Thursday 22nd April –
On the build today the team were up on the roof nailing down the roofing irons, as well as nailing on the flat iron sheets for the outside walling, which involved measuring and cutting out the windows as they went. They also began to cut and set the wall bearers on the inside as we look to start the inside walling on Monday.
In kindi the team were into their routine, with the playground once again proving a winner at play time, and story time being read by Preeya, Jess, Rosie and Vicky. And in school it was another day of revision and exams for the kids, with the team there to help them along the way. In the afternoon Yasmeen went into classes 7 & 8 to introduce the “Young Enterprise Week” that we shall be running during the final week of term next week, and something that both ourselves and the children are extremely excited about. Yasmeen talked through some basic principles of starting a business with the kids, including profit and loss and the need to look at sales forecasts and meeting a consumer demand so that they can gain a basic understanding at a young age. The classes were then split into their school houses, each having a tp “mentor” in the shape of Hannah, Becky, Jess and Rose. As a group they then brainstormed for ideas/businesses to run next week, with each team having a $10 start up kitty to get them off the ground, with the idea that whoever raises the most gets to win their $10, and any profit they may make. After discussions amongst the teams the businesses were set, with the Nail Ninjas looking to cut nails, Mango Skin Team looking to sell mago skins as well as allowing the kids to rent a football to play games at lunch, the Crusaders Team selling pop corn, and The Orange Company selling cup cakes and juice. Each team also had to decide on a Managing Director, a Sales Manager and an Accountant to get them accustomed to the different roles within any company. It was a fantastic introduction, and after chatting to the headmaster Mika it is something they may look to implement long term for class 7 & 8 students which is great!
Yasmeen had a busy day as after another busy sports coaching afternoon she was able to sit down with Lotte, who is helping to run the village bakery, to go through the basic costs and sales that he had put together for how they are running it and talk through ideas of how to maximise what profit they may be able to make, including asking the village shop to buy in the ingredients to minimise costs of transport to Levuka and naturally putting more money into the village store. The bakery team are very keen to learn from Yasmeen and it is a huge asset for us to have someone of her business experience.
After sports the team also had a big game of rounders, with some spectacular catches from Benjy at back stop, some big hits and some absolute comedy at first base, with Bruce tripping Rosie, see Jonny slide right by and have Phil slip right into him. Without anyone keeping score, and with each batter having plenty of lives, it was allot of fun! After the de-brief the team also headed back to their families to learn a little Fijian cooking, with some preparing roro balls whilst others were frying fish. And in the evening allot of the team and guys and ladies from the village came together in the hall to play some cards and tell stories.
Friday 23rd April –
Back on the build this morning and the team were busy cracking on with the weekend looming. Duane, Niall and Phil set about measuring and nailing on the frascia boards, which involved some excellent balance work from Phil on top of a blue tub, as well as his ability to duck out of the way of branches. Jonny, Bruce, Spence and Susie meanwhile were busy continuing with the wall bearers, with Rose joining the pod a little later. Before lunch, with the frascia boards on, Duane, Kanai and Luke also put the flashings, and the roof is now ready for painting first thing on Monday. In kindi it was the last day for Rosie and Jess, with Vicky and Preeya continuing for the last week next week. As ever the kids were full of energy for duck duck goose and play time. The team also had them colouring in animal shapes ready to decorate the hall with for tonight’s “Animal” themed fancy dress party.
In school it was also Becky’s last day before she joins kindi next week, and she had lots of fun with the kids as they eached drew and coloured a face mask for the fancy dress party, with all sorts popping up including tigers and elephants with trunks and all. After lunch Hannah was also asked to take the school music class, and took the opportunity to teach the whole school the song Hakuna Matata from the Lion King. Hannah has a fantastic voice and a great way of teaching the kids and they all seemed to really enjoy it, especially when she added a little piano for the music! And in afternoon sports it was game time for Friday afternoon, with 7 & 8 giving the ball a whack in rounders, 1 & 2 playing some football, 5 &6 taking badminton and hockey and 3 & 4 on rugby and netball.
This evening was of course all about the fancy dress, and with the village having already made plans for grog it was quite a party! There were some great costumes on show, with Phil dressed as a Bear, Rosie, Preeya, Jess and Susie as Lions and Niall as a Snail as examples. Fancy dress is always a novel idea for the villagers, and it is fair to say they had lots of fun!
