Fiji & Tonga Principals Conference

This belated post will be catch up and overview of our training held at the Principals Conference in Tonga.

On August 15^th an assembly at Vaiola College kicked off Math & Science week with the theme, Language of Creation.  The devotional focused on Genesis 1:1. In that verse, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth”, time (math ) and creation (science) are designated.  Students were encouraged to engage a growth mindset by broadening their learning with effort on their part.  They were taught to Believe in Yourself by being you.   Activities and booths throughout the week supported Math & Science.

On August 18^th in Apia we Senior Missionaries were invited and privileged to attend the annual Robert Louis Stevenson garden party where we mingled with dignitaries including the Head of State, religious representatives, community organizations, and other individuals.  Brother Winegar of the Foundation spoke about the prolific letter writer RLS was.  A recent donation of Samoan collectibles was on display.  It happened that BYUH President Tanner was touring the Pacific Islands and had been invited to be the keynote speaker.  He spoke of “building roads” as referenced by RLS and making a difference in our journeys.  His great grandfather translated the Book of Mormon into Samoan.  It was a festive outdoor affair with lots of flower décor and delicious foods.

On August 20^th before flying to Tonga we attended a Sunday devotional in which we listened again to President Tanner and Sister Tanner. 

August 20th we flew to Tonga via Fiji to attend the Principals Conference of the Pacific Church Schools.  ITEP missionary couples were invited this time.  We learned there are only eight ITEP missionary couples in the whole church and we all serve and support the Pacific Island church schools.  No wonder people inquire about ITEP.  Simply stated we are education missionaries.  Mexico has requested ITEP missionary support and that is under consideration.  (Didn’t know we had a church school in Mexico.)  During the week of August 21-25, we were trained on the church school standards, operating ITEP classes, supporting school administrations, and maintaining integrity throughout our areas of service.  The leadership team from the Area office in Auckland conducted the conference and were inspiring.  It was great to get acquainted with other couples doing what we do.  We also met in conjunction with all the principals for various segments.  They are awesome administrators!

President Tanner of BYU-Hawaii addresses Principals Conference

Planting Trees --- Conference Service Project

ITEP
Back Row: Ron & Karla Rees, Elder & Sister Busby, Sister & Elder Lauritzen, Sister & Elder Starke
Front Row:  Elder & Sister Holbrook (Area Coords.), Sister & President Tanner (BYUH),
Jon Shute (ITEP Director), and Matthew Carthew (Director of Pacific Church Schools)
(Note the leis made by the students.)

Along the way we got to tour classrooms in Fiji and to visit the state of the art campus in Tonga.  Tonga College (high school) has 1,300 students which dwarfs Vaiola’s 400.  In Tonga there are two church middle schools and a primary school.  TVET (vocational) cooking students prepared our lunches each day and served amazing food.  Other TVET classes created each conference participant a lei made from coconut hair and shells; they also sewed each of us an apron so that we may serve others; and students constructed wood pen holders including pens that they had lathed.  It was an uplifting conference and and was planned well.

FIJI COLLEGE CAMPUS:

TONGA LIAHONA CAMPUS:

Beautifully sculpted trees around campus.

Student Assembly with President Tanner

Bell Tower Main Office

Campus

TVET Student Art

TVET Auto Shop

TVET Sewing

On opening night each country shared their talents which was mainly comprised of dances---very interactive and fun.

On Wednesday evening all of us attended an English speaking session at the Tongan Temple. 

Tonga’s landscape is flat with more grassland area--less foliage than found in Samoa.  There are no rivers or waterfalls in Tonga.  On Friday August 25th after our conference ended, we found out that the King of the Kingdom of Tonga dissolved the government.  What does that mean we aren’t sure except that we were thankful there weren’t any riots or fires like happened the last time the King did this.  Apparently there will be re-elections in November.

The Sr. Missionary couple serving in Tonga, Elder and Sister Busby, took a few of us under their wings Friday afternoon and Saturday up until our evening flight and showed us the sights.  We also got to reconnect with another missionary couple who went through the Missionary Training Center with us and is serving as auditors there in Tonga. We went out dinner with the Tongan Sr. Missionaries.   Here are pictures of some of our Tongan excursions.

Landscape of Tonga

Ocean View from Tonga

 

3 Headed Coconut Tree
Yes, it was delineated with its own sign.

Blowholes

MUSEUM ARTIFACTS:
We ran across this mini museum located off a resort gift shop.

A "Pillow" for resting your head. 

Site where Captain Cook landed.

Leaning Rock
Sister & Elder Busby, Jeany Obley (VP of Vaiola Primary School)
Ron & Karla and Sister & Elder Starke

This is a different rock know as the Psunami Rock that was hurled out of the ocean during a Psunami.  The size is enormous.

Elder & Sister Needham, Ron & Karla, Sister & Elder Starke, Sister & Elder Busby.

Another fun part was meeting the parents of two full time young Tongan missionaries whose sons are serving in Samoa.  We knew both Elders and were delighted to bring gifts back to them from their parents.

On Thursday while we were in Tonga, Samoa held their National Champ Of Champs Field/Track high school competition and Vaiola took first.  Here is a link to read a really well written newspaper article to sum it up.  Additionally, the students were met at the returning ferry by the student body and the police escorted the athletes back to campus.  August 31^st was our school celebration.  These are amazing athletes; Ron was privileged to assist in coaching the long distance runners.

http://www.samoaplanet.com/whats-the-secret-to-vaiolas-triple-champion-of-success/

Congratulations if you read this extensive account!    ---sorry it was so long but we wanted to record the important events and impressions that will forever be our special memories.

Father's Day with Staff Activities

Expect a few pictures as this has been a week of events:

Monday morning started with a 6:30 a.m. meeting for TVET (Vocational Ed.).  They are planning a career day in September with fun hands-on booths.

Tuesday we taught our Foundations in Education class.  Wednesday Ron assisted on the track and upon seeing the lack of drive in some of the runners, he took all of them and crowded them into our office to show the the inspiring YouTube video “The Crawl”  or something along that line, if you remember.  He told them that they are selling themselves short and need to give every ounce of their ability to help themselves and to help the team.  Okay, after practice was our HR/Law class.  By this point, staff are getting worn out with practice and classes going on all week along with their family responsibilities.  But there was more…

Thursday was a special presentation for high school students by the Ministry of Agriculture to encourage students to consider a career as a vetrinarian or vet-tech.  There is one vet in Savaii and she strongly pushed for them to obtain their degree and come back to Samoa.  They discussed in length the education required, job responsiblities, and pay scale to expect.

Following that presentation, the female staff prepared a wonderful Father’s Day activity and luncheon for the male members of staff that preempted school in the afternoon.  The first activity was a Battle of the Minds game.  The second activity was a relay that consisted of folding a batch of clothes; ironing a shirt; braiding a girl’s hair; and then painting wives’ fingernails, toenails, putting on her lipstick.  It was a hoot!  They definitely know how to have fun.

Every single man was meticulous in folding their batch of clothes,
even turning them right side out!

Ron in the middle braiding hair!

Painting Nails

Putting on Lipstick

Room decorated for the luncheon

Ron with Principal Lolo

Ron with President Fafei, School counselor & Counselor in our Samoa Mission Presidency

The lunch provided taro, chicken, fish, pork, potato salad, green salad, pasta salad, cupcakes and ice cream.  They decorated the tables, chairs, and walls.  Laminated placemats pictured the “dads” with their spouse or family.  Each man received a small token present with the same laminated picture attached.  Ron’s present was a new blue necktie, hair gel, and body spray.  I had bought Hershey chocolate bars and wrapped them with a quote about Fatherhood.  Fun was had by all.  Needless to say, we canceled that afternoon’s ITEP class.

Friday was a big track meet involving 12 schools from around Savai’i.  I sat comfortably under the canopy in my camp chair but Ron stood out on the field in the sun for the most part.  It was great watching the running events (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 4X100m, 4X400m), the javelin throw, discus, shotput, high jump, triple jump, and long jump events.  It made for a long day but in the end Vaiola took Overall!!! Many of our athletes will move onto nationals, including seven that Ron coached in the 800 & 1500 meters.

 

Coach Salanoa was on top of his game.

Two of the teacher coaches with Overall
trophy and Team trophy.

Vaiola Track & Field Team

Saturday morning was the Ward (church) Father’s Day BBQ at the fales on the sandy beach.  Swimming in the ocean is always a treat and the kids were in heaven playing in the water and the sand.  Yes, they build sand castles and bury each other in sand.  The BBQ was plentiful and so delicious.  They barbecue and then bury the wrapped meat in in the coals to tenderize it.  They use the brown coconut husks like we use charcoal.  We were worn out after that full week.

We enjoyed church today at 8:00 a.m. so you see, we are looking forward to no school tomorrow (Monday) for the three-day holiday.  By now most of the dorm students have gone home with other students back to their villages.  Only two Solomon Island girls were left on campus (Louisa and Nicola) and they came to our house Friday evening bored.  We played UNO and chatted.  They are great girls; seniors who graduate end of November.

Good Luck to all of you returning back to school,
teachers and students!

Honoring Athletes, Hospitality Classes

We teach the HR/Law class in the evening to accommodate staff who are concurrently coaching field/track athletics right after school.  Because of the system of Chiefs or Matai in Samoa, disputations are not as readily resolved in a court of law as we know it.  After consulting with a local attorney, Ron has learned that most cases here are about property or ownership.  Since our class is focused on educational law, we reference the U.S. cases for teaching due process and basic rights & responsibilities.  

Wednesday was verification day for the government to audit for compliance with Ministry of Education rules and regulations.  In preparation one teacher requested that we videotape her students doing presentations about the Samoan culture; that was fun.

Last week Vaiola had a parade and celebration for five of the twelve athletes who played on the Samoan Rugby team in the 16 & under division.  The five from Vaiola also included the team captain.   They traveled to the Carribean for the international games and came home with the gold!

Parade Cars

Athletes and Family Members

One of many banners.

Ron has been enlisted to assist with the long-distance runners for track events.  They have a meet this Friday for all Savaii schools.  Tracks are usually grass surface and runners may run wearing tennis shoes or barefoot.   This has been a good chance to mingle with students.

Parent/Teacher conferences were held and the concerns were similar to any school setting regarding participation and parental support and so forth.  Overall, faculty seemed pleased with the outcome.

Our focus the prior week was in the Tourism vocational classes where students implemented skills on how to wait on the customer, how to communicate clearly, how to enhance food presentation, and how to serve courteously. In each class, the teacher invited us to be the customer and to offer constructive feedback along with other staff “judges”.  During visits to three different classes, we were served a veggie omelet; tuna, green beans and taro; crepes filled with bananas and whipped cream; and pineapple ice cream topped with bananas.  Of course, the food was delicious.  Vaiola students do an amazing job with the limited resources they have.

 

Veggie omelet topped with hot sauce & crackers to the side.

Plate of fish.

Fish, Taro and Fried green beans & tomatoes.

Pineapple ice cream topped with banana slices.

Preparation.

We stopped in a clothing store where they sell limited t-shirts, men’s wear, and fabric.  The snapshots show the display of buttons and thread.  Mini zip lock packets of buttons are kept in each container.  Generally, we would buy fabric and hire a seamtress to sew new clothing items or sew it yourself (without the pattern).  Ready made items are scarce. 

A young lady in her 40’s stopped by to visit this week.  She introduced herself one day while we were at the village shopping and we invited her to visit Vaiola and she came.  We found out that she is a member of the church and is from New Zealand.  She was here to bury her husband who passed away.  Her one-year old son is a cutie.  She testified how much she has felt God’s love during this hardship here on the island.  We can’t begin to tell you the extraordinary complications and trials she has had to bear but she is certainly exemplary of trusting the Lord and praising Him.

More fruits and plants.

We did not post last week as our office was without power all weekend and we can only post during after school hours during the week.  Next weekend is a three-day holiday for the Samoan Father’s Day.