Dedication

Monday, October 19, 2009

I am so impressed with the students here.  They’ve had no electricity almost all weekend and have final exams this week.  Many of them have been studying by candlelight.  This morning when I came into school the electricity was still out and there they were taking their exams in the dark!  One of the other faculty members told me that they didn’t even get a real breakfast because the cafeteria is also without electricity.  The administration is meeting to discuss if some of the exams will be postponed because of this situation.

Students

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I had my first introduction to the students and some of their work yesterday as I sat through reviews for First, Second and Fourth year students.  The fifth year students are busy getting there thesis done which is due in a few weeks.  It’s nice to know that architecture students don’t get sleep anywhere in the world…

The first year student make very nice models of the traditional housing which is still being built around the country for their Vernacular Architecture Class.  For the vernacular models the students go outside to get their materials from the many varieties of local vegetion.  There is a big emphasis here on preserving and continuing the long tradition of cultural designs that have been used here for thousands of years.

Today there was an end of the year BBQ at the Milani’s, most of the students showed up 2 or 3 hours late, also known as ‘Melanesian Time’.  Talked with a few of the students and staff but many of them are very shy.