Tortoise Tale In Successful Guinness World Record
Posted on 24. Nov, 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Education, Promotion
In a recent radio interview Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys was asked, “How did you manage to get 838 participants, mainly school students, to write a proper story in the Guinness World Record challenge, of ‘How Many People to Write a Story in 24 Hours’?”
“It was a matter of organization, from Melanesian Tours busing in the students from school, to Guy Deroin having drawn 35 marvellous cartoons to illustrate the story, to student teachers from Malapoa Training College assisting the students. On the day it needed to flow like a factory assembly line, with a sentence being completed and written down every 39 seconds.”
YouMe Support Foundation staged a successful Guinness World challenge on 19th November, in Port Vila, on the tropical island of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific.
When asked if there were any hitches Stenberg-Tendys said “We started at 7.30 in the morning and by 10.00 o’clock it looked as if the challenge was going to fail. We were already 100 students down on our schedule. This was when everyone began pulling together.”
People were literally coerced off the street to add a sentence to the continuous scroll. Everyone was determined not to be beaten after three months of hard work.
The attempt was successfully completed at 5.30 p.m. just 10 hours after starting. The only Asian Pacific Guinness World Record adjudicator, Chris Sheedy, had expected to go the full 24 hours to see the completion of the attempt. In his declaration of success, he complemented the organizers, YouMe Support Foundation on their efficiency in preparation.
In his opinion, the Challenge had embraced and enhanced the rich and strongly diversified Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian cultures, which have been strongly flavoured with both French and English culture. This is what makes Vanuatu so unique.
The achievement was even more remarkable in that many of the students were not only writing in their second or third language, but they live in a culture that is very strong in its oral traditions.
The story of two kids and a giant tortoise was brilliantly illustrated by Guy Deroin, a local Ni-Vanuatu artist. Deroin, though French speaking, has spent all his life in Vanuatu, apart from the time he travelled to Noumea for education. His father was French, his mother from the Vanuatu island of Ambae. He is planning a tourist attraction based around his cartoon characters. It is hoped the three characters of the Guinness World Record will find a place in the Cultural Museum, to mark this red letter day.
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