Niua School prefects show good leadership for the younger students in carrying out a project to help the school.

The student prefects of Niua School on Pukapuka came together this week to complete a special project – painting their pre-school’s playground.

The prefects met the previous week to plan ways to help the school and settled on a painting working bee.

Principal of Niua, Poti Maeva said he was overwhelmed and proud of the way the prefects used their initiative and showed good leadership for the younger students in carrying out the project to help the school.

“The students happily took on the tasks they had set with love and care showing how much they are willing to accomplish a school project, wholeheartedly and with pride,” said Maeva.

A menu of talao fish (patuki) and wawa (taro) to enjoy for lunch after the completion of painting was also pre planned, so the weekend prior the boys went fishing for talao, returning with two full buckets and the girls pulled out wawa from the uwi (taro plantation).

The girls peeled and prepared the wawa at the school compound with some cooking the root crop over an open fire using dried branches, and empty tins as stands for the cooking pot.

Most girls chose to fry their wawa while the rest was cooked with coconut cream.

Some girls cooked a pot of tulolo (taro with coconut cream) while some made wawa patupatu (taro smack). A pot of pani uto (uto cooked with rice and coconut cream) was added to the spread on the table.