Thursday, August 11, 2011

School Supplies for the Kingdom of Tonga

Earlier this year I read on the German part of the Postcrossing Forum about a project to send postcards to Tonga so that the children there could learn about people in different parts of the world. They were also collecting school supplies for the children. So I began purchasing supplies and also asked for contributions on my wishlists at Swap-Bot. Finally I had collected enough for a medium sized box. Farfum, who's in Tonga with the Peace Corps, and is doing this project just happened to be in the US for a break, so I was able to send the items domestically and save a lot on postage and he's taking them in his suitcase. I was glad to see the items arrived at his US home before he's leaving for Tonga again.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Of course, I've read some more books in the last couple of months. Among them are:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.
I enjoyed the book a lot. I could relate to the boy's love of math, it's fascinating how he thinks. Sometimes he gets through situations not realizing how dangerous they may be. But his determination and getting there one step at a time can be a lesson to people even who don't have to deal with autism but are just afraid in certain situations.


Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by Alexander McCall Smith.
I enjoyed reading this, the 10th in the series. I was glad to read a bit about the foster children, Motoleli and Puso again. I was curious throughout the book how the football team's case would be solved. I love it how straightforward the solutions of the cases often are in the end.