. We pay by the byte and we're cheap … no time is wasted surfing or following a thread somewhere … or nowhere. Here we have unlimited internet and, oh my, do we ever use it. It's almost embarrassing how much time we spend on our computers here, instead of performing boat chores or walking to the grocery for tonight's dinner or doing something more productive when we are on the boat.

Oh sure, on the boat we like to know if we're at war with any country we might be visiting and it's good to know about major world catastrophes, especially if they're nearby like earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis. We can usually figure out hurricanes/cyclones on our own as long as we download the weather daily. But do we really need so much other information clogging and cluttering our aging brains? Not that we retain much of it, mind you.

We haven't had a television for more than 14 years. At the moment, however, we have cable which offers a mere 300+ channels. Rarely do we find something worth watching although Bea likes to watch the evening news followed by Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and, yup, I'm right there on the couch beside her trying to solve puzzles and ask Jeopardy questions. This I find is a colossal time-waster. I could have my nose stuck in a good book or be writing a blog post or doing a myriad of productive things, but instead ...

We do like watching movies and watch lots of them on the boat on our laptop computers. We snuggle up on the saloon settee, pop some popcorn and watch movies uninterrupted to our hearts' content. It's easy to avoid watching commercials for feminine hygiene products, car insurance and the latest in probiotic yoghurts and how good they are for our digestive tracts. Here, we're inundated with advertising every few minutes… the newest drug releases (nothing recreational) and their requisite side effects and cautions, more feminine hygiene products and the latest in new car releases … not to mention political mud-smearing from time to time.

Now we find ourselves watching weather reports and paying attention to the heat index and the rain forecast, but worrying less about storms and winds. We read the Boston Globe daily and get caught up in the vagaries of the stock market, who's being tried for what crime, what President Obama eats for breakfast (4-6 eggs, potatoes and wheat toast … yikes) and what political blunder the local representative just made. Oh and there's usually some world news, too.

We're not used to having current magazines available (although John on Active Transport usually sends the New Yorker to me for Kindle viewing). Even the doctors' offices have current magazines, believe it or not, and we've visited plenty of doctors and dentists during our time back here in States. Time, Newsweek, People, Good Housekeeping, Golf Digest (ick), You and Arthritis … we read them all. They're there and we read them.

The positive side about too much media? If nothing else, I always have plenty of ideas for blog posts (or rants).