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Middle School Beach Party

So school is continuing as normal, I am really starting to realise how little time I have left here. I’m kept very busy most days, plenty of problems to fix. One of the recent improvements that I made was to the school bell system; the school had purchased a mechanical bell system a year or two ago for $3000, which was not working correctly and causing a great deal of frustration. I got irritated because I knew that $20 worth of hardware would do the same job. Dick Vlaanderen, the other IT teacher here, listened to my rant and contacted one of his friends who had an IT company in New Zealand. He just happened to have the exact hardware we needed, and he wasn’t using it so donated it to us for nothing. We had it brought back with a visiting family and I spent last week installing it. The school bells are now computer controlled, much more accurate and reliable, for absolutely no cost.
Last weekend we had the middle school beach party. Brian usually organises this and most years would take the kids to Babogya Lake. Unfortunately, SIM has ruled that this lake is unsafe for swimming in anymore. So, the ever resourceful Brian decided to build a swimming pool on the Bingham football pitch. He had read about someone building one using a large tarp and hay bales. So he proceeded to build it and fill it with water. He wrapped a telephone pole in carpet to use as a Gladiator style fighting pole. The kids really had a ball, and it cost the school relatively little. Amazing the fun that can be had with relatively simple things!

As the day wore on, the water got progressively dirtier.

This past weekend a number of us went back to Babogya, I’ll write a report on that as soon as I get the pictures from everyone! Tomorrow I leave for Bale Mountains, about 8 hours drive away, with the grade 9 students on a camping trip for 5 days. Could really get used to this lifestyle!!!

Niall

Posted at 3 March, 2009, 6:04pm

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