Shopping and Melanesian Museum

Friday August 25th

The weather was beautiful again today reaching 26deg. We spent time in our classroom until 9am and then ambled down to the beach at Anse Vata for some shopping.
There was no wind at all down there and it was picture perfect!

We then spent time over the road from the shops on the beach. We ate a picnic lunch over there and then had a sand structure competition. The theme was tropical with some outstanding results and Holly, Charlotte and Alana reigned supreme with their turtle family.

                                                                          No 1

                                               
                                                          All judged by themselves!

                                                                            Lunchtime

When the bus finally arrived, everyone was tired and hot. It was a short drive into the Museum and we were greeted by a lively little man who hails from the island of Lifou, one of the Loyalty islands to the east of the main island of New Caledonia.  He is a dancer but also works at the Melanesian Museum teaching about the kanak culture etc. He enjoys our school visits and loves us sharing our waiata and of course our haka. We always have a group of staff come over to listen.  We all learn his dance first with it's drumming, bird-like calls and trilling to accompany it and then he gets us to sing ours so it all flows in together.  It makes such a great blend of our cultures and everyone there enjoys it.  This year he painted everyone's face before we started and it all sounded fantastic!
I'm sorry but the internet is so slow that I can't upload a video of the haka and the waiata and Lifou dance video is too big to upload onto the blog so it tells me!  You will have to wait until we get home!
It was unfortunate that we didn't get to see inside the exhibits but the kids all got to go inside a Case -  (karz), a traditional Melanesian hut and had the various parts explained to them.

Loving it!

The weather is supposed to be a bit cloudy over the weekend but still hot so that's all good!  The kids have many things planned for them over the weekend so I'm sure they will be full of it all when I see them Monday morning.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Au Revoir!

Colleen