Tuvalu Flag

Today (Wednesday 23 d July) the Commonwealth Games starts in Glasgow and there is a strong Torbay connection as Torbay Sports Officer Catherine Williams is there volunteering supporting the team from the Tiny Polynesian island of Tuvalu (the fourth smallest country in the world) - tonight at the opening ceremony Catherine will be leading the Tuvalu team out carrying their name sign - we say Go team Team Tuvalu and go Catherine!

Find out more about our adopted nation Tuvalu...(from Wiki)

Tuvalu (Listeni/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-vah-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ too-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands,[2] is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line.[3] Tuvalu's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an oceanic area of approximately 900,000 km2.[4] Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Its population of 10,837[1] makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only the Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi) Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City at 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), Monaco at 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi), and Nauru at 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi).

The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians. In 1568 Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay (1812–1876).[5] The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British protectorate by Captain Gibson R.N., of HMS Curacoa, between 9 and 16 October 1892.[6] The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and later as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1974.

For more information visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu