So Much To Do

The major business of being a volunteer began today with our team meeting. The thought of the day by James was ‘Your basket and my basket will feed the nation’, a traditional Maori saying. Today we took our baskets to our assignments to match them with our schools and their teachers and students.

We were all excited to start, all bundled (in a Pacific way i.e. no parkers and wool hats) against a surprisingly cool morning and armed with our self catered lunches. James drove us to our sites (tomorrow we catch the bus) Barbara and Yuri first into town to St Josephs school where Yuri worked in Miss Lucy’s 4^th grade class and Barbara worked in Mr Kimis 6^th grade class.

Next Carol, Yolonda and Fran were dropped at Takitumu, Trudy and Peter at Te Uki Ou and finally Joyce and Kristie at Titikaveka College. It was a full and busy day for everyone and included helping children, major book sorting, an unfortunate fall by Carol (nose in book she missed a small step).

At the end of the day, Yoland, Carol, Trudy, Peter and Fran went to Sister Margarets famous homework project and worked with wonderful, earnest and motivated children. They may like to study but Sister Margaret bakes. Today it was chocolate chip cookies. What a motivation for us all!

Then without letting the grass grow under our feet, we went to the library and museum for a self guided tour and then onto a dance rehearsal. A couple of us, Yuri and Trudy saw children from their schools, a couple of us danced (Debi and Yolonda). All of us enjoyed it and look forward to seeing island dancing at the island night.

Back to the Kiikii for another delicious meal and a discussion about the coming week and it’s activities (So much to do and so little time).