Hi, ho, hi, ho..... It's Off To Work We Go!

Monday morning arrived, as it always does, and we were up bright and early to head down to the building site. The boys were as keen as ever to get started on the project - building a futsal court at the school. Up until this point the students were playing on the uneven gravel - no complaints from them. They're a much tougher bunch than us wimpy Aussies. When the students were told what all the building was about they were ecstatic to say the least! A futsal court? BEST THING EVER!!!! So much cheering and whooping - you could barely contain the excitement :) Was so cool to see the kids that pumped about having their own court. It will be used for futsal and other sports but the best part is, it'll be so much more than that. The school will use is for assemblies, graduations and other ceremonies and there's a possibility that the local community members can hire it for weddings, parties and anything else they have a desire to use it for (eventually it will be undercover). The school also holds the Elpida Cup Soccer Tournament every year where teams from the community as well as Kupang itself come and play against each other. Last year there was over 30 teams so it's a very popular event. It's so incredible to think that one court can make such a huge difference to a school and it's community. Just awesome!

A copy of the front of the school (again) to remind you of what it looked like BEFORE the work started :)

The boys hard at work - shovelling and levelling the ground in preparation for concrete - this job took a few days! Could have something to do with the standing around?!?!?!

Some of the New Hope kids hard at work - loving the shovels!

Meanwhile.... we were in the classrooms teaching English. There was no observation period, no prepping or guidance from the local teachers, just - you do it! Okay then, we will :)

Tori - getting into her first day ever of teaching - was a baptism of fire!

  

The students thought we had a rather unconventional way of teaching and weren't at all sure how to take us at first... these white girls, they're just gila!!! (crazy) They warmed up pretty quickly though. Please note: their real teacher is at the back... playing on his phone! I commented a few days in that he was having a pretty cruisy week - being paid to play on his phone all day - maybe his pay should go to us??!! To that he very promptly said, "What's that wings to work shirt you're wearing about then?" Shut down :)

Gestures sure go a long way. Here we were introducing ourselves one on one to the students and finding out their age, hobbies and about their families. One of the students told me he loved taking photos and he wanted so be a photographer, so I gave him my camera to click away on. Biggest smile I saw from him all week!

Our (VERY dodgy and very out of scale) map explaining where we were all from.

Laughing at our questionable Indonesian skills.

We spent time in two classrooms. This was the younger group - who were a whole lot more boisterous and energetic. Fun times :)

Felicity and Jess looking like they teach every day in Australia - they did an amazing job!

A photo of THE most intense game of duck, duck, goose I've ever played in my life. It was more like hit, hit, bash!

So we opted for a quieter game - heads down, thumbs up. But you can still twist people's thumbs off, right?

The older bunch working hard to find the translation for a bunch of English words... and their teacher is checking out the progress in the front yard :)

Dictionaries - best educational tool ever for us that week!

Deep in concentration and discussion.

Some of the gorgeous kiddies - love their enthusiasm and joy for life!

At the end of a hot work day we were treated to a delicious meal prepared by some women from the church. Such amazing food! I could live on this stuff :)