Week 50 in Tarawa

 

 

You know things were crazy busy last week when the only pictures we have are of the weather.  While I write this, a major storm is blowing over us.  The roar of the pounding surf and the rain create quite a background sound while I type.  Sorry, but I couldn't get a video to download. :-(

Here's what Sister Sumner sees as I'm typing.












We've had a lot of rainbows along with the rain this past week.











For supper tonight I got to be the taste tester for bread bowl chili, which we're thinking might be a fun meal for the missionaries at the next Zone conference.  I gave it an 8.7 out of 10.











One of the reasons we've been so busy this week is that we have been giving reading literacy tests (know as DIBELS tests in the education business) to all 650 of the students at Moroni High School.  We are a lot better organized this time than last, and they're going pretty well.  Giving these tests in the classrooms every period of every day this past week has been exhausting.  The heat, humidity, and noise  make us wonder how anyone can teach or learn here.  We haven't begun to analyze the data, but we hope it shows the students' English skills have improved. We've been quite surprised, however, at the absenteeism, which means we will have lots of make-up testing to do starting September 7th.

Another reason we've been so busy this week is that we've been asked to lead presentations at the Seminary and Institute training scheduled for this coming Monday and Tuesday.  We've downloaded the video and the text of the talks given at the 2015 S&I training done earlier this month in Salt Lake City, and now we each will present one of the talks to our faculty. 

 

We thought we might have some time next week to prepare our lessons for the next ITEP class, SCED 401, but between the S&I training on Monday and Tuesday and chaperoning the regional youth conference next Wednesday through Saturday, we'll be scrambling to get ready for the start of our class on September 8th.

Yesterday evening we attended a beautiful baptism at the open air chapel in Buota.  The setting was so beautiful; the spirit so sweet.  A perfect way to end our stressful week.  Of course we forgot our cell phone cameras.  Sorry.  You'll just have to imagine the palm trees swaying in gentle ocean breezes under a full moon.  Sometimes it really does seem like a vacation!
Love, Elder and Sister Sumner