Logos Hope docked

Over a five-day period, thousands of locals maximized the opportunity to purchase various types of literature aboard the Logos Hope, a floating book fair that has visited the Federation for decades.

The 12,000-ton ocean-going vessel berthed at Port Zante on May 13th after spending almost two weeks docked at neighboring Antigua. This was the ship's inaugural visit to the Federation after taking over the work of Logos II in 2009.

All of the primary schools on the island were afforded the chance to visit the ship over the course of its stay; enjoying plays, videos, and perusing the more than 6,000 books on board. Over the weekend families made an outing of the visit, buying books, enjoying various snacks at the concession area, and indulging the younger family members in face painting. The multi-cultural crew interacted with visitors on board and went out into the communities and engaged in charitable activities.

For over four decades vessels bearing the name Logos, which means 'the Word' in Greek, have sailed to more than 500 different ports in 160 countries "bringing knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world". Over 40 million people have walked up the ships' gangways to purchase good quality literature at a fraction of retail value. The ships not only provide educational material but story books, coloring and painting books, bibles, novels, and self-help books.

Among the eager visitors were high ranking members of the police force, government ministers, members of various social and non-governmental groups and education practitioners. Persons also traversed the waters from Nevis to take advantage of the Logos Hope's visit.

The Observer spoke to a cross-section of visitors on the ship who all expressed similar sentiments of appreciation having the Logos visit St. Kitts over the years.
"I brought my children to the ship because I remember how exciting it was for me as a child when the Logos came to St. Kitts. There are books for adults as well as kids of all ages and I think it is a good thing to expose our children to, not just the reading but the activity books that are of a religious and moralistic nature," one woman said.
An 11-year-old student told this media house that he was initially against visiting the book ship, thinking it would be "boring".

"I thought the ship would only have school-type books and Bibles but I was surprised to find all kinds of books on dinosaurs, insects, animals and storybooks too. I want to be an artist when I grow up so I mainly bought coloring books, but my mother made me pick up two reading books as well," he said.

The Logos Hope set sail on Monday evening, headed to Dominica where it will dock in Roseau until May 31 before heading to the Cape Verde Islands and then on to Sierra Leone.