Busy is Better than Bored

I just have to say that we truly love what we are doing.  We are extremely busy though.  Now that school is going, it is non-stop.  This is what our typical week is like....it won't sound as crazy as it is.  On Monday mornings, Kim teaches the college (junior high & high school) teachers one principle each week to help them be a more effective teacher.  He is teaching them John Goodlad's 14 scales of excellent teachers.  I think they have been enjoying them.  Many of them have been doing his assignments and he's been able to observe one teacher using some of the principles in his classroom. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings he teaches an ITEP course to 4 teachers that are taking it for credit and 1 that is suppose to be there for credit but has only been to 1 class and there are 2-3 other teachers that come because they are interested in the class.  This term he is teaching classroom management.  It's been a great class.  Monday through Thursday I have been teaching a group of 12 students who are year 13.  (Yes the schools here go one year longer than we do at home!)  I am teaching them reading strategies and principles so they can mentor other students who are reading on a 1st-3rd grade level of reading.  It's pretty hard to succeed in junior high or high school when you can't read higher than a 3rd grade level.  I have finished my training with them and this week we will begin testing to see which students they will be tutoring.  They are a great group of students.  They are super excited to get started helping other students.  Two weeks ago we had the prefect inductions, which is kind of where the student body officers who were selected are announced.  It's a big deal and they have a big ceremony.  They each wear a pin that tells their position. Their parents come and "pin them."  All but 2 or 3 of the students I am teaching are prefects.  And both the head boy and girl and their assistants are in my class.  That just tells you the caliber of kids that they are.  GREAT GREAT GREAT KIDS!  I love working with them. On Wednesdays I also am teaching the Primary (Elementary) Teachers reading strategies.  The kids are really struggling in reading and the teachers really do not know what to do with them.  I taught the lower grades last year and now I am doing the upper grades but have invited the younger grades to join us for a good review.  Most of them come, but the few that need the help the most.  Isn't that usually the case?  The 6th grade teacher asked me to test about 20 of the 6th graders on their reading and give her some suggestions on how to help her.  This has extended to a few 5th graders as well.  So I've been busy doing that all last week.  We have also been asked to help with the new dorm students.  The college opened dorms for the first time ever.  It is not uncommon for the more elite high schools to have dorms to host students that live out in the villages so they can attend school.  The other church schools in the south pacific all have dorms.  They host students in grades 9-13.  I don't know why, but Fiji has never had dorms.  They built a beautiful new facility and opened the doors in January.  They are not full for this first year, with only 54 students.  I think it's a little less than half the capacity.  The students have been brought in from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.  They only have students that are grades 11-13 this year.  Some went to the church schools in Samoa last year and lived in their dorms.  They have told us that ours are much better as there are private bedrooms for every 4 students.  In Samoa, there was just one huge bunk room that they all lived in.  They are all very happy, excited and appreciative to be here.  Anyway, they have asked us if we would go to the dorms on Friday and Sunday evenings and do activities and devotionals with the students.  Wow!  Has this ever been a lot of fun!  We love doing all of these things, but they all take a LOT of preparation.  It seems like we spend hours and hours preparing for a 30 minute lesson.  OH, and of course we have our branch that we attend.  We've been asked to teach the gospel doctrine class once a month and I teach primary once a month also.  There is a 15 year old girl in the branch that has dropped out of school because she can't read.  And when I say she can't read, I mean she CAN NOT read.  I don't know how you can attend school for 10 years and not even know all the alphabet.  I'm not sure if she dropped out of school or if she was kicked out because of tests scores.  I think it's possible that that is the case.  Anyway, I am helping her a little bit on Sundays after church.  I don't know if it'll do much good but she wants to learn and it for sure can't hurt.  There are so many needy people that my heart just aches for them.  We do what we can but unfortunately we can't do it all.

That's a run down on what a normal week looks like.  It's Hot Hot Hot here right now and very humid.  We've had one small cyclone that went through.  We got a lot of rain and one night of heavy wind.  It took out several trees around town and the power was out for about 24 hours for us but longer in other areas.  We had our self-reliant missionary couple leave and go home about 3 weeks ago.  She has battled respiratory illness for several months and wasn't getting better so they finally decided to just go home.  They lived in a much nicer apartment than ours.  No one is coming to replace them so they asked us to move to their place and they are going to shut our apartment down.  We were HAPPY to get a nice place but it was a royal pain to move.  We really liked our neighbor.  We're not too far from where we were so I'm sure we will get together from time to time.  But it's not the same.

Life is good.  The gospel is true.  We are led by a prophet of God.  The Book of Mormon testifies and teaches of Jesus Christ.  It will bring us closer to God and give us strength to obey and avoid temptations.  I love studying it and am grateful it is the curriculum for Come For Me this year.  We love hearing about our dear friends back home.  We miss our missionary friends who have returned home after serving faithfully.  We love our family and miss them more than they know!

 Some days this is how it is after a long day of teaching!

 When you live in Korovou, Burger King is the BEST thing ever!

 Happy 20th Birthday Elder Moore!

 Sister Livia Dulaki's kids.  She teaches music at the college.  

 Pinning of the Prefects at the Primary School.

 Oops!  A little out of order!  More of Elder Moore's birthday.

 My class of mentors.

Head Girl at the Primary with her parents.

Our branch receiving a visit from former missionaries.  

 Getting ready for the Prefect Induction.

 Laisa and her parents Ema and Jerry from our branch.  ❤️

Elder & Sister Johansson, our area authority, with the head boy and head girl and their 2 assistants.

School is in session!

School is once again in session.  The first day of school was January 14.  Kim did a great presentation to the college faculty of the importance of starting the school year prepared and with a plan.  Many of the teachers talked to us a later of how they were so ready and organized and were hitting the ground running--so to speak.  The sad thing was that only about 50% of the students had gone through the starting school orientation and were able to attend class. For the next two weeks we continued to orient students to begin a new school year.  The final day for orienting and starting school was January 24 but on Monday and Tuesday they were still allowing students in to register. It was definitely interesting to see parents who didn't seem to concerned to start their child on time.  I realize though that some of them were not able to register because they didn't have the tuition.  Because LDS Church College is a private school, there is a tuition each student has to pay.  For a member of the church they pay approximately $360 for the year.  If they are not members the tuition is double.  Many families do not have the money so they put it off and then many only pay half and they have a month to get the rest paid.  It makes me sad when I see these families that are having such a hard time financially.  There was a family from our branch that wanted to send 2 of their daughters.  One of the girls attended the college last year but the other was entering year 9 and wanted to attend so it would help her prepare to serve a mission one day.  The father is a taxi driver but for the past several weeks his car has been broken down and I don't think they had the money to get it fixed.  The mother is the secretary at their local primary school but hadn't been working all summer so she wasn't making any money either.  They have 7 beautiful children and are one of those families that impress you.  On the first day of school, the girls had gone through the orientation but they hadn't paid any of the tuition so they weren't allowed to get their class schedule and attend class.  Kim and I had planned to go in early and pay half for them but it had been a very busy morning helping other students get their orientation finished that we hadn't gotten it done.  One of the girls came to me and didn't know what they should do.  (You have to also realize they are an hour car drive and maybe 2 hour bus ride from home.)  I took her in my office and gave her the money--we had planned to do it anonymously--and she refused to take it.   I insisted and she began to cry which made me cry but I explained that we had planned to pay it all along and just take it and go pay her fees so she and her sister could go to class.  After getting her composure and thanking me many times she went off and the rest is history....  Of course, the parents offered to repay us by making monthly payments.  And of course, we refused.  I don't tell this story to pat ourselves on the back, but just to give you a little hint as to what many if not most of these people are going through.  We love them so much and are so happy to do that one little thing to help.  As our principal at the primary school would say.....Life is good!

First day of school-Front Office-parents patiently waiting to enroll their children in class.

Long Lines to pay their tuition.

 Had to share my treats with this cute one who was waiting patiently while her sibling filled out forms and went through orientation.

 Sister Qalovaki's class

 Brother Ernest V...'s class in the bure.

Sister Tilley's Class

 Lunch time

 Many of the students haven't been able to get their uniforms--the store ran out.

Office Helpers!  Mili and her daughter and Liti Bale who is the head secretary

 Sister Aliti, the school registrar

 Sister Kirti's science class

 This may be a year 9 class--not sure.  Their classes are 50-53 students!  (not on the 1st day but after all the enrollments!  Way too many!  The teachers are not happy. 

The daughter Sister Qalovaki's class.  Mother is the vice principal and teaches one class and this is her daughter who is a full time substitute.

 Brother Panapasa Ratuvukivuki's  class

 Brother Shalveen Lal's class-English

This is a class in the library.

Even with all the craziness of a new year beginning and the many students registering late, we have seen some great things happening.  YAY!  We haven't been able to spend much time yet at the Primary school but now that things are calming down at the college, we have a schedule we will be working out this week and plan to get back into the Primary School as well.  I miss them!  But we were able to peek in on their first day, which was January 15.  One day later.  My understanding is that their class sizes are at least 30 in every class.  They're a bit big this year!!  Here are only a few pictures we got. 

Kindergarteners with 60-65 in the class with 2 teachers!  CRAZY!

 Year 5 with Sister Bidesi

 Year 3 with Brother Volavola

Not sure what age class this one is.

Beautiful smiles on beautiful children.  Welcome back to school kids! 

Fiji LDS College Awards & Graduation

This is a bit late (like 2 months! 😬) but better late than never.

Like any school in America, the college had an awards assembly (not a night event) and of course Graduation.  The only real difference is that these kids go to school a year longer--13 years.  Many of the senior boys look like they’re grown men.  In my mind I’m saying, “How old is he?”  One of the reasons for that is the Fijian people look older than Americans.  Very few baby faces with these kids.  And the other reason could be that some of them really are 20 years old because the schools have a retention policy.  I know students in the Primary school that have been held back twice.  So, by the time they’ll graduate, they could easily be 20 years old. 

Awards assembly was just as any other school.  Parents all come and take lots of pictures.  Each award is announced individually and someone “prestigious” presents the award.  In this case, mostly a stake president or someone in a stake presidency.  Once during the assembly, they asked “Elder Roper” to present the awards and the teacher that was retiring also present awards.  There were 2 top athlete awards, a female athlete and a male athlete.  These awards were 3 feet tall.  At first, I thought they got to keep that award, but found out later that their name is engraved on it and it stays at the school.  They also gave a top academic award which was a nice trophy to 2 students. The DUX award, which is the top graduating academic student, was presented at graduation.  It went to a Chinese girl who had come to the school 4 years ago with very little English.  She worked hard and got the DUX, kind of like the valedictorian.  She was a cute girl.  She mentioned also in her speech that she had been baptized the weekend before and what a difference the gospel has made in her life.  I think the coveted award though was the Zion Award. It is an award that goes to the top 2 Seminary Students, one male and one female.  I don’t know what the credentials are for this.  They receive a nice set of scriptures and a plague. 

Awards Assembly was in the morning.  Then each grade level was served lunch.  All the students had participated in killing the laying hens from the “farm” (part of the learning experience) and the teachers and parents had prepared them for the students. In the afternoon was graduation.  Elder Hoopes,  one of the temple missionaries, had been asked to be the guest speaker.  He and his sweet wife, Jane, were very honored.  Before graduation they had a welcoming ceremony for them in the Buré.  We had never been to a welcoming ceremony, so we were invited to attend.  A group of young men and a couple of teachers performed the traditional Fijian Ceremony.  The Hoopes were presented with a whale tooth, that they return during the ceremony.  They sing some songs to them and recited some ceremonial things, all in Fijian.   The singing was phenomenal, which was to be expected.  Many of the young men got quite emotional.  It was very impressive.  I really wanted to take more pictures but felt like it wasn’t appropriate. 

Then it was graduation time.  They had the pomp and circumstance just as any graduation, even the traditional march.  They each wore the same graduation gowns and caps we see in America.  But each wore a sash which had been sewn by Sister Blackburn, the former TVET missionary that went home in October, and many parents and a couple of teachers.  Each sash had the last name of the student sewn onto it.  Each student also wore a Fijian lei or candy lei according to their family’s desire.  I hadn’t realized but Elder Hoopes knew many of the students who attend the temple regularly to do baptisms for the dead.  When he started his speech, I realized that and it all made sense why he would be honored to speak and the students would be interested in him as well.  After the graduation, there was a large spread of “refreshments” for guests of honor, finger sandwiches, cakes, vegetables and sliced fruit.  Unfortunately, the Hoopes had to hurriedly leave as they needed to be to the temple as a session was just beginning.

Here are a few of the awards given.  They had different people hand out the awards--Primary Principal, Stake President, ITEP Missionary, Retiring Teacher...

This is Albert Sun.  He always wears his long white socks.  He is from China.

Outstanding female athlete

Outstanding Male Athlete

I don't remember his award but I think it was an athletic award.

This is Laisa from our Korovou Branch.  She has to travel over an hour to get to school every morning.  I think she got an award for her work with the beehives.  

These two got the top seminary student male & female.  I think it is called the Zion Award.

They get a new set of leather bond scriptures.

And they had to give a speech.

Traditional Welcoming Ceremony for Elder Hoopes who was the guest speaker for Graduation.

Notice the woven mat on the floor.  Most homes have these mats.  They are smooth and soft and very durable.

Marching in....

The Class of 2019.

This is a traditional Tongan Wrap.  It is woven from a special grass.

I don't remember her name, but here she is getting her diploma.  BUT then at the end....

She was announced as the Valedictorian. When they announced her name, one of the other girls ran up to her and gave her her salusalu (Fijian Lei).  I thought it was a sweet act of charity.  She was so short she could hardly see over the top of the podium until they found a stool for her to stand on. 

 

 

Party Time!