Homework is homework anywhere I guess, a drag . . .but imagine doing your homework with eleven other cousins!
Last night I sat with the village children while they worked on social studies. Their teacher had asked the students to draw and name all the things that you can make with flax. They busily scrawled pictures of a bag, rope, a skirt, hat, fan, and a bowl. This list expanded when they would point to something else, the mat we were all sitting on(!) There was flax all around us and quite literally beneath us.
Their teacher, also their aunty, told me she set the homework so they would learn how important flax is for them. There are lines of flax fronds outside the fale that have been drying in the sun, all day. It is quite a process that involves, drying, treating, boiling and drying again (before weaving). This week, the children are weaving their own fans. Some will be better then others and the ones that are really good will have their fans sent to market.
This is a great lesson for the children, living off what they have. At their end of Uafatu, flax grows in abundance. It is used everywhere. I am yet to leave my house without seeing someone using a flax fan. It is lucrative business, particularly when large woven floor mats (every family has one) will set you back around $400.00 WST.
Their teacher tells me she hopes the children will have an appreciation for the craft of weaving, the village is known for its wooden bowls and need more weavers.
Its a shame I will miss out on seeing their creations come together. Another day, maybe!
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