First ImpressionsIsla Primary School:
It took us half an hour to trek to the primary school. Besides a relatively short uphill climb at the start, the majority of the 2.5 km walk was on flat ground. I started at the front of the group and very quickly progressed to the back. I stayed at the back for the rest of the week!
The school has a grassy paddock in front of it and then a wooden fence marking the start of the school grounds. The banana leaf walls that had been damaged in the cyclone had been removed so that work could begin asap. Given that we were waiting for the truck to arrive with the rest of the crates, some of the team started to mark out the area for the extension. There were a few locals around, but most of them came out starting Tuesday morning. For many it was the first time seeing a white person. One little girl called Enid cried every time we even looked at her, but by the end of the week we were able to get a few smiles - from a distance that is! She enjoyed meeting David the last Monday and was quite happy to get up close to him.
It took us half an hour to trek to the primary school. Besides a relatively short uphill climb at the start, the majority of the 2.5 km walk was on flat ground. I started at the front of the group and very quickly progressed to the back. I stayed at the back for the rest of the week!
The school has a grassy paddock in front of it and then a wooden fence marking the start of the school grounds. The banana leaf walls that had been damaged in the cyclone had been removed so that work could begin asap. Given that we were waiting for the truck to arrive with the rest of the crates, some of the team started to mark out the area for the extension. There were a few locals around, but most of them came out starting Tuesday morning. For many it was the first time seeing a white person. One little girl called Enid cried every time we even looked at her, but by the end of the week we were able to get a few smiles - from a distance that is! She enjoyed meeting David the last Monday and was quite happy to get up close to him.
David with Enid and her mum
We hired a local builder and five carpenters who were a tremendous help. We really wouldn't have finished the project without them. Another provision by God. They continued with the digging and primarily worked on the extension.
Digging the area for the extension foundation
It was amazing to trek back to camp and realise later that week how many well hidden villages we were actually passing. Most of the villages were well screened using vines and trees. Margaret and I were very fortunate to meet the kindy teacher at Isla who later that week invited us to her village. It was very well kept, with lots of grass and tidy looking thatch houses. She lived in a tin house, but said it got very hot! It was interesting to learn that they lived in family groups and this particularly village had the grandfather, his 7 sons and 4 daughters and then all the grandchildren.
This was the village that celebrated a wedding on the Wednesday, but we can talk more about that later!
