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December, 2014
It
was lovely to have our Fijian friend, Saula, attend our Christmas
socials & lunch at Kravings. He is currently staying with us for 3
months and will be spending some time with us at Nambucca Heads during
the Christmas break. He thoroughly enjoys watching the line dancing and
judging prizewinners at the social. His family & friends in Fiji
have heard & seen photos of our socials at Kurrajong.
Thanks to my wonderful husband, Brian, who always goes the extra mile
to assist me getting set up each week & helping at the socials as
judge and doing whatever needs to be done!
Thanks to all the wonderful ladies who have been attending classes
& socials over 18 years. It's great to see new ladies joining each
year, each with valuable input to our group.
Thank you all for your generous Christmas gifts to me but most of all the gift of yourselves.
Looking forward to another wonderful year in 2015.
A safe & happy Christmas & New Year to you all,.
Love, Jenny.
August, 2014
It
was wonderful to return to our Fiji friends for 8 days in June &
July, though we were saddened to hear of the death of one of the older
men of the village.
We had a wonderfully warm welcome from the children & staff of
Bemana School, where the entire school sang Advance Australia Fair to
us (Caelan was amazed that they knew all the words, whereas he
didn't!). Their singing brought tears to our eyes - they sing with much
gusto.
The soccer jerseys, supplied by Colo Soccer Club, were enthusiastically
received - the children couldn't wait to put them on & have their
photos taken. Thanks so much to Stewart McIntosh, our neighbour, who
made this possible.
Our current project for the village is to set up a preschool. One of
the village ladies began the year with 3 pre-schoolers & by the
time of our visit in June the number had grown to 10! They meet in a
very small room approximately 4mx5m & have absolutely no supplies
or toys, except for 6 stubs of coloured pencils. Since returning to
Kurrajong, Brian & I have been shopping & scouting out Op Shops
for good, cheap toys & art supplies & once again my line
dancing class ladies have come to the rescue. We now have three large
cartons of library books & pre-school supplies.
Thanks also to Chris' daughter Colleen & grandson Darcy who have donated four huge boxes of toys that they no longer use.
Whilst on Sonaisali Island we met two lovely ladies, Jeneanna &
Wanita, sisters, who were also holidaying. Their one wish was to visit
a Fijian village, so we took them to Nalebaleba. As a result they fell
in love with the villagers & now Jeneanne, who runs a preschool at
Stanhope Gardens, has ten boxes of toys to go to the village! A very
BIG thankyou!
We can't wait to see the preschool operating when we next visit in April 2015.
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For more photos see the photo gallery.
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