A Good Day To Be A Volunteer

The day began on a high note thanks to a fine breakfast from Mary, Trudy’s thoughtful synopsis of Tuesdays doings, and Frans inspiring thought for the day. With spirits high, we then engaged James in a discussion of various options for the evening and weekend activities, scheduling and desire of team members to attend next Tuesdays opening ceremony for the Pacific Forum. This we have been told is a gathering of Pacific Island nation representatives that will be held in Rarotonga for the first time ever. It is particularly interesting for us because children from the schools where we work will be participating in the opening ceremonies.

We then set off in a gentle rain for our first bus ride to our respective work sites. As we stood waiting for the bus, it became apparent that the team, was not at full strength. Missing was Barbara who, Yuri reported, was ‘under the weather’, and Carol who was moving gingerly after her unfortunate tumble yesterday. Even so, the team had lost none of it’s momentum that they overshot their destination by a large margin and were obliged as Fran put it ‘to do the Cook Islands Walkabout’ for 45 mins to get back to Takitumu.

All went well there after, however, as they buried themselves helping in the library, in the classrooms and with the students, practices for their coming participation in the Pacific Forum ceremonies, but, sadly their participation is in doubt as they lack the necessary uniforms.

Meanwhile at Te Uki Ou School, Trudy and Peter continued to help the younger children with their reading, and Trudy spent additional time in the classroom. Although we have only seen them for two days, it seems clear that the children are thriving in a very caring environment that the school and faculty provide.

The report from Titikaveka is also positive. Joyce spent her time there in the classroom, where she astonished and delighted one and all by using music to teach reading. Kristi had what she described as a ‘very good day’ working in the library where she made great progress despite dodging the dreaded lizard.

Finally at St Josephs, Yuri shouldered the Global Volunteers burden single handedly, albeit belatedly, as he had to take the long route to School. Once on the scene, however, he proved indispensable to the 4^th Graders as they practiced their marching and Olympic style events and otherwise sought to avoid strenuous academic activity.

All in all it was a very good day to be a Global Volunteer.

Peter