Play time in the tropics

RC Savusavu welcomed the Venturer Scout Group: 16 scouts and four adult leaders from the 5th / 6th Central Moorabbin Venturer Unit in Melbourne, Australia. They spent 12 days in Fiji; during that time, they swam in waterfalls, got all muddied up in thermal mud pools, forded rivers, frolicked in the lagoon – and did what they came to do: built two fantastic children’s playgrounds at Batibalavu School.

 

The building took place over 4 and a half very intense days when they worked pretty much from morning till evening: digging holes, mixing cements, bolting in cross bars, arranging tyres in climbing frames, painting balancing logs – and all the while playing with the local kids who came to watch and to help (or hinder). They spent the four nights of the building time staying in the village, sleeping on the cement floors (they had thin mattresses, but they really were thin!) and bathing in the nearby river at the end of each day. The village women fed them breakfast, lunch and dinner and entertained them royally in the evenings. 

 

The project was also generously supported by the Rotary Club of Bentley Moorabbin whose funding paid for the hardware that went into the two playgrounds.

 

It was a tremendously exciting and successful project with its own special momentum of fun and enthusiasm conjured up by the Scouts who worked incredibly hard and totally without complaint and were a joy to be around. They came back to Savusavu for their last three nights and joined RC Savusavu for a memorable party which ended with a wet and wild game of musical coconuts in the pool.