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Bearing Gifts

As we sail around the world, we will be the guests of the people of many nations, large and small. When we visit more remote areas, the people who live there may not have access to many of the things we take for granted living in the USA. We’d like to bring gifts with us on Golden Glow that would be appreciated by the people in these far-off places. The question is what to bring and how to give it in a respectful way.

We will be sailing in these people’s waters, visiting their beaches, fishing from their seas, and sharing their hospitality, and we want to say thank you and not arrive empty-handed.

Of course, giving our respect and friendship is number one. We want any material gifts we give to reflect our appreciation and respect, and not be demeaning in any way (we’ve heard that in some places, giving gifts to children is frowned upon because it encourages begging, but giving the gifts to village elders or established organizations is appreciated.)

I intend to do more research on what the local people in various places we will visit might most value that we could bring them.  For instance, in the South Pacific, I’ve heard that eyeglasses of all prescriptions, shapes and sizes are greatly appreciated. So this will be one thing we stock up on before 2016.

Whatever we pack has to be small, lightweight and inexpensive so we can bring a lot on the boat to give as we go along. If you have insight on what we might bring, please do add a comment and share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you, and it will help us prepare for our circumnavigation.

2 Comments on Bearing Gifts

  1. Hey Andre,
    Great to hear from you. How are you? Hope you and the family are doing well. Love the flash back to 1986 bottling party. Now that was a good time. 🙂
    Yes, I got my general license last year, we have SSB ICOM IC-M802 on board. We use sailmail with the Proctor modem over SSB for weather grib files and have a service that does weather updates via SSB when we are not within wireless access.
    Thanks for reaching out, say hi to Sally.
    Rand

  2. Andre Hansen // February 20, 2015 at 4:36 am // Reply

    Rand,

    Tom turned me on to your Webb site.

    Have you considered getting you ham radio license? Might find it real handy on you circumnavigation.

    Andre

    PS. Still have a bottle of 1986 Ladera Serena in my wine cellar 😉

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