SCHOOL’S, OUT – FOR, EVER
Today we’ve decided to visit the local school where we’ll be showing a slide show of our different trips and also where we’ve decided to enroll Lou for a few days. I’m not really a stickler for discipline, but honestly it’s real chaos here. The kids are so out of control we can barely make it to the Principal’s office. Shadé is close to being stamped on and Lou to being scalped. (Serves her right for having pink hair.) All this in a joyful atmosphere!
Not only is there an Imatang family in the school, but all the kids that live close by our place were sailing with us yesterday. There’s serious chatting going on. I imagine the newbie riders are recounting their aquatic prowess. There seem to be a few sceptics among the crowd and in a youngsters language it must sound like:
“Ya right! He thinks he’s Kelly Slater or something, now that he knows the Imatang. “Shut up, you just don’t get it” seems to answer the defendant. “You better hook us up next time, you loser or I’ll kick your ass!” The Principal arrives just in time and sets things straight immediately. She takes us to a classroom where the white lagoon stretches endlessly behind the windows. 60 or so kids are getting ready to rehearse the songs for the independence celebration that will take place five months from now. It must be a pretty serious affair for them to start so early. Indeed, when the singing begins, it is a choral perfectly set like clockwork with impeccable style. The kids are placed in triangles, three-by-three, holding a wooden stick in each hand. They bang them together at an incredible speed playing a wild rhythm. Lou is rapidly included in one of the groups, but is struggling to keep up with the rhythm. The performance of lice jumping (in rhythm? ) from one head to another is also quite astonishing. Lou is no longer very motivated about going to school. Lice aren’t really a good fit for her pink hair …
Once the rehearsal’s over, the teacher invites us to pull out our computer and take the children on a world tour of our travels: Mozambique, Peru, France, West Papua – and more – illuminate the beaming faces on which you find as many varied features as in those of South Americans, Polynesians, Micronesians and many Asians.