Week 2 started with a heart-warming church service where the village formally welcomed us into the community. It was a fitting service which gave us our first experience of the amazing village choir. We all left the church in great spirits which prevailed throughout the week.
Having experienced what was expected from the average project day it didn’t take long for us to be in full swing as we headed into our final week of our first rota. Danni, Fiona, Aly and Becki continued with their amazing start to kindi, the daily routine put in place by these girls has been outstanding and the children’s progression is already evident. Toothbrushing time is a real highlight for the girls, as the children become ‘creative’ with their tooth brushes and toothpaste.
In school this week brought the introduction of the small study groups, with Lizzie and Bronwen assisting children falling behind in classes 4, 5 & 6 for specific 1 on 1 learning in English, Maths and Reading. Bernadette assisted in class 7 & 8 and took the opportunity to lead whole class teaching during their revision lessons. Bryony again assisted with the lively classes 1,2 & 3 and also helped out Bernadette in the revision classes. It was a very busy but successful week in school, which was further emphasized with the beginning of the House cup.
House Art and House Photography kicked off the competition. We was split up into the 4 school houses; Dolphins (Chris, Lizzie and Bryony), Stingray (Michael, Johann, Bronwen and Bernadette), Barracudas (Nathan, Becki and Will) and Sharks (Fiona, Fabio, Danni and Aly). The theme chosen for the House Art competition was ‘Space’, with the majority of the teams opting to replicate the solar system, Barracudas thought outside the box to create an alien costume.
House photography is aimed at allowing the children to be let loose with the cameras, having fun whilst posing and taking pictures, this competition was stepped up a gear with the kind contribution from bryony who equipped every child with a disposable camera.
With the foundations set last week on the build, the only way was up for the boys, who again continued to get ‘stuck-in’ and bring the building out of the ground. It was the the boys sawing competitions, keeping us entertained ‘on-site’ this week. By the end of the week we could see the result of our hard work as the building now has the framing fitted for the 4 walls. The boys have worked extremely hard this last 2 weeks and now hand over the tools to the all-girl building team who are determined to better them.
Monday night was ‘the C.L.A.Ns’ (Chris, Lizzie, Aly and Nathan) turn to write the quiz. It was great quiz which we all enjoyed, finishing with a rap battle where Langer the lyrical genius demonstrated his rhyming skills.
Tuesday night was the 1st opportunity for some of the team members to be taken on a night spear fishing trip. Becki, Fiona, Michael and Will were the 1st volunteers to take part in the surreal experience with Will returning with 3 fish but still no eyebrows. Wednesday night saw us congregated in the shed with our fellow villagers teaching us how to weave baskets, with the men hosting, it was no surprise that the grog was flowing.
Thursday night we were treated to a movie night, a chance to kick back and relax as we watched The Hangover, followed by a question and answer session with Langer about Vegas. The working week was finished with a well-deserved packed out hop hop session as we drank grog and danced the night away with the Fijians, Fiona was clearly enjoying herself letting out the trademark Fijian ‘wooo’ and banging the iron roof of the shed, much to the delight of the villagers.
Apart from Lizzie and Fiona who were having far too much fun at hophop, we turned in for an early night in preparation for a big sporting weekend of community rugby and netball matches. The week finished as we relaxed and recovered from the sports matches with a chilled out grog session hosted by Becki and Fiona, as we reflected on the week’s events and look forward to the experiences ahead.
