35th Anniversery Moroni High

35th Anniversary of Moroni High School

This week is the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of Moroni High School.  Friday an assembly was held for the student body in honor of the event.  The school choir sung some beautiful songs.  The one I really enjoyed was "In the Hollow of His Hand".  After a few numbers Lita presented a brief history of the school from AKAS to Moroni Community School then to Moroni High School.  (The history can be found in the wiki:  http://www.kiribati-lds-pioneers.wikispaces.com/ under Humble Beginnings.   Principal Lita also spoke of the significance of the School motto, school colors, school emblem and bore her testimony.  Moroni is the only English speaking school in Kiribati, for that reason many parents member and nonmember want their children to attend.  Other schools teach English but most of the classes are taught in Kiribati.

Moroni High School Principal Lita giving a brief history of the school 

 After the assembly the students went to the soccer field for fun games and entertainment.  The entire student body were divided into five teams named after modern day prophets.  The games began by having representatives from each team participate in musical chairs.  Later they had a balloon race where they ran to a chair about 50 meters away - blew up a balloon - sat on it until it popped - then ran back to the starting line to tag the next runner.

The funniest was the donut race (the donuts are more in the shape of a round scones or rolls).  A string was tied through the donut like a necklace.  The student body officers stood on chairs and dangled the donuts about chin high.   Without using their hands the students were supposed to begin eating the donut until it came off the string - then run back and tag the next runner.  Many had a difficult time chewing and swallowing to be able to take another bite.

They are very competitive and cheer and yell for each other.  In between relays and musical chairs, the school's dance club performed traditional native dances which were very well done.  There was a group of older students and another with very young students.  On Wednesdays after school is Club Day, every student must belong to at least one club: some play soccer, some track and field, basketball, volleyball, dance, music, technology, and many other clubs are available for students.

Teachers participating in a broom relay, they started out following the rules by balancing the broom in the palm of their hands, but later things deteriorated as you see in the photo below

The relay got really competitive, they were supposed to balance the broom in the palm of their hand but as the race got closer perhaps some cheating occurred.  But it was fun to watch and the students really enjoyed it

A group of student performing their routine, not only were they in sync but also demonstrated many athletic moves as each would also perform a solo dance.  Students love to dance and perform for each other.  Some would perform "break dances", back flips, splits, very fast foot shuffles and other very difficult performances.

Alumni Celebration

Saturday was the big celebration with the alumni and form 6 and 7 students.  First an assembly was held with Lita again presenting the history of Moroni High and then several alumni who have made great contributions will be recognized.  After the assembly, all the alumni gathered on the soccer field.  Each alumni class were asked to participate in four events.

The missionary couples (Bonnemort, Ogborn, Thorne) were asked to judge five different events which were:
1) The class Flag (Banner) There were several outstanding class banners with the name of the school, the motto, and slogan of the school.  Some were even in color.
2) Dress (uniform), Most wore similar colors of T-shirts or Lava Lava's.  The Liahona group wore the traditional uniform of the school.
3) Serious March - Most of the classes marched in step, swing their arms
4) Fun March as each team approached the judging table they would perform different routines usually in some similar manner.  It was fun to see the creativity of some of the groups.
5) Food Display each class had a table where they displayed a great variety of native foods.  Some of the groups had wove coconut leaves together for a table covering.  Many were very creative, one even had a roasted pig (snout, tail and all on their table).

After each class marched onto the field and lined up next to each other by class, they began to perform their marches.  First they did the serious march one class at a time, then would go back in their lines.  Next they did the fun or novelty march.  I video taped the marches and as soon as I figure out how to embed it on the blog, I will post it.  The alumni from AKAS marched first, followed by those who attended Liahona, then BYU Hawaii alumni marched.  Next were the school employees, then the first graduating class from Moroni Community School, then each succeeding class form 1986 through 2012.
Whether large or small, they can really swing their hips in hula style.

After judging the food displays, everyone began to eat the food, we went around and sampled a few things from each table.  Then we went to our apartment to try and choose a first, second, and third place winner.  It was very difficult after tallying up all the sheets from the six judges it came out  follows:  Liahona Alumni 1st place, Class of 20007 was 2nd, and 2011 was 3rd.  Some performed very well but didn't have banners or a food display.  The competition was keen but they were all winners .  It was a fun evening for all.  After they ate they held a dance on the sports court next to our house, so we heard loud music for a few hours before going to bed.

The event was sponsored by the Alumni Association LAMB (i.e., Liahona, AKAS, Moroni, BYU Hawaii).  LAMB is an active chapter that has been doing a large service project at the airport, trying to clean the bathrooms which were in horrific condition and unusable.  They literally had to use raiser blades to scrape the urinals and toilets.  Elder and Sister Ogborn, who are humanitarian missionaries have led the project.  They have put a fence around the bathrooms and to raise money to hire a custodian at the airport, they sell toilet paper as people enter the facility.  They don't call the facilities restrooms or bathrooms, they are always referred to as going to the toilet.

Developing Leadership at MHS

Friday we went to supper with Jared Hester, who is over Church and School Facilities in the Pacific. Others attending were Lita (principal), Rosila (vice principal), Mary (counselor) and Bishop Aribati (HR director) and Sister Thorne and myself.  This is Jared's first extended visit to Tarawa, his only other visit was six years ago for only 1 1/2 days. In his assignment Jared has visited all the other Church schools in the Pacific.  He commented how impressed he was that the Moroni students conducted and organized all the events (assembly, activities, announcing, games, while all the adults sat in the background watching.  This has not been his experience other places he has visited in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Australia, and New Zealand.  It is really how Church leaders envision developing leadership in our youth.  Under Lita's leadership they really "walk the talk". It truly is impressive how the students are developing leadership skills at school and in the church. 

It doesn't happen by accident, Lita and Rosila provide leadership training for the student body and class officers.  Each assembly is organized and conducted by the different class - starting with Form 7, then form 6 plans and conducts the next assembly on down to even form 1.   Each class (form) plans, conducts, provides music for the entire assembly.