Unbelievably, we are now in the last week of our fortnightly rota (and halfway through the whole project – time is flying!). The team took part in the Sunday Church service with a resounding rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ started off with solo’s by Sarah and James and the rest of the team joining in with our soulful voices. after the first few lines with cries of ‘Vinaka’ (‘Thank you’) from the church congregation. It was a great feeling for the team and gratefully received by the church members.
In school, Kindi and the build. Harry, Ciaran and Nick have been teaching in classes 1,2,3 and 4,5,6 and 7 and 8 respectively. The leaders and Master Poe have noticed a significant improvement in Harry’s pupils oral and written skills, so great credit to Harry there! Ciaran in 4,5,6 has been helping the kids in Year 5 mostly and they are coming along in leaps and bounds with some 1 on 1 tuition! Nick with Year 7 has been doing some excellent work in Maths, English and Social Science and even had a midweek lesson (with the assistance of Dave) on World War II. It gives the children a good understanding of the importance of the Winston Churchill speech they are learning for their House speaking.
James, Cheryl and Gordon have been in Kindi and followed on with the Rainbow theme of last week with an Animal theme this one, with a hilarious variety of farmyard impressions blasting from the windows of Kindi (mostly from the volunteers) along with good Old MacDonald and some great farmyard games that get highly competitive – especially when there are stickers up for grabs!
As for the build……we now have a roof! This has come in quite handy during the occasional showers!
Everyone on the build – Dave, Poppy, Sarah, Caroline, Helena, Anna, Rob, Ben, Ryan, Corrinne have been working very hard up on the roof and it’s great to see some of the more ‘apprehensive’ of the team confidently working up there now! It really is remarkable the progress made on the build over the last week or so – everyday it looks different!
House cup this week has been House singing, with the 3 houses choosing a song to teach the children which they will then perform in a few weeks, the songs are Queen – We will rock you, Smash Mouth – All Star and Lion King – I just can’t wait to be King. They aren’t easy songs to learn but the kids pick them up so fast and after only a few days we can hear the kids reciting them loudly around village!
It’s been a busy week of evening entertainment has been quiz night on Tuesday won by ‘3 Pinkies and a Brain’ consisting of Helena, Dave, Gordon and Nick. The Team leaders are still yet to win, even with the huge contribution of answers from Lulu Bear. We all had a great feast on Wednesday Family night, followed by a few bowls of grog, then a quiet one before Ciaran’s birthday of Friday! There was a huge communal meal in the hall where we presented his signed Fijian flag and Sulu and had a good sing song with the villagers over several obligatory bowls of grog!
On the Saturday morning to get rid of our heavy heads we headed to Vutuna village so the team have now seen all the villages of Natauloa, they presented a sevu sevu to the village and then trekked to a stunning waterfall and had a refreshing paddle for the afternoon, though the weather was torrential rain the team all got stuck into the trek and enjoyed the views from the waterfall before heading back to vutuna village for lunch, followed by a relaxing Saturday afternoon.
So, all in all a really enjoyable week for the team. The weeks just seem to roll by and nobody can believe we are at the halfway mark! Still 4 more weeks of hard work and fun to be had though! We should be putting up the walls and starting the flooring on the build next week and have got a trip to Levuka (the old capital city) sometime in the week to stock up on some essentials and a chance for the team to see the old saloon town of Levuka. Everyone sends their love to family and friends back in the UK!
