This morning the kids went straight into classes. They had different students to take them into their classes today but they were all OK with that. Most have loved Spanish - especially Sam. The Spanish teacher told us at lunchtime that he had done really well and she was impressed with him! Biology has been OK but haven't heard anyone saying that physics or chemistry was awesome!
When the kids were all settled into class, Bill and I went to visit the school that an old friend is now Principal of. Monsieur Eric Vallon was the original teacher I began our cultural exchange with twelve years ago. He has since left Jean Mariotti College, taught in France for a few years and is now back in Noumea as Principal of a low decile College - Year 7 - 10. It is a tough school of mainly kanak kids but we met some lovely pupils this morning who are coming to NZ on Saturday on the same flight as us to stay with kids from a Rotorua school. They performed three traditional dances for us as a practice performing in front of New Zealanders!
One of the smaller classrooms. It doesn't matter what area the school is in, windows are always
barred.
Looking down onto the centre courtyard.
When we got back to Jean Mariotti in time for their morning break (9.30am) the whole school was outside waiting for us to perform! Veronique really wanted the whole school to see our performance so about 1200 kids were seated on steps in a roofed sort of amphitheatre they use during breaks. It certainly looked daunting as a sound system had been set up for us and expectation hung in the air as Bill and I made our way down the steps to where our kids were waiting up the front for us. I don't think they could quite believe what had been thrust on them yesterday afternoon! Bill had said that we had been asked to do it and just said to the kids "of course we can can't we, because we are proud members of Taupo Intermediate!"
As soon as Bill started playing the intro on his guitar to 'Tuwharetoa' on his guitar, a roar went up from the audience - they were pumped for this concert!
The school loving us! When we had finished they all sang an overpowering rendition of Le Marsellaise, the french national anthem. It was fantastic!
\At lunchtime we all headed into the canteen for lunch - a real experience for our kids. They line up, clock in as they go through the style gate, collect a tray then file past the cooks who put the food on their plates.
It doesn't look terribly gourmet but it was really nice!
After lunch we took the bus with the billets up to Le Parc Forestier, a small zoological park featuring native plants, animals and birds from New Caledonia. The Cagou, a fairly large flightless bird like our kiwi is probably the most well-known native bird. This park has a number of them that are easily visible so that was great. A guide showed us around explaining things to us and feeding the animals.
Julia wasn't impressed with the meal about to be fed to the New Caledonian crows!
Learning about the Banyan Tree
Native flying Squirrels (Bats)
That's it for today's news. Au revoir from the TIS travelling crew until tomorrow!
Lovely pictures thank you so much. I get that look from Julia at home as well suspicious of any meat there might be in, life definitely changed after she decided to be a vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteHaha! She certainly didn't like dead baby birds on the plate for the crows! She asked aghast if they deliberately killed the baby birds! She was happy to hear that they didn't!
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