Fridays are always our clean up day. We have taught everything for the week and so it is a day of stress free work. We do what needs to be done in a really relaxed way. It is so nice. We spent the morning running errands, working at things that did not have to do with lessons, and talking about things.
We spent the afternoon with Elder and Sister Jackson at the institute building. CES has been told that they need to prepare the building speedily for the Jacksons to move in. The Facilities Management team sent Auckland CES director John Maeur a plan to create an office on the front porch of the institute. The roof is there, the cement floor is there, so all it would entail is putting us walls. It was lovely of Auckland CES to conference call us and President Sefeti and ask us if the plan would work for us. They also felt that we should get rid of some of the interior walls so that we could hold firesides. We listened and said that we would get back to them hence this meeting with the Jacksons.
I suggested that it would be better to split the clerks office and the president's office into three offices. One for each senior couple and one to put in the five or six computers for PEF, job searches, and online homework. When we measured, it worked out beautifully. The windows were in just the right places and only a doorway in one office would need to be moved. Simple. Tear down one wall and put up two walls. We also suggested that they enclose the porch, but leave it as part of the lounge. It would become a permanent place for the pool table further away from the conversation area. The space now used by the pool table would be a dual purpose area; semi permanent space for the ping pong table, and and an extension of the lounge area for firesides. We hope they like it, because we really really do not want the wall between the classroom and the lounge removed and a partition put in. Elder Jackson was to draw up the new plans and President Sefeti would send it via email to Auckland. Cross your fingers.
Had a Friday night date and doubled with the Osbournes. We went to the Mango. We chose to eat outside. We had a great time which included great conversation. The Osbournes are a lovely couple and they are here after spending six months in Tonga and six months in Samoa. They will spend six months in Fiji doing what they did in Tonga and Samoa which is work with the LDS secondary schools in the technology area. Elder Osbourne ended his career at Davis High School as a technology teacher. I believe in drafting. Just before our food came, we noticed the tall trees across the fence were shaking. As we watched we realized that we could hear bats shrieks. It looked like black monkeys moving from branch to branch high up in the trees. No monkeys in Fiji. It became apparent that it was fruit bats. They are huge! I had not realized how big fruit bats are. These bats had wingspans as long as hawks. They were using their wings to swing from branch to branch. I love awful fascinating things and this was one of them. We tried to get a picture, but we only had our phone, and Scott was not quite fast enough to get a good one. We will try next time we go. Another first; dinner with bats. Awesome.
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