Leadership Retreat on Biketawa Island

Moroni High School Leadership Retreat

On November 30th through December 2nd, we attended a leadership retreat at Moroni High School.  The Department heads, administration,  secretaries, librarian, head cook, and school nurse were invited.  The first exercise was to divide into groups and complete a SWOT (Successes, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of each department.  Sister Thorne and I reviewed the ITEP program, since we arrived. We then used the analysis to set ITEP  goals for the 2012 school year. There were several other excellent training sessions.

Church boat which took us to Biketawa Island

Thursday afternoon we traveled to a government resort site (similar to a state park in the USA) which was on Biketawa Island.  Approximately 20 participants and their spouses were attended.  We traveled on the Church boat from Bairiki near Betio to for approximately two hours to the island.   With all the equipment and supplies only12 people, including Sister Thorne and myself, were on the first boat trip.  
The Church boat is about 30 feet long and has two 90 horsepower Yamaha Motors.  It is used by the Church Service Center to travel to the outer islands to take supplies, and people who have business there.  The trip to Biketawa was a bit choppy with some large waves so with all the weight in the boat, three men moved to the hull of the boat and everyone else moved forward as much as possible.  

When we arrived it was dark, and with no light from the moon the boat pilot had a difficult time finding the deeper channels through the sandbars to approach the resort's coast line.  By the time we arrived it was also low tide, so the propellers were hitting sand and had to raised out of the water.  The men and some of women got off the boat about one-half mile from shore and pulled and pushed the boat until we were about 50 yards from shore.  From there we waded through knee deep water to carry all the supplies and personal gear to the camp site.  It took several trips to get the supplies from the boat.  The boat later returned to get the rest of the group, who met it at the Kiribati Parliament building, so their trip was much faster than ours.

Map of Tarawa Atolls (Bairiki bottom left and Biketawa
is about in the center of the map 

Biketawa is one of 24 small atolls and islets that make up Tarawa.  The boat was launced at Bairiki, which is near Betio (see bottom left of the map).  
We arrived in the dark so we had to put up our mosquito netting up in a Tepius (not sure of the spelling) which is a small hut with a raised floor about 4 feet off the ground and its dimensions are approximately 8 feet long and 6 feet wide.  It has a sloped roof made from pandanus leaves that are woven together and placed in layers - similar to shingles.  The woven pandanus mats are the length of the roof.  The floor of the hut has small branches laid side by side attached to larger branches going in opposite direction.  We put up the mosquito net tent and placed woven mats and small pads on the floor for our bed.  It wasn't exactly like our mattress at home, but we slept well and enjoyed the fresh breeze that blew over and under us for most of the night.

We slept in mosquito netting on woven mats in a Tepius (sic) hut

Maneaba where all the meetings and meals were held

The meetings and meals were held in the maneaba.  It was constructed out of native logs from coconut and other trees.  Many of the pillars and cross beams are held in pace by small ropes lashing the logs and branches together to form beams and the roof structure.  The roof covering is made from pandanus leaves.  When the leaves begin to turn brown they are removed from the tree and soaked in the ocean water.  The village women then weave them into long mat similar to shingles which are approximately 4 feet in width and the length of the structure.  The mats are then placed in layers similar to shingles on a roof for the length of the Maneaba.   

It makes a water tight roof that slopes to the approximately 4 feet from the ground.

Getting breakfast ready in the Meneaba

We ate all our meals in the Maneaba on large mats and a large table clothe placed in the center.  Every person sits on the mats cross legged as they eat the meal which is served family style.  Again the food was plentiful, it included roast beef, sausage, raw and cooked fish, rice, breakfast crackers, mixed vegetables and many other Kiribati dishes.  The secretaries and other support staff did most of the cooking.  

Janis spent a lot of time gathering sea shells for the grandchildren and got a good variety, even though a few of them started to crawl away.  She finally stopped looking along the shore beaches and waded in the narrow water and found many beautiful and unique shells for her collection.  

Gathering seashells by the sea shore

A new freshly woven hat by Bwereia for Sister Thorne       

Bwereia, one of the secretaries at Moroni High sat down on the ground and weaving a basket with long and narrow pandanus leaves.  She then wove Sister Thorne the hat shown on the photo at the left.  She also wove another hat, all in matter of a few hours.  Bwereia met her husband when they both were working for the  police department in Kiribati.  He still is a policeman, with the rank of Lieutenant.  He went to Moroni High and has served as a Bishop and other church callings.  Bweria quit her job with the police force to work for much less money at Moroni High.  It was interesting to visit with many of the spouses of the teachers and church employees who were at the retreat with us.  The dorm father joined us latter on Friday. He and a group of Moroni students walked and waded for about 4 hours to get to Biketawa.  They had lunch at his families home in the village and later walked back to South Tarawa before returning home. Meaua, (one of our FHE students walked with the group).                                                                                          

Government resort on Biketawa Island (similar to a state park in the USA

Small islet to the West and across the bay, it has a small village and a private resort

For the return trip we traveled to Bonriki - South West of the airport, it was approximately an hour boat ride.  After unloading the boat, we waited for the church van and truck to pick up our supplies and our group to return us to the Moroni Campus.  The boat then returned to get the rest of the group. 

It was a great three days of training and fun activities.  We were all especially proud of Sister Thorne for surviving over 3 hours, round trip, on the boat.  She does not like to be on, in, or fly over large bodies of water. But overall, she really enjoyed roughing it.  Despite some inconveniences like no running water in the restrooms; having to take a bucket of water to flush the toilets; and showering by dumping a bucket of water over your head and rinsing your hair with another bucket of water.  The pump that normally provides stored rain water for the restrooms was not working. 

The boat returned to get the rest of the group and on the way back it ran out of gas.  As all the ladies sang and danced on the boat some of the men were trying to find gas to put in the motors.  So the boat drifted and the ladies sang and had a good time.  Finally they got one of the motors started, so their travel was very slow.  They eventually got home about 11:00 p.m.  We are glad we were on the first boat trip instead of the drifting adventure.

It was good to get away from the crowded conditions on South Tarawa and get a feel of island life where only a few people live and to experience island life at a much simpler pace.  Lita and the administration did a great job of putting on an excellent professional development activity.