Out of the ashes...

So, the community centre in the community that was destroyed by the fire is almost finished and O my gosh, it really took my breath away! The place is HUGE! When I was last here there was a patch of concrete (around 15 feet by 7), surrounded by piles of rubble and sand, a tent type covering and a wobbley bamboo fence hedging us in. Now there is a two story building, with running water, electricity and a toilet! (that may not sound that exciting to you but the beach is pretty much the toilet in this community!) I was totally blown away... The tutorials before were hot and stuffy, even though we were outside, as the houses are really close together so there's very little breeze. Now the centre is two storey there's the most lovely sea breeze that blows through, you don't even need the fans on. And you get a totally different perspective from one floor up, the views are quite different. Here's what it's like...

We had a small birthday gathering there on Friday afternoon for three of the boys and it was so great to see them lying around on the floor, relaxing and laughing. Now they have a place to go and hang out, and we have a place where we can do tutorials, projects, play games, it's going to make such a difference. It's amazing how something so good has risen from the ashes of the fire that almost destroyed the community.

This weekend was really special as one of my best friends came to visit. He was on holiday in Singapore and decided to pop down for the weekend! It was quite surreal having someone from home here but it's really great knowing that someone will have been to the places that I've been and will know what I'm talking about when I get back. We went with 10 of the team to Eden Nature Reserve on Saturday and had a really relaxed day, we fished for our lunch and spent a good few hours standing about while the fish ignored our wormy bait, but by 2 o'clock we had 14 fish and the staff stuffed and fried them and they were delicious!

This morning I went to teach in the pre-school, I'd been given some money before I left so I bought a writing book for each child as they don't have any so today we practiced writing the letter K.
I really enjoy being back there and it's strange how my feelings towards children has been totally changed. I'm so glad because it would have been hellish otherwise! The kids are so much fun and today we learnt a new song with actions and laughed alot. Tomorrow I resume the English clases with the mothers and I feel like I'm starting to get back in the swing of things.