MAKING HISTORY

Fiji LDS Church College opened dormitories last week. Many of the church schools in the other countries in the South Pacific have dormitories.  Fiji never has until this year. They have been building them for the past year or so and now the dormitories are complete. Well at least, mostly complete.  The landscape is not in and there are a few other little details that need attention, but for the most part, they are finished.  The students that will be living in them arrived on Wednesday.  These students are year 11, 12 or 13.  They are from the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and a few from the other islands of Fiji.  There are 20 boys and 32 girls.  We toured the dormitory before they came.  The first scheduled group arrived just before 3:00 last Wednesday.  But, unfortunately, we got there too late and missed seeing their excited faces and the welcoming singing by the teachers and principal.  I was sad to have missed it.  But there were 2 groups coming in and the second group came in at 9:00.  We made it in time to see them drive in, unload their suitcases and walk into the lobby where all of our welcoming faces were quietly embracing this new group of students and tenants.

After the 3:00 group arrived, they fed them and performed a couple of songs and dances for them.  Then they took them off to see their rooms and maybe do some unpacking.  The kids were excited but seemed to be in a bit of a daze.   When the remaining students came at 9:00, they walked in looking a little bit dazed as well.  The 3:00 students were all lined up before them to welcome them in.  Again, they were fed.  Introduced to the dorm parents and administration.  They were sung to and then split boys & girls and taken to find their dorms.  We left around 11:00 and were told that the administration that was there didn’t get home until almost 1:00.  What a long day for them but what an awarding and fulfilling day that they have been looking forward to for months!

There are two sets of dorm parents.  I have been so impressed by them. They are organized and enthusiastic and have strong testimonies of the gospel and a positive attitude about their positions and the students they are working with.  The rules are pretty strict but I guess that is to be expected.  The husband of the first couple is over the boys.  His wife is not allowed to enter the boy's dorm area.  The wife of the other couple is over the girls.  Also, her husband is not allowed to enter the girl's dorm area.  Which totally makes sense.  I found out this week that both women help the girls and both men help the boys but only the head dorm mother or father is paid.  They are both relatively young with only small children in their families. They each have a 2 bedroom apartment fully furnished just off the dining area at the entrances of the girl's or boy's dorm depending which one they are over.  They both have educational experiences but neither have been dorm parents before.   

Many of these new students come from very poor circumstances where they’re happy to get one meal a day and their own corner to sleep in at night.  Here, they have their own bed, a closet, shower and private toilet, a washing machine to clean their clothes and three full meals a day.  I really can’t imagine how they are feeling.  Some of the students were at a church school in Samoa.  Unfortunately. they weren’t always accepted there and may have had a bad experience.  I definitely hope the Fijian students will welcome them with open arms.  For sure these first few days, they have been treated like long last cousins.

 There are about 10 students from the LDS College that volunteered to be mentors for the new dorm students.  They were there to welcome them, sing to them, show them their rooms and be their friends.  These first few days, the mentors have gone with them on field trips to see the city and to go shopping.  They have shown them around the campus and played games with them.  What great charitable service we have seen coming from these students at FLDS Church College.  It has made me proud to be here. 

This is a study area.  I think this is the boy's side but either way they look identical.

Four students to a room.  All bedding is provided.

3 washing machines for 32 girls could prove to be tricky!  😳

Dining Area.  Kitchen to the right and serving area.  All meals are brought in by a catering company.

The first group being fed.

One of the mentors performing a dance.  You can see construction workers in the back still working on things.

 

Singing a song.

The evening group arrives!

Some of our wonderful mentors. 

Shopping Adventures.

I have pictures of the construction and the outside of the dorms but my photo app is being really weird and I can't seem to get them on my blog.  Oh how technology and I have a LOVE - HATE relationship! 

Teacher Training and Retreat

After school closed for the year on November 15,(this is a bit late in coming!) we had 4 days of teacher training with the faculty members from both the Primary School and the College.  Kim taught a class on Essential Curriculum.  Michael Carthew came from New Zealand and taught a class.  Michael is the Director Head over all the schools the church owns in the south Pacific.  There are schools in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Kiribati.    We had some typical discussions on essential curriculum for the first two days.  On Tuesday, they announced that the Primary School would meet separately from the College.  I talked with the Principal to see what she had planned for the primary school and found that she didn’t have anything planned other than the grade levels meeting together and working on their “essential” curriculum.  So, Kim and I asked if we could take the morning on Wednesday.  We told her what we wanted to do and she said we could have the time.  That night I wondered what were we thinking!!! But Kim wanted to talk to them about the “extended day schedule” that we have back in Utah.  Some of the teachers had already heard of it and had been given permission to try to implement it next year.  He wanted to present it to the rest of the faculty so they could do the same if they so desired.  The first grade and fifth grade classes are talking about starting 30 minutes earlier (8:00) and having half the kids come with the rest of the kids coming at 9:30.  They loved the idea of having a small group to teach reading.  They have really been struggling with reading which is why I taught a reading workshop once a week.  I will teach the upper grades when school starts again in January.  Anyway, he wanted to talk more about the split starting and ending times.  I wanted to present a class on guided reading.  They have no idea how a guided reading class works or looks like.  So, quickly I prepared ideas I have had running through my head the past month or so.  I think it went well…both of our classes did.  There is a lot of work that goes into guided reading and setting up centers or stations.  Some of the teachers were very interested and I hope I can help those that are willing to put the work into setting it up to do just that.  I’m not sure how a split starting time will work when the whole school isn’t on the program.  We were hoping the whole school would adapt it but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.  We’ll see. 

After 3 days of trainings and workshops and classes, we had a day of more relaxation.  They started with a Christmas Program…singing etc.  They did a really nice farewell for two teachers that are leaving.  One is retiring and moving to France to help her daughter with her family and the other is moving to the United States.  She lived there three years ago and her husband went back about 6 months ago with some health problems.  She’s sad to say goodbye to her homeland even though it was always in the plans.  They’re just returning a couple of years earlier.  She is very excited to reunite with her husband.  After a nice program, we were treated to lunch at the restaurant at the Holiday Inn.  It was a very very nice lunch.   Save(pronounced So-vā) got Una and Naome to dance.  Then others joined them.  They all laughed and had a great time.  When Save came and pulled me up to dance, I was a little reluctant but I had to join in their fun!  It didn’t take long before Kim joined us as well.  Save has been in our technology class Kim has taught the past 2 months.  He is a great man and brings a lot of energy and fun to everything. 

The next morning, we were invited to a special meeting hosted by Elder Rasband.  Yes…THE Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the quorum of the twelve apostles.  He has a grandson serving his mission in Suva and Elder Rasband came to visit him.  He spent the day before working with him and his investigators.  He had a special meeting for the ward he serves in and a meeting for all the missionaries in Suva.  Our meeting was for all the teachers at the schools and all church employees at the Service Center.  This is the distribution center and other offices stationed next to the temple.  There were other senior missionaries there as well.  At our meeting Elder Rasband  was joined by the area authority, Elder Johannsen and the area Seventy, Elder Ardern.  We know Elder Johannsen and have been with him several times on more informal events.  Dinner to be exact. He’s a very friendly and nice man.  We enjoy being with him and his wife Martha.   Elder Ardern, we met while in the MTC in New Zealand.  He is a very impressive man.  Elder Rasband simply opened up the meeting for questions.  Most of the questions involved the young adults, their education and how we can better help and serve them. Some of the things I wrote down were that we need to teach the youth to have self control and to have courage.  I've thought for a long time that self-discipline and self-control are core to keeping commandments and progressing on the path to eternity.  He also said we should ask the youth what they have questions about and what's on their minds and what bothers them.  We need to give them opportunities to ask.  We need to strengthen and protect our youth.  He also spoke about the importance of education.  "Education is the key!"  It really is.    Afterwards we were all invited to come and meet Elder Rasband and shake hands. 

When the meeting ended, all the faculty was invited to a retreat at a resort about 1½ hours outside of Suva, The Naviti Resort.  Here we had lunch and were welcome to the beach and facilities for the rest of the day.  Those that wanted could stay the night on their own dime. There were many that went home that evening and about 10 people stayed the night, us included.  Beautiful resort, beautiful beach, good food, good company. 

The next morning, it was low tide and we found that the water was so low you could walk clear out to the reef, which we did.  I don’t have words to describe it.  I only had flip-flops on which wasn’t the best shoes to be walking out that far on the rocks so it was difficulty but beautiful.  Full of sea creatures and bright blue star fish and coral and fish.  BEAUTIFUL! 

Kim's training for both schools.

Kim's training for Primary School.

My training time.

Holiday Inn Luncheon and FUN!

Christmas Devotional and farewell to teachers.

Saying Goodbye to these two great teachers, Maria and Ifamere.  They will both be missed immensely. 

 

Elder Rasband with his grandson.  This was definitely a highlight of our mission so far.

Kim was asked to start the luncheon at the Naviti Resort since Brother Ratusaki hadn't arrived yet.  We found out later that he was giving Elder Rasband a tour of the college!

 

Faculty playing "net ball"

The waves crashing on the wall were amazing.

Catching Dinner!

The next morning at low tide.  We walked out to this reef. It was quite a ways out and the water was mostly ankle to mid-calf deep.

Pictures don't do these star fish justice.  So bright and beautiful!

See the waves way out in the background.  That's how far we walked.

So many colors!

We had a great week.  I forgot to add that the morning while at the beach, Kim was buying some souvenirs in a shop and it was taking quite awhile so I went out and was just walking around this small village on the beach.  A man in one of the shops called me over.  I went over and he asked me about the church.  He obviously could see my missionary name tag.  He asked me what we believed.  That's a loaded question!  He told me he is a preacher in the village.  We had quite a nice conversation.  He asked me a few more questions and I answered the best I could.  Then he asked me if I would pray.  Never had anyone done that before.  So I prayed and as I prayed he prayed as well.  It was definitely an interesting experience and one I will not soon forget.  The one thing we love about Fiji is that it is filled with people of great faith and they are accepting of all religions.