You'll see that I have not blogged in a while, this is because - well, suddenly, Toby's project went viral on the Internet, and...things went a little crazy! Lots and lots and lots of people wanted to know how Toby was getting on, and wanted to be his pen pal, and so we started a Facebook page to try and communicate better with the world than this blog could do. If you are on Facebook and you want to join in, please do! https://www.facebook.com/writingtotheworld

It is very important to us as parents to keep Toby's project "real" - he is not a celebrity, and, above all, he is a five-year-old boy. A five-year-old boy who happens to like writing letters. We got to a point where we were seven countries away from Toby achieving his goal of writing to all UN countries - that's 186 countries (and roughly 230 letters) into the challenge - and, honestly, we thought we would just do "our thing", find the last seven, and then carry on "doubling up" for as long as Toby wants to write. With the story going viral, we now have thousands (yes, thousands!) of double-up offers, and a lovely, supportive community on Facebook who is helping us explore the world. Before the story went all over the internet, we had already begun "planting" our way around the world. Now, thanks to the lovely online community, we are also cooking and crafting our way around the world, and lots of people are joining in, just the way it should be! Toby gets quoted in the media as saying that he "wants to make the world a better place", and that is indeed what he said in a phone interview. But, actually, depending on when you talk to him, he'll give a number of reasons for his project, and when you put them all together, they are as follows: He wants to learn more about the world, show other kids how amazing the world is, help people understand each other better, and - because of all that - make the world a better place.

We have been astonished and humbled by the interest Toby's project has generated, and we are truly grateful that the publicity has made Toby's project known to so many people around the world that, suddenly, Toby can "double-up" on people in countries and professions that he is interested in. He will not be able to write to everybody who has volunteered, because he is a five-year-old boy, and not a machine. He might decide tomorrow that he has had enough, and we will abide by his wishes. Or he might carry on writing until he is an old man, and that's cool, too. In all likelihood, the future will lie somewhere in-between, and we (as parents) are particularly grateful that the lovely community that has built around Toby's project understands and respects this. Already, we have had experiences that we never would have had without the project, whether it was doing a radio interview, writing to the man who discovered the Titanic, meeting a pair of shark-film-makers, or building an Inukshuk. What is an Inukshuk, I hear you ask? Well, we were told that they are like Scottish cairns, man-shaped stone "sculptures" built by the Inuit to reassure travellers that they are on the right path. We never knew where our path - Toby's project - would lead us, but as long as we feel that it is the right path, we will continue to travel on it, and we are grateful to those who have decided to spare some time to be a part of the journey.

I will try and blog more frequently, if only to share all the amazing recipes from around the world we have been making!

When Collins Big Cat said they would match Toby's £590 as and when he manages to raise the funds, there were squeals in this house. Well...yesterday, a big parcel arrived for Toby, and upon opening it, there was a spell of hushed, awed silence, followed by a long, drawn-out "wooooooooooooooow" (he's usually more eloquent ;)). The lovely, lovely people at Collins Big Cat have sent Toby books...and lots of them. I tried to get them all in the picture, but already had to go hunting through the house, because I found several hidden in his bed (yes, lights out was rather late yesterday). It is such a fantastic range (and I'm not saying that because we got a box of books!) - and several were immediately put to use for Toby's project. See the one bottom right? The "Pacific Island Scrapbook"? It's about Vanuatu! Yes, Vanuatu. Then there's one about Unusual Traditions, several about wild creatures, one about Captain Scott...and that's just the non-fiction ones (actually, just some of them). Anybody who knows Toby (and/or me, his Mum) knows that this household has something of an addictive relationship going on with books, so Toby truly is in 7th Heaven.

As far as fundraising is concerned, Toby is at £379.47 - which means £210.53 left to go before Collins Big Cat will match his ShelterBox: http://www.justgiving.com/writingtotheworld

When ShelterBox asked whether they might tell people about Toby's project, we (that's Toby's parents) said "yes" because we figured it might a) encourage other kids to dream big, and b) help with those last few pesky countries. Little did we know that Toby and I would get whisked to the ITV studios in Leeds, and end up making the news. You can see our little adventure at ITV Leeds Studios (for a limited time) here: http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2013-09-04/writing-to-the-world/ - I do feel compelled to mention two things that got cut from the interview: 1) That it was Toby, after learning about Somalia, who said "what can I do to help?", and that made us look to ShelterBox as a charity (check out his letter to Somalia, he asks the question there!), and me thanking the world for their amazing support in helping us find contacts. Also, I would like to make it known that Toby is usually a bit more chatty! TV cameras will do that to you......

Thank you so much to ITV for inviting us over, hopefully, we'll get a chance to come back one day and see a bit more about how everything works!

The great thing about Toby's project is that it doesn't (always) end with a one-off letter exchange. Yesterday, Toby walked in on the news, in particular, an item about the floods in Karthoum. "We've written to Karthoum!", he says, "Are they okay?" Thankfully, although we rely on letters for Toby's part of the exchange, arranging the contacts has meant that we do have email addresses for many of Toby's writing partners, and so, this morning, I could tell him the following:

"Many people lost their homes and their possessions. The great thing in Khartoum is that people help each other a lot. Even if you have very little space families will make space for their relatives and they will be given food.  In comparison to England perhaps because the government isn't always very organised, people are quite a lot better at helping each other."

Yes, of course we could Google, but for us, every country in the world will forever have a personal name attached to it, somebody at the other end of the letter - I hadn't anticipated this when Toby started the project. Every country he hears about, Toby asks "who did we write to there? Were they close to x [insert disaster/celebration]?" And, more often than not "can we write to somebody else there?" I'm beginning to think this project will never end...and I'm not complaining!

[Photo taken from "Nafeer Sudan" on Flickr, under Creatve Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99881011@N08/]

Toby would be the first to admit that he's a lucky boy (yes, he really would!) But he would say so even more emphatically after we started embarking on this project. So how do you explain to a five-year-old what it is like to be hungry, to be without education, without a home, to be suffering from the aftermath from a natural disaster - especially if your own experience of most of the above is only second-hand?

Toby loves books, and we have found a few that have explored the topics we needed to look at. ShelterBox have brought out a few excellent books - three to date, with a fourth in the pipeline, explaining what it is like to live through an earthquake, a tsunami, and a flood.

There is also a series called "Children's True Stories: Natural Disasters", which encompasses six books, all of which cover topics we encountered on our journey. These are aimed at slightly older children, but served us very well.

Obviously, none of these books are cheery, but a few people have asked how Toby is learning about the countries he is writing to - this is one of the ways. I promise I'll share books about celebrations, too!

You can get the ShelterBox books here: http://www.shelterboxshop.org.uk/category/books

As you might know, Toby is trying to raise money for ShelterBox, a charity which brings emergency aid to those in need, all over the world. To do so, he decided to hold a raffle. We decided on the rules together, and I tried to phrase them "all official", so here goes:

1) The prizes are:
- three packs of 5 note cards and envelopes, printed by Toby (and Mummy) with an ammonite, drawn and cut by Toby (3 prizes of 5 note cards each);
- four ammonites (two ammonites and two imprints, actually), found by Toby on a fossil unting trip to Port Mulgrave last week (four prizes, one ammonite each);
- three handmade glass ammonite pendants, made by Toby's Mummy (three prizes, one pendant each).
We will be adding a few more prizes as we think of them.

2) Each entry is £1. You can either donate at http://www.justgiving.com/writingtotheworld, or pay us in person (if we see you). For each £1 you spend, you get to guess one country (i.e. if you donate £5, you can enter five country names. The objective is to guess the last country that we will get a contact for. You can enter the names of countries directly on the JustGiving page, or use the Contact page on the website to let us know.

3) The raffle will run for ten days only, until midnight 23rd of August. After this point, all prizes will be raffled off. Then, at the end of the project, we will contact everybody who guessed the right country, and Toby will write you a personal "well done and thank you" letter.

4) Winners for the ten-day raffle will be posted on this blog on 24th of August, and we will contact you if we know how to!

Toby's Mum and Dad will pay for postage of prizes, so all money will go direct to ShelterBox.
Please note: This is not a fair raffle. We are finding new contacts every day, and so, strictly speaking, the longer you wait, the better your chances are. However, even if "your country" gets found during the ten days the competition runs, you will still be entered into the raffle, so it doesn't matter. We will add further prizes as we think of them. People who are helping us with countries are allowed to enter, but please don't hold back countries just because you want a letter from Toby ;). It's in the spirit of raising money for charity :)

Hints and tips: To choose a country, check out the map on the homepage, and/or the list of countries. Please note: there are dark horses in there - I have written to embassies, schools, university departments - anything could happen! Every single country on the list has at least one potential lead, even if it is a "wild card" email. Similarly, countries not on the list (and red on the map) may enter the pot again, if a contact doesn't come off.

This morning, we came across two countries with interesting flags. Apparently, the parrot on the flag of Dominica (left) is sometimes shown in blue, and sometimes in purple. And when it's purple, it's the only flag in the whole world to have purple on it! And the Papua New Guinea flag (right) was designed by a 15-year-old school girl, but that was in 1971, so she's a grown-up now. It shows a raggiana bird of paradise, and the Southern Cross. That's a star formation, but we can't see it, because we're north of the equator!

This morning, Toby hit the half way mark of his challenge - 97 out of 194 UN countries covered. He has, in fact, written 110 letters, doubling up on some countries, and adding a couple not on the list. Fittingly, the letter that took him to the half way mark did go "half way around the world", to Palau, where the Director of Education Administration, Emery Wenty, has already sent Toby some pictures - here's one of them. 

(As an aside, I think he's planning on taking up diving as soon as he's old enough!)

Today, we got a veritable flood of addresses, thanks to African Parks (http://www.african-parks.org) who responded - without exception - to my emails. What was interesting for Toby to find out was the remoteness....first, we got "the nearest post box is two hours' drive away" (Rwanda), then, tonight, an email came from Chad, explaining that there is no post box within a day's drive, but that the letter would get posted at the earliest opportunity. This followed hot on the heels of advice we got a couple of days ago, addressing letters to a third person, because picking it up from the post office would require showing the passport (and it would then have to go on a long drive to the village where its recipient lives!).

So, of course, we had to measure how far our nearest post box is. The answer? 29 Toby steps, or 23 Mummy steps - and this is what it looks like. We don't mind waiting for post - our way to the post box must be among the easiest anywhere!

We have a great deal to thank a large number of charities, with aid workers from at least six or seven different ones helping Toby achieve his goal. When Toby realised that many, many people he wrote to were a) living in countries where the price of postage was prohibitive, and b) good people from all over the world who have made it their mission to help, he wanted to know what he could do to help. That's when we, together, decided to try and fundraise for ShelterBox - and you can read more about that on the "Sponsor Toby" page. 

Then, Toby wrote his letter to Malawi, where five pigs are currently looking for sponsors. The pigs will be run as part of a "piggery" at a school, giving young people skills to find work after leaving school. Well, you can read Toby's letter here: http://www.writingtotheworld.com/malawi.html ... and meet Lucy!