Pitufa.at

When we got back from snorkeling off Snake Island, the boys from the island paddled by, just as Christian was grabbing a brush to clean the rudder. “Do you want to help him?”, I asked. “Yes, we want to help!”, came the immediate answer in a choir. No hesitation, no discussion among themselves, no asking for money. I got out some more goggles and brushes and with lots of splashing, squealing and joking the whole hull was clean after half an hour. Of course they didn’t just get juice and cookies as a thank-you, but also some supplies for their family.
We had a similar experience already in Vanuatu, when we took our dinghy up on a beach to clean the bottom upside-down. A group of teenagers came by, saw what we were doing, immediately grabbed handfuls of sand and we had the thick algae layer off within minutes–and all that just smiling and without asking for anything in return.
Can you imagine such a scene in Europe or somewhere else in the “western” world? I know for sure that Austrian kids would walk past some strangers doing dirty work, they probably wouldn’t even notice them with their noses glued to their smart phones
Putting myself into that scene as a teenager I have to admit that my reaction probably wouldn’t have differed from the typical Austrian brat today–except that my nose would have been in a book… So what makes such a difference with the island kids? Probably that they come from a close-knit community with limited resources where everyone has to work together. The generosity and friendliness of the South Pacific Islanders (no matter if they’re Polynesian, Melanesian or some other -esian) keeps amazing us!