Week 10 in Tarawa

Friday, November 21st was Moroni High School's graduation.  It was great.  The effort put in by students, faculty, and senior couples was amazing.  Music rehearsals, marching and name reading rehearsals, sewing, baking, set up, and decorations kept everyone busy and up late at night for several days beforehand.  Even Sister Aland, our visiting area ITEP coordinator helped. 

The sign at the back of the podium, "Ponder the Path of Thy Feet" was their theme this year, and was hand painted by a teacher. Sister Sumner helped the valedictorian prepare her speech.

 
After the graduation, a wonderful feast was held.  It included many traditional dishes such as roast pig.  You can see the blouse that Sister Sumner was up until 1 a.m. sewing.  Fortunately, one of the other senior sisters, Sister Waldron, sewed by vest.

After the feast, a dance celebration was held.  The teachers danced for the students, the students danced with their parents, and then we were invited to dance with the students.  But mostly the students danced with each other.  I was supposed to accompany a musical number, but the piano wouldn't work.

As part of the dance program, students performed several dance numbers wearing formal attire they sewed themselves.  Each group had a theme color, with the boys wearing vests matching the girls dresses.  They promenaded around the basketball court and paused on the stage for pictures. The stage they are on was build just for the program. There were footsteps on the court alongside an iron rod which lead to the (Christmas) tree of life beside the working fountain!

 

 On the way to see the World War II relics, we stopped by the church sponsored Learning Garden.  There we found the stake president and a handful of members working!

On our P-Day, Saturday morning, we showed Elder and Sister Aland, our area coordinators, around Tarawa.  The first picture shows the rusted remains of some ship parts (?) exposed at low tide.

This is one of the Japanese guns used against the U.S. marines in the World War II battle of Tarawa.  I read on the internet that of the nearly 6000 Japanese troops defending the island, only 17 survived.

Sunday evening the senior couples got together to celebrate the Aland's 40th wedding anniversary.  Clockwise from the left are Elder Wall, Sister Bogh, Elder Bogh, Elder Waldron, Sister Waldron, Elder Aland, Sister Aland, Sister Aldredge, and Sister Sumner.  It has been a crazy busy week.  The Aland's visit was very helpful for us because they had served as ITEP missionaries on Tonga before being asked to serve as the South Pacific area coordinators.