Hmm, it seems to have been a little while since our last entry, the main reason being that to use the internet we have to go to the high school office after school. It is usually really hot and there’s usually a squadron of vampire mosquitoes ready to sink their vicious fangs into us. We’ve learned that (unfortunately) Deet repellent works better than the natural stuff you can buy, but we do prefer the mild burning sensation on our skin over the mossies.

Today is Saturday and for us that means our only sleep in of the week (unless we choose to skip church for the week), and invariably a day of house work: giving the kitchen a good ‘Pino’-clean, reorganising the living room and doing mountains of hand-washing. We really have to try and keep on top of our house work here, as the ants, mites and cockroaches will have a lovely time otherwise, not to mention the mildew that erupts everywhere. Yes, I am gradually coming to terms with my phobias… although the magotty-rotting potatoes, bought in a 20kg sack from the shop, were beyond what I could cope with! Luckily Matt is a bit stronger in the stomach than I am with such matters.

Matt’s found it pretty hard work recently. He’s working with a team building parts of the school, and the language barrier is proving to be a bit of a challenge. They’re working really long hours to get the building done s they can start on the main school building. Matt has also been given the keys to the little island truck and is in charge of the driving on Fenua Fala.

My Tokelau is coming a long slowly, although Andrew kindly sent us a copy of a Tokelau Language course book that is proving to be a great help. Although the kids in my class understand all classroom instructions, I have typed myself up a chart so I can learn to say them in Tokelau. I now take great pleasure in asking the kids to stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, and to see that they understand me… although sometimes I get confused and probably tell them to stand down and sit up! I can also tell them, “Ko au ka fano ki te fale,” which means I am going to my house. I can probably change that to other places, but I’m not usually going anywhere other than my house, to the school or to the high school.

We’re still getting used to the food situation here. It’s pretty hard there not being much in the way of fresh fruit or veges, and as you can probably tell from the potatoes, even the fruit and veges that we do get aren’t what you’d call fresh. It is like a throw back to the old days, with us having Weetbix for breakfast, and a hot dinner consisting of either fish, chicken, sausages or mutton chops, with mashed potatoes and frozen mixed veges. Last nights dinner was inspired by baked beans, mixed with a can of corned beef (hmmm!), some onions and a sprinkling of sun dried tomatoes… a treat sent over by mum (Dianne). All I can say about last nights dinner was that desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures, and when you haven’t eaten all day hunger is the best sauce!

Last Saturday night we went to Bradey’s house for dinner. Brady, his wife Sena, and his 4 year old daughter are from New Zealand. They moved here six months ago, to a house that is in Sena’s family. Sena left Tokelau when she was 12 years old, and hadn’t been back for 30 years. They’ve done the little house on Fale up beautifully, and it was so lovely to go out for dinner and chat the hours away. It is not the custom in Tokelau to go to each other’s houses for dinner, so we felt a bit of a novelty walking down to the jetty with our plate of sushi and peach-rollups on our way to their house! Since then we’ve traded dvds, which is a bit of a treat in itself!

This week I had a short-lived career as the Fakaofo Netball Team’s manager. Sadly the tournament between the atolls has been cancelled due to Nukunonu and Atafu not wanting to take part. It seems such a shame, as training had started and I was looking forward to it being a good opportunity to keep fit. There’s talk of an atoll competition if we can scrape together enough teams, but it may be tricky getting anyone to commit themselves… it was hard enough getting the teams to practice at 4pm, with most turning up at 5.20pm. Admittedly, it is a bit cooler by then and half of the court is in the shade, but the bell for prayer time goes anytime between 5.45 and 6pm, which meant that training was pretty short by the time the warm-ups had happened.

There was always the last-minute scramble to find a ball as well; training is a bit tricky without a ball, however, it seems that anyone who has access to the sports equipment whether it be for the high school, or the sports club, is away in Samoa and no one knows where the keys are.
Matt and I have begun to hatch a plan to set up a mixed social netball tournament, but whether or not the idea will be a winner or not will remain to be seen.

This week has been an interesting week at school due to the fact that instead of starting at 8.30 each day, we’ve been starting at 9am… could this be something to do with the fact that the deputy is away? I’ve found it a bit frustrating, as I always find it a bit of a squeeze to get everything fitted in anyway, and half and hour off my morning program really makes an impact. Anyway, its just the way it is and I hope that over time things will get back to routine.
We had what I felt was a really successful Literacy Team Meeting this week. I shared my writing programme and they seem quite keen to adopt it themselves. They liked my shared writing book and the way I publish the children’s stories of the children to illustrate and read. I’ve seen amazing progress in the writing of my students over the past few weeks, and it is so clear to see when looking at their published storybooks. It is very satisfying.

This week I will spend sometime doing running records to assess y students reading progress. I hope to push them along quickly, as there are not many readers in the magenta-yellow range, as they are shared between Years 2-5 at the moment. Each week I struggle to find a set of four books. A week or two ago I collected in all of the rainbow readers and spent a good few hours putting them away and finding many books in the wring boxes. I have to admit, I found it strangely satisfying to re-unite sets of books, and it was difficult to stop!

I hope that I am able to impart as much to the other teachers as I am learning myself. Never having run a junior programme before, I am learning so much about the best ways to do things; figuring out the best ways to teach consonant blends and rhyming words, and activities for the students to do while I’m working with a different group. Training the students to actually complete the independent activities is another thing altogether, but they’re getting there.
I’m enjoying teaching maths, as the students are responding really well to the ANP programme I’m running. Not many of my Year 4’s can instantly remember their number bonds to ten yet, but then not many of the Year 6’s can either! One of the Year 6’s yesterday had a real break-through moment when after school, at netball practice’, I explained to him about place-value and using it to calculate problems like 10+8. Before that he had still been using his fingers! He was so proud of how fast he was to calculate the problems.

I also taught him that when adding on his fingers he was always getting the wrong answer because he was double counting the first number, eg. 5+3 as ‘5-6-7, instead of, ‘6-7-8’. He was amazed and said that he had always got the wrong answers! I hope that in six months time when I help them implement a maths program, that the students will benefit greatly from being taught in groups rather than the old ‘copy and complete’, ‘one size fits all’ maths approach.

Well, Matt and I have completed the cleaning for the day, apart from the washing, but I’m ignoring that. I might rebel and do it tomorrow…. Sunday. Strictly speaking no one is meant to work on Sundays. But, if doing your washing on a Sunday makes me a rebel, then let it be.
I’ve finally organised my jewellery table and now I just have to sort out a gas bottle. We cook with gas, but the bottles are huge. I tried to attach the gas torch today, but the bottle sounded like it was letting out gas. Perhaps the seal wasn’t tight enough (anyone got any ideas on this one?). I’m trying to track down a small gas bottle. I have seen one at the high school with VSA written on it, but it is a case of getting it put on the boat to Samoa to get it filled. We also have to get our two large gas bottles on the boat, as they have also run out of gas and we are currently borrowing someone else’s.

Matt’s just headed out fishing on the reef with our Kiribati friend, Andrew.

Better tootle. Tofa ni!

(PS There is an influenza epidemic here at the moment, but I don't thinks its anything too mucj to worry about... kids with snotty noses is something I see everyday!

In the past two weeks there's also been a 7.9 earthquake in Tonga and a tsunami warning put out and then retraced...

NO WORRIES MATE! LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!)

BBQ'a and Turtles... not at the same time... YET!

Well, I thought it was about time I updated the blog. I know its been a while and people are beginning to get edgy! Today I am home sick from school… don’t panic! It’s just a bit of a cold, but it is not something I wanted to have to deal with in a hot tropical classroom with 9 ESOL kiddies! So I figured it was best to stay at home and nip it in the bud!

I wonder what my class will make of it all. I mean, they’ve had to learn a whole new way of learning in my class; differentiated maths and reading groups, and actually being taught how to write a story. Today they will be back to the whole class teaching, copying off the board, and rote learning. On the other hand, they will be able to understand all that is said by the teacher. I hope they are happy to see me tomorrow!

Hmmm… it’s been a while, so what do I need to let you know? Last week there was a BBQ outside our house on the path below, so we wondered on down and discovered the Fenua Fala sports club having their opening season dance. By the amount of food I suspect they were expecting more people than who came, but never-the-less, a good time was had by those who did.

The BBQ was made out of an old washing machine tub, with a bit of chicken wire spread over the top, and a sheet of corrugated iron underneath to protect the path. Loads of marinated chicken wings and drumsticks were on the menu, and I have to say, they looked quite exotic in the coconut frond baskets that were whipped together.

The beers and fizzy drinks were handed out, along with a drink of ‘milk’ that later turned out to be a vodka drink. Never being one to party too hard on a school night, I headed home pretty early, but Matt (always the party animal) stayed on.

After I departed there was a dance. The boys had to ask the girls to dance, and vice-versa. There was an elder who every now and then would give a speech between songs, and who eventually announced that there would be three more songs, and then it would be time for bed! I suspect that even by that time, enough drinks would have been consumed for there to be some sore heads at work the next day.

******

The breaking news is that there is currently a temporary classroom being built about 30m away, in front of our house. Watching the men work is a bit like watching ants zipping back and forth and all over the place… well, they looked like ants on my time lapse filming anyway. What is a slower form of an ant? Anyway, I don’t blame them for the odd bit of standing around, it is so hot outside and they’re actually putting the building up very fast. They started yesterday, and the roof should be going on today. It is interesting that they pour the concrete floor in last, after the whole building has been built. I figure that it is in case of the inevitable rain!

Matt is helping with the building and spent a lot of yesterday digging piles. He didn’t have a hammer, so most of his work in the afternoon consisted of holding up the beams straight while someone else hammered. Today someone is bringing him a hammer. I can’t see him, so I suspect they have him hammering the prefab somewhere else. The men seem to be stopping for a drink… there’s a guy up the coconut tree knocking down a load of green coconuts. They’re the best for drinking, especially if you get one that is a bit fizzy.

******

We have a bit of a moral dilemma at the moment, and I suspect it will last for our entire time in Tokelau. On Saturday night our friend Kelemeni came round for a visit. Among the many interesting conversations (including one of Mel Gibson’s island in Fiji and some bizarre religious cult practices there), he told us about the pet turtles they have here in Tokelau and other parts of the Pacific. Now, my class had told me they all have turtles, but I hadn’t seen any. Kele told us of the big one in a tub near the high school.

Now, the high school is only a stone’s through away from our house, so we wondered how we could possibly have missed seeing the turtle. So, on Sunday, when you are not supposed to do anything remotely related to work (including playing music etc…) we ventured out in the scorching sun to find this mysterious turtle.

After a bit of searching we found it. The poor thing was not a small turtle. It would be 40cm long, by 30cm. It is beautifully patterned and looks so gentle and peaceful. Sadly, it is kept in a black polythene tub, only about 1m in diameter and 1m high. It is in stinky, stagnant sea-water that gets changed occasionally by the students at the high school, and cannot do anything but swim to keep itself up out of the water to breathe. It has to wait for humans to feed it, which I suspect on Sundays is not at all.

We so wanted to free it, but it simply seems too obvious that it would be us! We simply had to hang our heads and walk back to our home in silence.

My class each have baby turtles. They are just small ones. About two months ago one family released their big turtle, and it has just returned back to Fale! I think this also has happened with turtles released from Kelly Tarlton’s in Auckland too.

Meanwhile, Matt and I are dreading the day a turtle is seen on the beach. If you see one you are meant to tell the Taupelega (the elders). It will be killed and eaten; apparently it tastes like steak. Fortunately for the young turtles, they only eat the really big, old turtles; the ones that are probably over 80 years old. They also eat turtle eggs.

It seems to me that reading ‘The Smallest Turtle’ when I was learning to read in Year 1 (J1), has given me a major soft-spot for the plight of the turtle!

******

Random News In Brief

We saw a reef shark while snorkelling the other day, so turned and went back the way we had come pretty quickly!

We have both seen several mean looking eels hiding under rocks while out snorkelling. We have been warned not to get too close!

The chicken on Fale must now be kept in cages, not left free to roam among the houses. Those that are left roaming will be free for anyone who wants them! I guess this is a measure put in place by the Ministry of Health to reduce the likelihood of Avian Bird Flu.

We are awaiting the arrival of the boat so the shop can be restocked… things are looking pretty desperate right now after all the rice, flour, sugar, tinned goods and meat were given out at a recent inati to say thank you to everyone for the hard work during the recent General Fono. (It is amazing what Matt can whip-up for dinner out of an apparent nothing!)

I’m not holding my breath that the box from Mum will be on the boat, carrying my new pair of jandals after the last one was lost in the sea (sob, sob!). But are still looking forward to receiving it hopefully sometime within the next two years!

It rained lots last night. The rain is always so refreshing and worth a mention!

The leak in our roof is to be fixed soon. The ladder is currently leaning against the house. The mosquito nets will also be fixed. Yippee! We’re running seriously low on insect repellent!

The pantry and kitchen shelves have been cleaned out and ‘anti-cockroached‘ with the super Mortein: Surface Spray!

Yesterday while Matt was swimming a set of massive waves broke over the reef. Five minutes later he was body surfing! Big waves are quite the excitement, I tell you!

We were given a massive Barracuda steak to have for our dinner this morning by our generous neighbour.

The two baby geckos that each live next to our lamps (thanks Briscoes!) are still alive and have not been eaten by the big geckos that live in the windows nearby.


Coconuts continue to fall off the trees next to our house at alarming rates!

On Saturday Matt managed to douse the fire that reignited itself when the afternoon winds whipped up.

Here's some chickens running. They are pretty typical of what roams around our house. I put it in just for the cute factor!

Here's me making some coconut cream to have with the Barracuda Steak. Hmmm Penang Curry!

The General Fono

On Saturday we attended the first day of The General Fono. It was a very special day on Fakofo, because the Faipule, the Chief of Tokelau, is this year from Fakaofo. Everyone has been working like mad to prepare enough food for all of the visitors from Atufu and Nukunonu; not to mention all of the dancing and singing practices!

I will write a full description of the events and add photos during the weekend, but for now I have to get home to see if the roof is still up, and not on the floor of our living room!

Tonight there will be lots of singing and dancing competitions between the three atolls, so all going well the rain holds off so we can get over to Fale in the boat and stay dry!

The boat trip

...I'll write about this when I can bear to think about it!

A lot to do...

Well, all I really want to do is sit by a swimming pool and be able to go for a swim to cool down every five minutes! Unfortunately our hotel doesn't have a pool, it is morbidly hot and humid outside and I have so much to do!

Our boat leaves for Tokelau on Tuesday at 9am (NZ Wed 9am). Before then Matt and I have to go shopping for anything and everything we might need in Tokelau. I'm looking forward to buying a plastic laundry basket and filling it with fruit and veges to take back with us. If we buy any meat we need to cut it up into the right portion sizes, package it and bring it to the Tokelau Apia Liason office to be frozen for the boat trip.

We also need to organise a contact in Apia who will be able to purchase fresh fruit and veges for us in Apia each fortnight and who will ensure they get on the boat for us to receive at the other end! We need to buy fans and fishing line and God knows what else!

We have learned that having a water purification system would be useful, otherwise we can simply boil our water... It would have been nice to know these things before we left NZ, but there's no point worrying about things like that now!

We have learnt about some of the rules that each of the atolls have. On Fakaofo women are not allowed to wear shorts or trousers, they must wear skirts or sarongs. Each evening at 6pm a bell will ring, when you hear this you must head home for prayer time. If you get caught out away from home, you must stay where you are to observe this time quietly. If you are caught on the streets there may be a policeman who will ask you to sit down where you are.

After a while a second bell goes to let you know you are free to roam again. Eventually another couple of bells will go to tell people to go home at various different time. From memory, everyone needs to be home by 9.30pm.

We are currently trying to ensure that we live on Fenua Fala, not Fale. Apparently Fale is a concrete jungle of corrugated iron that heats up to form a heat trap. It would also be useful to have easy access to the school whenever I need it, so that I can get on with the copious amounts of work that I will be doing while there to help establish systems in the school for planning, assessment and reporting to the Taupulega (Elders/Government/Board of Trustees etc...) Not to mention specific teacher training... Hmmm... does this role sound like a deputy or principal to you?

Anyway, it has not all been work, work, work. Each afternoon we have had free to ourselves. Matt and I have been able to explore Palolo Deep, a great marine reserve in Apia, and Papa Seea, Sliding Rocks, a system of water falls up in the hills behind Apia. While there we saw some kamikaze teens doing some pretty amazing high dives and barefoot-snowboarding styles down the smooth, mossy water swept rocks. I was brave enough to have one go at sliding down, but the whole way feared for my life! Maybe one day I'll do it again, but I'm happy for that to be a little way off yet!

Anyway, I'd better stop procrastinating about going out into the heat of the day. There are lava lavas to buy and last minute comforts of home to buy!