Day 5 Photos

Paul (Roger) takes the angle grinding seriously in stripping the paint and getting the windows ready for the primer coat



Two grinders are better than one so Gavin is at it as well

Chilly thought he should get in on the act as well

Chilly joined Paul (Robey) and Vicki is doing a rapid paint job on classroom 2.



Paul and Bill putting the louvre window frames into classroom one.

Later on day 5 the windows are in for classroom one and Bill and Paul get on to installing the security mesh.


 

Day 5 (Saturday 27th September)

It is Saturday and we decided to keep working, as next week the kids will be back at school and we will have some restrictions on what we can do.

Today was a bit of a shock to the team, as Chilly decided to put in a full days work, as opposed to the previous days where he had spent most of his time worrying about supplies and running off to the hardware store. Chilly has perfected the art of walking around with a clip board and looking important.  Apparently this is what he does for a living and he is very good at it.

The task for day 5 was to finish classroom 1.  This meant applying the final coat of paint, and after an hour (touch dry) installing the new louvre windows and the security mesh.  Then cleaning up our mess so that the classroom can be used on Monday. Also other crews ploughed ahead with three other classrooms. As with all projects, things do not always work out to be straightforward.  The new louvre frames were each 3mm narrower than the ones we removed, meaning that we had to make spacers for each window in order that the glass louvres would fit tightly. More work and more time needed.  Any way we got it done.

We forgot to mention on Day 3 we had a lovely fish and chip dinner at Toni's Beach House, and on Day 4 we went to a little waterfront restaurant called the Country Café and had a pleasant evening enjoying a fairly adequate menu and some Australian wine. The nightly night cap session has continued with music provided by the three DJs. Our medicinal supplies are running low, with the Glenlivet and the Macallan all gone. Now down to the Aberlour.

Today we had our first injury on tour (and it was not Terry!). Paul (Robey) had an argument with a rusty nail and came off worst.  Most of the team had knocked of for morning smoko, so we missed the incident, but heard the screams (only joking he was very brave). Paul stayed to finish a task with Geoff and when pulling out a stubborn nail, it somehow twisted and ended up stuck in Paul's left arm.  Geoff fortunately has past experience as an army medic and we had a good first aid kit.  So after numerous suggestions about amputation, and other ways of fixing the problem, Geoff was able wash and dress the wound with Paul's arm saved for another day.

Photos to for Day 5 to follow.

Day 4 photos

Photo 1. President Paul could not resit the opportunity to have a photo taken with some of the mums.

Photo 2. The work at the school is only one side of the project. Chilly (centre) spends a lot of time each day checking his figure to keep us in budget.  Terry (right) helps out and Paul (left) thinks up things to write in the blog (if the internet is working).

 

Photo 3. Sandra (front) with Tony (at the back) and Bill (inside) get into the painting in classroom 2.

 

Photo 4.  Bill has been noted for getting more paint on his shirt than the window frames.

 

Photo 5. Andrew planning one of the classroom doors, while classroom two painters are hard at work in the background and chilly can be see stripping and sanding in classroom 3.

Day 4 (Friday 26 September)

Day 4 arrived with rain. It was forecast, so we were not worried and as our work is indoors most of the time we were not going to be slowed by the weather.

Breakfast today was bacon and eggs, with an additional option of a special scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato mixture - delicious. We have an arrangement now for the Guest House family to provide brekkie every day (except Sunday), alternating between cooked bacon and eggs and fruit platters. For those that seek more fibre we have cereal. Our trip to the school was uneventful and the rain was easing off by the time we arrived and unloaded our security container. We have the container on site to store our tools and material safely when we are away from the school.

We now have four classrooms under various stages of renovation. We work in what has become five teams with some painting, some scraping and stripping, some cleaning, some doing windows, and some doing doors. The plan is to roll through the classrooms.  The first classroom should be finished by the end of week one and then we aim to finish a classroom each day in the second week.

We learnt today why we are treated to such a huge and very yummy lunch each day.  The school apparently has 5 geographical zones making up the areas where the students come from.  The parents of each zone are providing the lunch on the different days  As such there seems to be a bit of competition going on to see who can impress us the most.  So far there is very little difference, everything has been excellent.  Although the mums today were a lot more chatty, and were happy to advise that we had to try absolutely everything, and we would not be allowed to leave the room until we had.  Needless to say the number of dishes made this impossible. One thing that is becoming a norm each day is the chilled coconuts that we are given to drink.  The mums cut a small hole in the top and put a straw in and then give them to us to drink the coconut water in side.

Photos to follow

Hi all,

We are having a great time in Tonga and feel we are really making a difference to the school at Lapaha. 

As always with a job like this the initial prep work takes a long time and we will not see the real results until next week. However we know one thing for sure, we have a great team of volunteers here, and we are all working really well for the delivery of a great result. 

So if you are reading our blog, please add some comments and encouragement, or maybe just tick like.  Its always good to know the folks back home are interested and following what we are doing.

Day 3 photos

Photo 1. President Paul with some of the student's parents who provided us lunch on day three.  The many dishes you can see on the table consisted of fish dishes (cooked and raw), chicken dishes, a roast piglet, yam dishes, sausages, egg dishes, curries, a very traditional Tongan dish of Tarro leaves filled with corned beef and coconut, mud crab, sandwiches, salads, fruit, and much, much, more.  Needless to say we put a dent in it, but by no means ate more than half. The student's mothers came in later and enjoyed what we could not manage.

Photo 2.  President Paul and Gavin tackle the problem of securing mesh to the upper windows.  The mesh will serve two purposes. One of providing security, but secondly and equally important keeping the pigeons and other birds from the classrooms (they make a bit of a mess).

Photo 3. President Paul in all his splendour (Now where should I put that staple?)

Photo 4.  With both feet firmly on the ground, Grant prepares for his next task of fixing that hole in the door.

Photo 5.  Vicki leaning into her tasks. Having finished her first task Vicki moved on to removing all the hinges and locks etc. from the doors, in preparation for the Goulbourn boys (Grant and Andrew) to repanel any holed doors and generally make all the doors serviceable and ready for repainting (about 12 doors all up).

Photos from Day 2 evening meal

Photo 1. The beautiful steamed fish with ginger and shallots.  Unfortunately this dish had soy sauce so Vicki could not partake.
Photo 2. The second fish dish which was free of soy sauce, so Vicki had first crack at this dish, before everyone else got into it.  Absolutely delicious.
Photo 3. Chilli and Past President Paul enjoy the evening with a glass of red (or two).
Photo 4. Back at home base (in the party house) the DJ challenge is in full swing. Pictured here are Bill, Paul (Robey), Tony, Geoff, Sue and Grant.  You will note Grant has his phone open and his little green speaker system on the table as he moves towards taking out the first DJ challenge.