Kindy

Addy goes to the local kindy with all the other village kids ages 3-6 for the mornings.  She has done awesome going there and is now fast friends with all the kids her age in our village and the one next door.  She also can pronounce numbers 1-10 much better in language than any of the rest of us!!

 

 Kindy building (L) and playground (toilet to the far R).

 

 The "clothes washing" station in little carved canoes!  Addy's best friend from the school is a boy from the neighboring village, one of the Chief's sons.  I asked if they wash clothes together here and she sputtered and said "Laura, boys don't wash clothes!!!"  Oh.  :)

 I LOVE their slide!  They call it "skiing" to slide down a slide.  It is made of wooden posts, and woven roof.  The handrails are PVC pipe. The actual slide is gutter spouting with bamboo rods under for support.  Great, right?

 The "monkey bars".  I actually know how to say Addy is hanging. "Addy ro galgal."  Gal is also the word for a green lizard that hangs in the trees, which makes that a fun word!

 The village houses by the kindy (sleeping house L, cooking house R).

Addy with her friend Anna.  Anna usually lives in another village now but comes to visit every few weeks.

 

 The ladies making little dowels out of bamboo to paint for decoration.

 The lady in the pic above is N Ambrym's "Model Kindy" teacher.  The govt has a program where you can apply to be a "model kindy".  You have to build everything just like they did here and have all the right supplies and all, and the Model K teachers come check it out.  If you pass, they let you start your school.  Incidentally, you have a list of maintenance items you have to keep up in order to pass every year!  Pretty amazing process and then the (standardized) curriculum is provided.  We hope to get the local language alphabet introduced in the local kindy's this next year and start trying it out on the littlies.

 Rope swings.

 I helped in this process of shoving the pulp out of the bamboo sticks with a big nail.  Not an easy thing to do!  This is inside the kindy on the mats the villages wove for the school.

 Malibu (pronounced "molly - poo") decorating for the Kindy Opening ceremony.

 

 Opening ceremony.  Village leaders and model teachers.

 Salusalu's being given (flower lei's).

 Opening meeting in the Kindy building.  The Model Kindy teacher was very firm about them needing to do a good job of supporting their kindy and taking care of their teachers, as well as the building and site to keep it open.

 

The roof on the kindy initially (as in pic here) was coconut leaves, which rarely lasts a year as a roof.  The community was in a hurry to get the kindy done in time and took the easier shortcut with coconut leaves.  The Kindy opened in February and by July was leaking pretty bad, ruining some of the school supplies.  When we were leaving in September, they were remaking the roof with the more sturdy natangura leaves.  If they braid them together they are extra sturdy and last 5-6 years.  They were redoing them with the faster bunched method, which should last about 2 years.