John and Elaine - busy in Vanuatu

John and Elaine (from Victoria) are serving as volunteer teachers in Vanuatu. Here's some news of their latest activities:

Finished all exam marking (4 year levels) and application forms for 68 Year 10’s applying for schools next year. Each form had a 300 word minimum explanation as to why the student had chosen the Course/School. That took a lot of time, as kids really had no idea. They wrote some funny things – e.g. I really want to be an engineer ………and one day I will be a doctor so I can help with people’s health. There was a lot of confusion between Mech Engineering and being an auto mechanic. It is really hard for kids to come up with decisions about the future when positions are so hard to get. It took a lot of 1:1 talk and advice.
In mid-June a teacher trainee arrived from Deakin Uni (Melb). She completed a really great round and the kids loved her. There were a group of student teachers in various schools in Vila. The lecturer visited them as would happen is Australia.
19 June – Onesua Week began – a week of morning classes and so much activity each afternoon – everyone farming, work parties along the road, concerts, Careers Day (excellent), sports day and Open Day when reports were distributed and everyone displayed the kids’ work and church services in 42 places taken by the kids and staff.
Paul and Judy came to stay for a week and we enjoyed their company a lot. Judy took some fabric painting classes in a village, the nearby training center and with some people in our community. They all really enjoyed it. On the practical side Paul fixed our shower and we can now get wet just standing still whereas we used to have to run around trying to get wet. FANTASTIC He also fixed the water system here a bit – we have had a lot of trouble with water leaking out over night so the whole campus has no water in the mornings. And, most importantly he went to class and proved to be an artist extraordinaire – the Year 7’s were illustrating story books they had written (now in Oz with the student teacher) He drew amazing things e.g. coconut crabs playing soccer and even a horse eating chicken and chips!
Mid Term Break is next week and John is coaching the 3 girls’ basketball teams in Vila for 5 days so we will stay in Vila for the week. We get a week because the kids get a day for Childrens’ Day – very important in Vanuatu, and Independence Day - another very important day of great significance.

People in Mission Coordinator: sandy@sa.uca.org.au