Day+7+(20+July+2011)

Emma Sand's Birthday Today! Happy Birthday Emma! A slightly grey day with slightly cooler temperatures for our final day in Noumea with the threat of rain forecasted for later. Teachers were up early as students were being dropped off around 7am with their luggage. Some started arriving before 7am as Madame Souch, Madame Win and Monsieur Doyle were finishing their breakfast.

A few tearful farewells with host mothers and lots of positive comments about how the students had got on during their stay. Some addresses exchanged and invitations extended for return visits and visits to NZ. One host mother even bought Madame Souch a present- a brightly coloured sarong. The students were lucky to have been looked after so well.

By about 7.45 most students had collected in the hotel lobby with their luggage. Fortunately the hotel had the rooms ready and the students were able to put their bags in their rooms and get themselves organised for the day ahead. The hotel shop proved popular with many making purchases. Some students explored the shops around ANSE VATA though not all were open as it was still quite early. At 8am Madame Souch headed off with a small group to pick up the sandwiches and pastries for lunch. Wills came along as he had heard that there was a Billabong shop en route but unfortunately it was not open. The students were impressed with the bakery and with all the choices found it hard to decide what to buy. Madame bought some birthday treats for Emma and everyone munched their way back to the hotel.

A 9am the bus arrived to take the group around the bays to the Tijbaou Cultural centre where we were to meet the group from Riviere Salee. We arrived a little early so decided to take a few group photos with the cultural centre as a backdrop. Wow what an amazing building. Madame Souch and Madame Win took photos for eveyone (which took a while!) and somehow smiles stayed plastered on by the time30 odd camera's had been clicked! Just before 10am the bus arrived with the students from Riviere Salee. Yves (his surname escapes me) was also there from the local Education Department to take some pictures. He seemed very supportive of this Exchange and expressed his desire to see the link between Waimea College and Riviere Salee continue.

Then it was down to an area by the water where the traditional Kanak huts were for a speacial greeting by a local Elder where gifts from us to the centre and from them to us were exchanged. After this students were split in to groups for face painting and traditional dancing. Unfortunately the rain came down and the groups had to shelter under the thatched huts but the activities continued, just with a little less room for the dancing! Even Madame Win and Madame Souch joined in. Despite the rain the day still seemed hot and steamy.



Soon it was time for lunch and the sandwiches and mini pastries went down well. After lunch some students went off to find out a little more about Kanak culture while Madame Win and Madame Souch did a tour of the centre with its art and history displays. The Centre was named after a man called Jean Marie Tijbaou who was assassinated during political troubles and the struggle for Independance from France which continues today. The Centre was designed by the same architecte who built the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. The students agreed it was a pretty cool building.

Soon the day was over- the students had mixted really well and were starting to get to know each other better and enjoy each others company which was great to see. A highlight was everyone sitting around under the trees watching Siman and some of the others showing off their hip-hop skills to everyone's delight. Lorenzo in particular made everyone laugh with his cheeky smile.

Back to the hotel and to rooms for a short freshen up before heading down to the beach opposite the hotel to meet the Riviere Salee students again with their parents for a pot luck dinner. The weather held just long enought to sample all the local dishes-yum. Lots of amazing salads and meats. Madame was swamped by parents asking about the return trip to NZ and the host families she has organised. Non stop talking in French for 2 hours whew! All seemed happy though and pleased to see that the Kiwis were interacting well with their sons and daughters. Many very happy to receive the hats, gloves and scarfs that some of our studnets had bought.

A successful day and by the time Madame had managed to escape the questions of the remaining parents and come back to the hotel some of the students had finally managed to have a swim in the hotel pool. Everyone in the rooms with lights out by 9.30pm (well mostly) to be ready for the 4.45am start!

What a week!