6th August
garove School kids do a dance or us.
As we walked back to the boat from the school we met a man on the path
that stopped and introduced himself as Tedius, the head teacher of the
grade 1-3 branch of the school. We arranged with him to drop off the
letters for grade 3 in a couple hours and headed back to the boat.

After the camera was charged and Cleo and Alison returned we headed
back to the school and Chris read the letter from White Oak Elementary
School while Tedius translated into local language. We showed the kids
the pictures from White Oak and I shared in the somewhat foreign
feeling that the pictures of the normal north American school incited
in a setting such as the school in Garove. The contrast was stark. The
linoleum floors and the parking lot specifically stood out as very
different.

We went up to the other school and Chris did the same reading for
grades 4 and 5. It started to rain halfway through and the audio on
the video is bound to be terrible. I think I'll have to delete the
whole batch or just use it as background footage with an interview as
audio.

Afterwards we got an opportunity to go see the church in Garove. It
was built in 1952 by German missionaries and the bells have 1957
stamped right on them. The wooden building is large and well designed.
It overlooks the bay that the caldera creates and the entrance to it
all the way out to the Bismark Sea.

We filled up some water cans and said our goodbyes. We left just after
sunset and honked our very loud air horn and flashed the spot light to say
goodbye which incited a riotous reaction of screams, flashing lights, and
whistles. It was great!