School, Chocolate and Tiki Tour

I know this must be sounding monotonous but the day was perfect today again - maybe a little too hot! It was 27 deg by mid morning! It was lucky we were having a day with inside or covered activities.

The kids were a bit apprehensive about going to class and afraid they would
be by themselves with no other kiwis in the class! That didn't happen of course. Some did PE in the heat and they found that hard. The kids here have to walk to some  public sports grounds for PE about 10mins walk away.  Michael had Science and said it was really cool. Becca made a plastic fish key ring that she printed on a 3D printer - very cool!  Some had English, others French which they didn't enjoy much because it wasn't exciting and was too hard!

The whole school knew the kiwis were here because the menu for lunch in the canteen was changed especially for us. We had baguette, chicken, chips and salad with a topsy for dessert! Very nice. They have 850 kids here and 99.9 % eat lunch in the canteen.They go into the canteen in shifts. As soon as one table empties, some more students are bought in.  I cannot even begin to tell you what the noise was like in there!! The floor is all tiles and the kids sit on plastic chairs that scrape horrendously on the floor when they're pushed away from the table.  The sound of their talking reached alarming decibals and I couldn't wait to get through and on into an adjoining room for the teachers with a door on it that could be closed!

After lunch we got a bus to town to the Morand chocolate factory.  Their eyes were out on stalks as they looked at Patrick Morand's incredibly beautiful creations. He showed them how he makes his chocolates and explained what 'good' chocolate is.  After his demonstration the kids queued up to buy things - thoroughly brassing off the locals who popped in to replenish the home chocolate supply or to pick up something fantastic for dessert tonight!  Imagine walking in to a shop to quickly collect something but find 23 people ahead of you in the queue!

We then had to hurriedly march up a couple of blocks to catch the Tchou Tchou train for our tour of the city. The running commentary is given by a dutch woman with a strong american accent tinged with a french one! She is like a walking encyclopedia on New Caledonia information and extremely interesting to listen to. We were told how Noumea was built by the convicts bought out from France in the late 1700s.  Some of the roads and houses are still here today so all was built well.

Saturday morning
Bill was here at the apartment when we got home from school so by the time we had a catchup with him, ( "catchup" translation = some wine and cheeses!), it was time for us to go out to dinner at the Principal's house.  No one from the school has ever been invited there! She is in her third year in New Caledonia so she returns to France next July. Government contracts are only for four years. Anyway I didn't get to start the blog before we left at 6.30pm, so I began it at 10.30 when we returned.  I went to download the photos then, but couldn't find my phone!  Panic stations, I can tell you!  So......... here is a blog minus photos because I know you will want to hear how yesterday went.  I am very happy to report though that Madame Lisnic, the principal has found the phone in her car so I will get that back later in the morning.  I will post lots of photos later today.

It is a stunning and still  AGAIN today! The world windsurfing champs are supposed to start today but Anse Vata Bay looks like a sheet of glass!  Veronique's husband and the teacher I began the exchange with, Eric, have collected Bill earlier this morning to take him out fishing. He will be in 7th heaven at this point in time - his sunnies on, relaxing  in the boat with a rod in his hand! You know what a fishing addict he is!  He's raved on so many times to them all here about the great fish he catches in NZ - he has a reputation to live up to, so hopefully he doesn't come back emptyhanded!

Until tonight.......

Colleen