Week 33 in Tarawa

This past Friday, May 1st, marks the 38th anniversary of Moroni High School.  The students and faculty have been working hard all week preparing for this amazing celebration.  We had been here only one week when we last saw such an event, but now we can really appreciate its significance.
This is one of the seven cakes prepared for the celebration.  It represents the good ship Moroni High School which embarked on its journey 38 years ago.
 

Needless to say, we and the Bogh's were asked to be judges.  The students were divided into 6 houses representing 6 outer islands and 6 different church presidents.  This picture shows the beginning of the marching competition with all 6 teams lined up on the soccer field.  What you can't tell from the picture is the incredible heat and humidity the students were suffering through. We were sweltering in the shade of our canopy, but they were out in the full sun.

Each of the 6 houses built small maneabas representing the styles, customs, and cultures of their 6 islands.  Their use of native materials was amazing to us.  This picture shows teachers and students weaving mats and walls from coconut fronds.  Pandanus and banana leaves were used for other constructions.

As we visited each house for judging, the students gave demonstrations and explanations of their native traditions.  Pacific island cultures are dominated by older males, who make all important decisions for the community. There are rules and traditions governing where guests, children, and women are allowed to sit in the maneabas.

 

 One of the most amazing demonstrations we saw was by this young man who showed us how to split a husked coconut with his bare handed karate chop.  He had to try three times because the piece of concrete on the ground kept breaking before the coconut did.

We wonder how they keep from getting sunburned.  Despite being under a shelter most of the afternoon, Sister Sumner still managed to get a nice sunburn around the back of her neck.

In addition to the maneabas they constructed, each house had a wonderful display of native foods common to their island.  The variety was incredible, although many ematongs (white people) turn up their noses at such food as sea worms and raw fish.

Here's another food display.  The crabs looked yummy to us, but not much else.  Fortunately we were not asked to taste test the food.












This island's display included a bathroom.  The people on this island like privacy.  Most islanders use the ocean as a bathroom.  It saves having to flush and keeps the ematongs from swimming in the water.















Sister Sumner and Elder and Sister Bogh are shown sweating away in the shade as they try to decide which marching, dancing, and house and food displays were the best.  While we did come up with a winner, the scoring was very, very close. Fortunately, we didn't have to judge the athletic competitions in the afternoon.  By then we were near heat exhaustion. The entire event went from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., but they all stayed afterwards to help clean up.  By the time the sun went down, everything you see in these pictures was gone. The students still had enough energy to attend a dance that went until 10 p.m.!

 


 On Saturday, May 2nd, we all went shopping together in Betio and Bairiki, which is a second hot, sweaty day in a row as none of the stores is air conditioned.  As you can see, our cupboards are far from bare. Despite the lack of so many foods here, we do OK for ourselves.  You can see why we have not lost any weight while on our mission.  We even have a nice array of power tools in our kitchen (although Sister Sumner calls them kitchen appliances).

Sunday, May 3rd, we broke our fast with an amazing meal.  We roasted, for the first time here, a whole chicken in the crock pot.  It's hard to believe that chickens actually have white meat since most of the bags of chicken parts we buy here consist entirely of legs, wings, and thighs  The whole chicken was about the size of a large pigeon. We also had home-made rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a chocolate cake with home ground coconut and pecan frosting.
One of the best things I've re-learned on our mission is what a great cook I married!! That's what you get when you marry an 8-cow wife.


This video shows a young man husking a coconut in about 25 seconds.  It took me half an hour to husk my first coconut, but I'll do better next time.  We love the fresh shredded coconut we get using our katoui (a native tool for shredding coconut meat out of the shell).