Tahiti

Lord of the Flies was William Golding’s first novel, written shortly after WWII, while he taught school. I guess it’s only natural for a school teacher to fantasize in his off hours about horrible things school boys might do and become without order and discipline to keep them civilized. But a few decades later, a real Lord of the Flies story unfolded, and it turned out rather differently. In June 1965, six boys from a Tongan boarding school stole a fishing boat to go see the world. A storm ruined their sails and rudder, and they drifted eight days without food or water. They washed ashore on an uninhabited island, where they built a signal fire, collected and stored rain water, and tended a community garden; for seventeen months! The boys sang and prayed together daily. When one of them broke his leg, they took care of him until it healed. Even after they were rescued, they remained friends for life.