Then it was time to go to the school for my scheduled “concert” as they call it for the approximately 85 kids from 1st grade to 9th grade, outside on the basketball court.” It went well. Such well behaved and attentive kids.
Then we moved to the Kindergarten/Head Start building a ways down the path for another gig, with all the 17 or so kids getting their own rhythm instrument. A successful day.
I (Linda) am coming in at 8am every morning to the Kinder/Head Start to model “center time” as the children gather. It used to be “free play” on the schedule, and both teachers and students seem to really like this new approach of four tables of things to do: PlayDoh, blocks, puzzles, Legos and other great stuff still to come. Tomorrow one of the tables will be Art, which I would like to keep going until we leave.
Headstart USA has provided some wonderful learning tools, but of course no baskets to dump the stuff into or instructions on using them.
I am lucky that the two teachers have said that they appreciate knowing more about “Centers”, which they were evidently told that they should set up when they went to a workshop on Yap last summer, but evidently no modeling… Sigh. I have already brought ten empty baskets to that one large room, and one of the teachers went on a clean-up kick in the formerly messy storeroom (labeled above the door: OFFICE), filling an entire basket with scattered Legos, additional baskets with other manipulatives, putting together puzzles, putting all of the sand play toys into a new large box and balls into another, etc. It is now a really tidy storeroom, which is great because the kids are so cute and eager to learn and to use the materials.
Next Friday will be “Culture Day”, with the island in a flurry to continue training the youth in their traditional cultural skills. We have been asked to take photos and make a slide show for the school. OK!
It is warmer here than anywhere we have been since the Solomons, but luckily the dress code, for both men and women, is to be covered from waist to knees, and that is all. Dave says that it will be delightful to go to church Sunday with no shirt and no shoes. He asks hopefully, “No service? (Only singing?)” We’ll see. The chiefs and the people in the Yap outer islands (and the Yap main island too) want to keep their traditions, a wonderful thing in 2010, and this is supported by the church leaders. Good.
Several beautiful outrigger canoes are being built with hand tools in the traditional open-air Men’s Meeting Houses on the island. The canoes are works of art. They are paddled in the lagoon daily. There are two larger sailing canoes under the tall, steep, thatched roofs supported by columns. We hope the big sailing outriggers will be out on the water on Culture Day. Evidently one skill that will be taught is how to right your outrigger canoe if it is flipped. We will try to take some video for our requested slide show… Dave, Doug and Mike were invited to partake in drinking “tuba”, the slightly fermented drippings from tender shoots of coconut palms, at the daily evening gathering at the Men’s House shelters on Tuesday evening, and were asked to bring fiddle and guitar. A good bonding session. Dave says that tuba isn’t great, but it is much better than the kava “men’s drink” in Fiji.
