Another Busy Week

Brother Bruce Yerman, area director of Seminaries and Institutes in the Pacific, visited Moroni High a week ago.  Brother Yerman works out of New Zealand and his duties are similar to a Superintendent over the Church Schools in the Pacific.  He arrived at 8:00 am on Monday and met with the teachers for professional development later that morning.  During his stay he also observed many classrooms.  He was very complementary on the things he saw while at Moroni.  On Tuesday evening Lita, Mary, Bro. Yerman and Sister Thorne and I went to supper at a Chinese restaurant.  It was an enjoyable evening.

Wednesday evening the students put on a performance for Brother Yerman.  The music and drama department performed several musical selections and there were three different plays that were written and performed by the students.  The event took place in the cultural hall, because there was no stage with curtains, students stood on chairs and held up a long piece of fabric which served as a curtain during the performances.  

Moroni won first place with their  musical groups and the plays also received high awards during the Independence Week where all the high schools in Tarawa  competed.

This group won first place at the national music festival held during Independence Week this past July.   The man in the middle is their teacher and the rest are students.

This video clip shows one of the numbers they performed for 

Brother Yerman and others in attendance

The first play was about a mother who sent her two students to College in Fiji.  During their time away, they grew too independent and forgot their mother and would not write her or even take telephone calls from her.  As a result she died of a broken heart, and then the prodigal sons returned and were very sorry on how they treated their mother.

The second play the students wrote and performed was kind of a "Cinderella" tragedy.  A father finds a young baby while fishing and brings her home to his wife and other daughter.  The mother and daughter never accept her and after the father dies she is treated like a servant.  She is rejected by other students at school and is made a social outcast.

A new boys enrolls in school and wants to befriend her but peer pressure keeps him at a distance for a few weeks.  Finally he asks the unpopular girl to a school dance and they have a great time and begin to fall in love.  But her mother, step sister and other still treat her as an outcast.  As a result she dies.  Then the mother, sister and all the students feel very sorry and weep over her lifeless body as it lies in state.  The new boy is especially heartbroken.

The father finding the baby and bringing it home

Students not accepting the girl at school

 This is a scene from the play only one girl at school befriends the "Cinderella" girl, while all the students will have nothing to do with her.  Note the curtain in the background, people learn to improvise in the islands.

 The repentant step mother weeps over her dead step daughter who has passed away and is sorrowful for how she has treated her

  

The students enjoyed performing and did a good job.  I am not sure why the plays dwelt on death and sorrow but never the less the evening was enjoyable.   Each Wednesday is club day and every student must choose a club in which to participate whether it is academics, sports, speech, drama, music, or from several other choices.  The important thing is that they get to choose and be successful.  

Parents and students really enjoyed watching the performance of these Moroni students as they sang, danced, and acted.  Of course a traditional large meal was also part of the evening.

 "Sandwatch" Club another 1st Place Winner

One of the other clubs on campus is the "Sandwatch" club which has about 40 different nations with school clubs.  One of the goals of the club is to keep the beaches clean and attractive. Last week was Sandwatch week at MHS and the Moroni's club called the "Beach Warriors" won first place in the school competition in Tarawa.  One of the activities was to see which school could collect the most bags of rubbish along the beaches.  This was another successful activity where students experienced personal satisfaction from doing service

Another Dance Festival

Friday evening we attended the Tarawa West Dance festival with the other senior couples and President and Sister Shaw.  It was well attended and each ward had many adults and children performed different traditional Kiribati dances

Zone Conference

President and Sister Shaw are here for a short visit (Thursday to Monday).  While here they said goodbye to four elders and Elder and Sister Ogborn who have or soon will soon complete their missions.  Saturday morning a Zone Conference was held and the missionaries were taught by President and Sister Shaw.  It was a short meeting because another zone conference was held last month when Elder Pearson was here.  Additional training was provided for the new district and zone leaders and for trainers who will be getting new missionaries next week.

The next Zone Conference will be in November around Thanksgiving time

President Shaw teaching and challenging  the Missionaries at Zone Conference 

 As a special request by Sister Ogborn, she asked that the missionaries 
sing the Mission Song - one more time before they complete their mission

The Majuro Marshall Island mission song was in an earlier post, but many of the missionaries have changed since that video was posted.