WHEN it comes to their wedding, most young women would be for-given for being consumed by its details the day before the event but not so St Kieran’s Primary School teacher Natalie Grant.
Natalie, who was married in Vanu-atu earlier this year, saw the trip as an opportunity to help the less fortunate.
Enlisting the support of St Kieran’s students she took a suitcase full of stationery with her from the Brighton school and set out the day before the wedding to deliver the goods.
“One of the teacher aides at our school had been to Vanuatu a long time ago to work in a school and still knew someone over there so we knew which school we were going to,” Natalie said.
She organised a taxi driver who unfortunately spoke little English and, along with her two sisters, set off for the other side of the island.
She said the trio initially tried to pronounce the name of their destination but eventually realised their taxi driver did not understand.
“About forty-five minutes into our trip the taxi driver was slowing down at every school that we came to asking us – us, who had no idea where we were going – if this was the school that we wanted to go to.
“By this stage I was becoming a little nervous that I may not be making it back for the wedding.”
Natalie said that, after three hours’ travel, the girls finally reached their destination of Manua Primary School.
She said the school in the village of Paonangisu was quite large with about 230 students.
“The buildings were small sheds. They had concrete floors with some old plastic on the floor as a mat and when I walked into the room it was operating just as you would see walking into a classroom at our school, minus all the resources.”
Natalie said she and her sisters spent some time looking around the school and its facilities and watching the students at work.
“We really are very lucky here, but at the same time so are they,” she said.
“They lead very simple lives in a very beautiful part of the world.”
Natalie said the students and teachers had thanked St Kieran’s for their donations.
“They have thanked us for donating things that the students need every day as a part of their learning.
“It is the simple things in our lives that make such a difference to those less fortunate than us.
“This was an amazing experience that I will never forget.”
