School presentations by Hondius cruise ship visitors
Report and photos from St Mary's School teacher Rhyanna Swain
St Mary's School pupils with their gifts
On Wednesday 15th of April there was lots of excitement at the school as we had the pleasure of welcoming three visitors from the cruise ship Hondius. Two of them were crew and one was a passenger whose local college is named after one of Tristan's first settlers, Pieter Groen.
The Hondius visitors with teacher Dilys Green
The first member of the crew was an engineer who showed a presentation about his working life including a video of what the engine room looked like.
Engineer from the Hondius, who talked about life in the engine room
The second crew member has made the journey to Tristan since 2013 is a Guatemalan national who was passionate about astronomy and talked about the probe, the Voyager, that was launched in 1977. This was very exciting especially for those who hadn't heard of it.
Hondius crew member talking about the Voyager space probes
The passenger who was from Katwijk in Holland, showed a video that some of the students at Pieter Groen College had put together to show the children here on Tristan. He was in the maritime industry before he retired and owns a museum in Katwijk. The principal from Pieter Groen College made a box of small gifts to be given to the students here at St Marys school. There was a collection of notebooks, pens, highlighters and lanyards inside the box. The children were so excited by these gifts.
Joep from Katwijk, Holland, who talked about Pieter Groen College and the Katwijk link with Tristan
They enjoyed the presentations very much and the asking of questions showed how interested they were. They were overjoyed to receive the gifts from the visitors and eating the syrup waffles was the main event of the day! The students and staff at St Marys would like to say a big Thank You to the three wonderful visitors for taking the time to come to the school and share their presentations with us. We hope to have the pleasure of seeing them back here again one day.