Latest Development and Activities
STUDENTS OF THE DIVE TOURISM DEPARTMENT HIGH SCHOOL HELP OUT
The school year is nearly finished and children are looking forward to their 3 weeks “summer” holiday. This also counts for the students of the “dive tourism” department of the Senior High School, who, without exception are all competent swimmers and snorkelers by now.
With a lot of enthusiasm and motivation they have already started to put this into practice; they are helping out collecting Crown of Thorns (a starfish that is eating the polyps of the corals), thus protecting the reefs of being destroyed.
Even on their free Sunday 15 out of 24 students went in the water and collected not less than 447 COT’s in a little more than an hour, leaving a clean, beautiful reef for you to dive on. From now on hey will continue helping out collecting COT’s 2-3 times per week. They are already a great asset to the preservation of the area.
A new era in Tongkeina…
It is time for the first semester exams and it is Quiet on the street. The past 6 months were hard, for the teachers, but also for the students. During the past years children were allowed to run “wild” without any sense of discipline. Grades on the high schools could be bought and not much was taken serious. The new teachers have been facing children in the third grade that could not read or write, children in Junior High school that could not count to 100. The examples of bad school management are numerous.
That all has changed; the new teacher team and a new head of the elementary school have re-installed the discipline that should be kept on a school and the difference is enormous. It is QUIET! The grades improve, kids start to be better behaving….in fact the village of Tongkeina has changed………
Introducing the dive industry of Bunaken
The first class in the SMK “Kelautan” has 25 children of which 7 are girls.
They are being called the “pirates” by their teachers and they are kind of a wild bunch. Early October Dive Center Thalassa hosted them and the teachers of he whole complex for a visit to Bunaken. The “Pirates” visited 2 different dive centers there, Froggies and “Living Colours” who generously treated them on drinks and lunch and answered questions about the resort and the jobs that had to be done there. We would really like to thank the owners for their time and generosity.
After lunch it was time for relaxation. The boat parked just outside the reef and everyone had a lot of fun diving from the boat and swimming around. Even some of the teachers that could not swim went in the water, creating a bit of an awkward situation at times. I had to get wet before I could change into a bathing suit. Nevertheless, everyone had fun and this small excursion will very likely be repeated.
Thank you evening…
On the 2nd of December I have taken the teacher team to a movie. It is fun to take them. Sometimes it is hard to believe that most of them are “kids”, younger than my own children. I must be getting old. They are a great bunch with so much energy and heart for what they are doing for the children of the villages.
The heroes
After the movie we went for dinner and with lots of laughter and jokes we decided that the teachers should be introduced in the website. So, look them up, because they are “the heroes” of the School Komplex “Kehidupan Anda”.
The very first time Santa remembered the school in Tongkeina
In the huge container with all the furniture that was shipped to Indonesia in July 2007, were also packed the around 140 boxes, decorated and filled by children from the elementary school “De Hobbitstee” in Montfoort, Holland. Especially made for the children in the village of Tongkeina.
After adding 17 boxes and re-arranging the contents slightly, we brought them to Santa Claus, who, generously found the time to visit the children on the 6th of December.
A big happening. Not only because this was the very first time Santa came to the village, but also because he brought a present for everyone.
For some children it was a scary event as well. The “zwarte pieten” (black piet) made quite a few of them so scared, that the screamed and cried. The little fairy and the 2 clowns, made everything alright again.
Not only was the school filled with singing, screaming, laughing and sheering children, also the mothers were abundantly present and, for the ones that possessed one, were very active taking pictures from this really touching happening.
The children from Elemetary school “ Kehidupan Anda” are busy now, making cards to send to Holland for the “elves” that made the presents for Santa Claus to give to them.
