Melanesian Museum

Bonjour!

We had our 19 happy faces greet us at school this morning and then we went into a vacant classroom and chatted about their host families and anything they had found difficult so far in their workbooks.
Our bus collected us at 9am for the town Melanesian Centre.

The Museum's artefacts are divided into different sections - Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. It is interesting to see the similarities/differences between what these groups used for tools, ceremonies and weapons. Everything was well set-out and explained with information in English at each exhibit.
At the fishing section, there were two boats, one of which the kids were absolutely sure must have been borrowed by the film makers of Moana because it was exactly the same as the one in the movie!

 Some of them thought these masks would be awesome to wear on Halloween night!

 Teneya getting her face painted before we start learning the traditional dance from the island of Lifou. This island is where our teacher came from.

                                Sitting inside the Case (Carz) while everyone's face gets done.

Even me!

Ready to dance!

                                                                Learning from our tutor

As he usually does, after we'd learnt it, this little guy teaching us got us to perform our waiata, then go straight into our new dance, then the boys performed their haka and we finished with He Honore. It was great! This guy is a dancer by profession and he really got into it with his drums and high-pitched trilling as they do during their dances - another real sharing of cultures.

When we started leaving, a french school visiting there for a weaving class, asked if we could sing for them as they'd heard us in the distance.  We did so and then they stood up and responded with a french song - very cool!  

We were back at school by 11.30 ready for the kids to take off with their billet as it's Wednesday and a half day today.  The Principal took Bill and I out to lunch with his Deputy and the two English teachers coming to NZ.  We had a fabulous meal with a set menu at a 'vocational school'. The kids here, 16-18 years, all want to be involved in the hospitality industry when they finish school, so the meals are all prepared by the kids. They have a dining room that looks like any restaurant and the public can book to go there to eat. It was really good.

It began raining again at lunchtime today so I hope that's gone for our day at the beach tomorrow - snorkelling on Duck Island and then swimming.

Until tomorrow, au revoir from the TIS travelling crew!