Moroni High Olympians

LDS I-Kiribati Students in London Olympics

Two LDS students, who attend Moroni High School are representing Kiribati in the Olympics.  Kainguae David, 17 of the Teaoraereke 2nd Ward ran her best time of 13.61 in the Women's 100 metre trials.  She placed 29th out of the competitors from around the world.  Kainguae is a form 5 student at Moroni High School.

Kaingaue DAVID ran the 100 metre dash in the Olympics for Kiribati

Nooa Takooa, 19 of the Moroni Ward also ran in the Men's 100 metre sprint.  His time was 11.53 which placed him in 25th place.  Neither athlete got past the preliminary round, but what a great experience for these two young people. Nooa is a form 6 student at Moroni which is equivalent to a 12th grader in the states.

Nooa TAKOOA ran men's 100 metre dash in Olympics

To compete at this level in front of 60,000 screaming fans will be a life long memory.  In Kiribati they run their races on a cinder track, usually bare footed, a few wear shoes but not many.  Even in the short sprints the runners start from a standing position, so running in track shoes on a rubberized track with starting blocks was a new experience for both of them.

Nooa was in our family home evening group during the last school year and hopefully will soon submit his papers for the mission field.  The two LDS students competing were on the Moroni Track team that won the Kiribati High School Championship.

Also at the Olympics is Bro. Iobeta (Lita's husband) who is Kiribati's weight lifting coach.  He has one weight lifter who qualified and in the finals of the Men's 85.94 kg class. His name is David Kaloaiau,  he placed 17th.  His combine weight in "snatch" and " was 325 kg

The other Kiribati Olympian - David KATOATAU in Weight lifting

Also in the Kiribati delegation is Bishop Arobati Brechtefeld, who serves on the Kiribati Athletic Committee and is over track and field.  The stake executive secretary Peter (don't know his last name) was also part of the delegation.

A  Rat Ate the Internet Cable to the School 

There continue to be some interesting challenges with the internet.  The latest one stopped all service to the school and apartment for nearly two weeks.  A rat ate the fiber optic cable that runs from the service center to the school.  I suppose it is a matter of "natural selection" - rats that bite into electrical wire are not around to teach their offspring, rats that eat fiber optic cables are.

The IT specialist was able to run a temporary line to the school but it made the internet even slower than normal.  We could get email messages but were not able to open them.  I had to go to the service center to do computer work which required the web, so it has been interesting.  Last Monday a technician from New Zealand flew here to fix the problem.  He also brought a high frequency sound device that is supposed to drive the rats out of the buildings and tunnels where it is used.  It also repels dogs.  We could use it on a few in the neighborhood, but we didn't have access to it.

Our One Year Anniversary in Kiribati

On August 8th we will have served for one-year on our mission.  It doesn't seem possible that time has past that fast.  Sister Thorne will begin teaching her first class as the lead teacher this coming Thursday.  She is excited and has spent numerous hours in preparation.  The class is on Effective Classroom Practices (pedagogy).  Elder Thorne is supervising Lita, Rosila, and a HOD (head of department) in their leadership internship and will begin supervising a student teacher during the next few weeks until the end of the school year in early November.  Approval has been given to teach a course on classroom management and discipline also before the end of the school year.  So life is very busy for both of us.

This Friday will be Zone Conference,  Sister Thorne and I are making Dutch Oven Beans for 80 missionaries and guests.  Our challenge is there aren't dutch ovens in Tarawa.  Part of the receipt calls for ground beef and molasses, which we have been unable to find.  We hoped they had some molasses in the Marshall islands they could ship to us, but they have been unable to find it there either.   We will improvise.

They are reorganizing our Stake Presidency next Sunday.  Elder Pearson of the 70 and Pres. Davis from the Suva Temple along with an area 70 will be here and will also be at the Zone Conference.  We will write more about that in our next post.