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Pinney's
Beach on the island of Nevis, St. Kitts & Nevis, Leeward
Islands, Caribbean
Back in the Caribbean at last! Our last
dispatch was in September after we had completed a summer of
boat systems upgrades to Hands Across the Sea,
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Special
Education Coordinator Andrea Bussue, left, accepts the
teaching materials from Hands Across the Sea during
the official handover ceremony at the Special Education
School
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our Dolphin 460 catamaran, in New England.
We participated in the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland,
in October with Dolphin Catamarans
and The Multihull
Company, and then we sailed south down Chesapeake Bay to
Hampton, Virginia for the start of the Caribbean 1500 Cruising
Rally. Hands Across the Sea was one of 50 boats that
sailed in company to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin
Islands. The start was delayed five days to let a storm system
pass by, and the result was an uneventful but windy seven-day
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Nevis
Special Education students perform during the 2008 Christmas
Program
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passage. We were the first doublehanded
boat and fourth boat in the fleet to cross the finish line.
The last three days were nearly closehauled in 20-25 knots of
wind, with some 30-knot squalls and boisterous seas. We arrived
November 14th in the lee of Virgin
Gorda about an hour after sunset on a full moon night. After
a swim, a shower, and a meal, we relaxed on the trampoline in
the moonlight, thankful for a safe journey.
We are excited to be back in warm Caribbean
waters for the winter, and also to visit the schools we "adopted"
last season in our Caribbean Literacy
and School Support (CLASS) program. This week we visited
the Special Education School on the island of Nevis just before
they closed for the school holidays. The TV, DVD player, rolling
cart, LeapPad items, and learning resources contributed by
Hands donors were prominently displayed in the courtyard for
the benefit of the local TV station as they filmed a formal
"handing over ceremony" led by the Special Education
Coordinator, Andrea Bussue and attended by the teachers and
students. We are grateful to all the Hands donors who made
this gift possible, and it was wonderful to see the outcome
of Hands donors' efforts. Later in the week, we met with the
teachers to create a list of resources that the Keith Middle
School (New Bedford, MA) 8th graders can make in their art
and sewing classes for the Special
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The
Nevis Special Special Education School has a front-row
seat under cloud-topped Mt. Nevis, the island's dramatic
(but dormant) volcano
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Education students as part of a community
service project this winter. We also attended a delightful
Christmas program -- the students sang, danced, drummed, and
recited poems before Santa arrived with a gift for each child.
While special education students tend to be placed in mainstream
classrooms in the U.S., it's clear that here on Nevis, these
children were thriving being together in one school to develop
skills to the best of their abilities.
After the Christmas holidays we'll sail to
Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and to Roseau,
on the island nation of Dominica, to visit the two other schools
we adopted and see how they are using the donated resources.
We hope to stay a while in Dominica and find additional schools
to help. The Commonwealth of Dominica is the most struggling
of the economies we have encountered in the Windward and Leeward
Islands, and we believe there's a lot more we can do there.
Many of these islands are dealing with high unemployment and
increasing crime rates, and supporting education is one way
to improve the prospects of future generations. The teachers
we met are dedicated and devoted to their schools -- and they
need more teaching resources than their governments currently
provide.
We so appreciate everyone who has supported
Hands Across the Sea, Inc., in 2008 with cash donations, donations
of books and learning resources for the special education
children, and support for the Hands crew in the form of moorings,
borrowed cars, rides to the supermarket, and mail-drop sites.
We wish everyone a joyful and safe holiday season and a 2009
filled with friendship and love.
If you'd like to help schools and make a
tax-deductible contribution to Hands Across the Sea, Inc.,
we'd be thrilled. We are an IRS-registered, 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization and we will furnish a receipt for your tax return.
Your donation can be any amount, either via credit card on
the Donate page of our website (using
the secure PayPal service, which deducts a 1.9% to 2.9% charge
off the final amount we receive), or by mailing a check to
our Florida mail-forwarding address.
One hundred percent of your donation goes to teachers' wish
lists and shipping costs. If you want to donate books, please
contact us for instructions.
The Hands crew is unsalaried -- we donate all of our time
and we pay for all of our living and boat upkeep/upgrade expenses
out of our own pocket. Your entire gift goes to the children,
teachers, and schools who need it most.
T.L. and Harriet
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