Almost immediately upon meeting the boys Sia offered for them to go to the high school for a day. I enthusiastically accepted, but to be honest, the boys were lukewarm to the idea at best. They were polite to Sia but complained to me when we were back on the boat, but I just couldn’t see missing this sort of opportunity, so I insisted and they were good sports.
They had to get up early on school day, and although Sia had said she would arrange to get them uniforms to wear, I had them bring their sulus and bula shirts just in case. It was a good thing because the uniforms she had for them were comically the wrong sizes. Alex’s was so big he was swimming in it and Brenden’s was so small he almost couldn’t button it. Brenden really tried to make it work in order to make Sia happy, but in the end, she conceded that they didn’t fit and let them wear their own clothes.
After school, the consensus report from the boys was that it was “mostly boring.” They said the kids were all really nice and Brenden even listed off the names of several boys who were “his new friends.” They both enjoyed the math class best, probably because that’s something that easily crosses language barriers.
Alex had just finished his 8th grade curriculum, and since he would be starting 9th grade in the fall back in California, the pressure was off and we were just going to focus on writing and algebra. Brenden, on the other hand, still had a ways to go in his 7th grade program, so we were doing a speed version in order to get him ready for 8th. Basically, we were focusing on math, reading, and writing while just hitting the high points in science. (Spoiler alert: they both eventually transitioned back to traditional school quite seamlessly)
Headed to high school in Niuatoputapu
While the boys were in school, Tim tried to fix an old generator of Sia’s while I mostly impatiently hung around asking if he was done yet so we could go explore the island. We weren’t the first cruisers to have a go at fixing this generator. There was a note taped to it from the previous season explaining their unsuccessful troubleshooting. In the end Tim wasn’t able to fix the generator either, but he was able to help Siona, the policeman, with his radio antenna. Later we gave some fish to Siona, and he showed us gratitude with a few coconuts for drinking.
Tim trying to fix Sia’s generator
It became an evening routine for the boys to take fish to shore to share with Sia and others in the village. One evening during their trip to shore they were gone a little longer than usual because they were going to help one of the ladies move something heavy. When they got back to the wharf it was dark and the dinghy was gone.
According to Alex, he calmly scanned the horizon and there was just enough light to spot the dinghy almost even with Exodus, and in the meantime, Brenden was completely freaking out. They started yelling, but Tim and I were back on Exodus probably finishing our sundown drinks and didn’t hear them, so they jumped in the water and swam like mad. Once they were able to get our attention, after running around and telling me to get out of the way, Tim dropped a paddle board and then Brenden hopped on it and raced out to catch the dinghy. The lagoon is not very big, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that just a few more minutes and the dinghy would have been over the reef and out in open ocean. Both boys had jellyfish stings from their swim and then of course blame had to be established. I won’t go into the whole blame thing here, but apparently someone else in our crew ties as bad a bowline as I do.
Gresham Family Exodus 