Paul the Penguin

Together

A penguin named Paul lived in Chile and dreamed of visiting Antarctica. But the seas were very rough and Paul was very little.

"How can I swim for a week in the great big ocean?" he thought.

Then the idea occurred to him.

Paul decided to build a boat, a raft, really. He found sticks by the shore and tried to mend them together with twine. But it was very slow going.

Paul realized that he could not do it alone, so he asked some other penguins and those penguins asked other penguins.

Soon enough, there were 50 penguins and they were no longer making a boat. They were making a ship.

They made good progress, but it was still slow going. Penguins couldn't get all the materials they needed, so Paul had another idea.

He had an idea to ask for ideas.

All the penguins were thrilled to help solve the problem together.

One small black and white penguin, even smaller and younger than Paul, named Pepper, said, "Let's ask the albatross to help."

"And the seagulls," cried out another penguin named Peggy.

"And the whales," suggested Palomi.

And so they did.

Next thing you know, the penguins, albatross, seagulls, whales, and even dolphins all started working together. The whales offered to help to tow the ship.

Together, they decided to wait until the Antarctic summer, when the sun shines all day and night.

And so on one particular sunny and sparkly summer's day, the penguins and their friends set out, not in one ship, but three, towed by whales and guided by albatross.

The currents and the winds were on their side.

In a few weeks' time, they landed on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the most beautiful place they had ever seen in their entire lives, with grand glittering ice slides from the land into the emerald sea, fish galore, a true penguin playground.

Paul looked at all his friends.

What was the best part? he thought.

Not that they had done it.

But that they had done it together.

A story by Pemba Umoja