"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
- Pamela Starr
Get Involved
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"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." - Pamela Starr
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Get Involved
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December 1, 2008 | |||||||
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 Through A Mother's Eyes by Betsy Menser Posted May 9, 2002 Her daughter passionately making a difference in the lives of schoolchildren all over the world, a proud and gracious mother reflects upon -- and shares in -- an extraordinary gift. NEW Reader Responses are a goodthing! Join the conversation! Fellow GoodLetter readers, As our plane descended into Cape Town, South Africa, I started having misgivings for the first time about making this trip. The daughter we were going to see had been sailing around the world on a tall ship for the past 14 months. How different would she be? Would we be strange with one another? Would our presence in this new world of hers be a pleasure or a nuisance? Could she reconcile her "real" family with the 40 shipmates who had been her family for over a year? Our daughter Kate founded a non-profit organization called WorldWise, Inc. in the spring of 2000. Its purpose is to partner with the tall ship Picton Castle to collect educational materials to distribute to needy schools in the remote ports the ship visits as she circles the globe. It also maintains a Web site to enable schoolchildren to follow the voyage via the Internet. By the time of our planned reunion in Cape Town, Kate and her team had distributed almost 20 tons of school supplies, books, and maps to schools in the Galapagos Islands, Pitcairn Island, Palmerston Atoll, throughout Polynesia, the Cook Islands, the Vanuatu Islands, Australia, Bali, the Seychelles, and more. We had made and cancelled plans to meet the ship before this -- in Rarotonga and in Fiji -- but this time we were determined to do it. On February 15, my husband Frank and I met our other daughter Kelly in Atlanta, and on February 16, we all boarded the South African Airways flight to Cape Town. We arrived in Cape Town on the morning of the 17th, checked into our hotel, showered and changed, and then with great excitement and a little trepidation walked over to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront for our reunion with Kate. When we stepped on board the ship and Kate appeared on deck, it felt like no time had passed since we parted. Here was our family, all together, hugging and laughing, as if we'd seen each other just last weekend. We met several of Kate's shipmates who were oh-so-familiar to us from having seen their pictures and read about their exploits on Kate's Web site for over a year. Stacked on deck under protective tarps were 200 styrofoam boxes of schoolbooks the crew had recently hauled out of the cargo hold that were destined for local township schools. Undoubtedly, some of those books I'd seen before - stacked up in our garage on Cape Cod! During the summer and fall of 2000, our family spent many hours collecting thousands of used books from local schools, storing them in our garage, and then loading them into a rental truck to be driven to Nova Scotia and stowed aboard the Picton Castle. Now, together again, this time an ocean away in South Africa, we truly had come full circle, and I was filled with pride for Kate's accomplishment and wonder that it had all come to pass just as she envisioned it. 
We spent ten wonderful days in South Africa. While we were there, we had to share Kate with her work. The one thing I did not want was for Kate to feel that our presence in South Africa was a burden, that she needed to entertain us while she was trying to do the work she came there to do. I think we hit a nice compromise. While Frank, Kelly and I did some touring on our own, Kate entertained groups of local schoolchildren on board the ship and supervised the loading of all those books onto a truck for delivery to the schools. One evening we all had the distinct pleasure of dining at the home of a teacher who had befriended Kate on her first visit to Cape Town in 1999. Hearing how much Kate's project is appreciated from a local schoolteacher was immensely gratifying.It was so surreal for all of us to be together in Africa, and I think it gave Frank and Kelly and me a taste of what Kate's whole last year has been like: seeing things we've only read about in books, experiencing cultures very different from our own, meeting the most hospitable and friendly people imaginable. One thing we were not able to fit into our schedule in Cape Town -- the only disappointment of the trip -- was a visit to the Siyazakha School, the inspiration for the formation of WorldWise, Inc. When Kate visited Siyazakha on her first world voyage in March 1999, she was moved by the enthusiasm of its teachers and students in stark contrast to their sad lack of materials. Sixty children in a classroom shared 20 desks; children had to share pencils, as there weren't enough for each child to have one; the only person in the classroom with a book was the teacher. By the time the Picton Castle returned to her home port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in June 1999, WorldWise, Inc. had been created in Kate's mind, and she spent the next year and a half bringing her dream to reality. The Picton Castle is returning home from its world voyage with Kate and WorldWise on June 8. Before we left Kate in Africa, I asked her if she has conflicting feelings about the voyage coming to an end, and she admitted that she did. On the one hand, she's anxious to come home: to see her friends and family, to have unlimited supplies of fresh, hot water and ice cream, and to resume her "real life" on land. On the other hand, she knows she will desperately miss the camaraderie of her shipmates, the magical nights on watch, the thrill of coming into a new port and confronting a whole new culture, and -- most of all -- the joy of giving books, paper, markers, and maps to teachers who cry with delight at the sight of them. Before Kate left home to begin her WorldWise mission on board the Picton Castle in December 2000, several friends and family members had asked us the same question: How can you permit her to do something so unconventional and potentially dangerous? And I answered them with some questions of my own: What makes you think she asked our permission? What's to guarantee her safety anywhere, even if she never sets foot on a ship? How could we NOT support her passion to do something so tremendously fulfilling and worthwhile? Kate turned 30 on March 16, in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. I learned many things on this once-in-a-lifetime journey to Africa, and one of them is this: Kate may be a mature, business-running, globe-circling, ship's-office-running, hard-core sailor woman, but she'll always be our girl. :: Betsy Menser Betsy and her husband raised their daughters in Acton, Massachusetts. They are now retired and divide their time between Cape Cod and the Florida Keys. Her favorite goodthings? "Getting our family together in one place! Big, goofy dogs. Powdery sand between my toes. E-mail. Chocolate and vanilla swirled soft-serve ice cream. Road trips. Just the right tennis shot/photograph/gift. That little rush when the lights go down in a theater." (Thoughts on Betsy's GoodLetter? Inspired by what you've read? E-mail us -- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.) |
TALK ABOUT IT Are you a proud mother (or father) whose child has made a difference in the world? Have you been amazed at her accomplishments? Have you been inspired by his commitment to doing something positive and constructive? Share your stories and ideas. LEARN ABOUT IT :: WorldWise :: The tall ship Picton Castle :: Read Kate's final ship log on depositing the books at Siyazakha School in Cape Town. :: The Siyazakha School :: The Siyazakha School supports the global Polygon Project :: Explore the extraordinary bond between mother and child, from Mothering magazine [more][still more] DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT :: Make a donation to support the continued work of WorldWise. :: Sail with the tall ship Picton Castle on a future educational adventure. Readers Respond Dear GoodThings,
I have been reading GoodThings for a couple of months now and have been very
surprised and delighted to hear and read about all the good things being
done in South Africa. I am a proud South African, and I didn't know how many
people out there care about our little country. I have also seen the same if not more intense need in Mozambique
where my father lives. He buys pencils and pens and sweets when he does his
grocery shopping in South Africa and distributes it to thankful little
children that would otherwise not have had access to these things. What he
also does is keep the packets of sugar that he gets from restaurants and
when he travels up the country he hands them out to the children that run to
the road from the trees and fields. They are so delighted for the little bit
of sweetness.
Thank you,
Want to share your thoughts or ideas with other people who care about good things? Send 'em our way. |
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