Student Activities

Students have a variety of extra-curricular activities

Netball 

Netball is a combination of basketball and ultimate Frisbee with zones.  The hoop does not have a backboard.  There is no dribbling allowed, only passing the ball.  Also, players much stay in zones.  The girls wear skirts when playing.  Netball is also played in New Zealand 

 

After the game the girls on both teams for for a 'group hug' . 

Rugby

Rugby is big for the boys.  They have a 7 and 15 man team. 

The Sevens tournament was played at the Sports Center

 15 man games are played at St. Joseph, a neighboring school

 The coach got a student to hold an umbrella for shade. 

School Dances

We had a school dance to kick off the new year.  

 No dance would be complete without a 'limbo contest' 

Touring groups visiting Samoa

Quite a few dance or music groups like to visit Samoa.  Sometimes they will play a free concert to the student or perform their dances.  

Culture Cruise Concert

The student do a clap routine to show their appreciation.

Student Assemblies 

The students periodically get together for assemblies.  All are held in an 'open air' gym.  

 Grooming standards.  Girls can only wear their hair in a braid while they have their uniforms on.   This year they expanded the rule and they can wear two 'pig tails'.  

Bud's Birthday !

March is birthday month!

Bud and Sister Williams share a birthday at school.  Bud made birthday hats for the both of them. 

Students from other classes drop over for a Happy Birthday wish!

Bud and Karen slip out of school for a birthday lunch and snorkeling at Tomasina Resort 

Bud dropped over a balloon hat for Sister Kinghorn to celebrate  her birthday.

Sister Kinghorn 

Lots of March birthdays at Giodorno's Pizza - 

Sister Kinghorn brought her hat for all the birthday missionaries with March birthdays to pose with. 

Other missionaries with birthdays in March

Sister Best 

Brother Wright

Elder Pitcher 

Sister Kalama

Pickle-ball

Pickle-ball is getting a start in Samoa

Mark Moors, a guy in our ward, discovered Pickle-ball while in the US.  He bought several portable nets and is introducing Pickle-ball to Samoa.  We normally play with Mark a couple times a week.  However, he wanted to host a Pickle-ball Clinic and invite some non-members from his old tennis buddies as well as the US Embassy to get a bigger exposure.  

Pickle-ball Clinic 

 3 courts set up in the school gym 

Mark and US Embassy Representative 

No Samoan party would be complete without food.  

Karen and Sister William cooking up grilled onions 

School Counselor - cooking up 'sausage sizzles' 

Maelani Ahoi - teacher and friend - (a happy participant) 

To Sua Trench

Visiting the To Sua Trench 

The To Sua Trench is a large volcanic hole with a mix of salt water and fresh water.  It has a large ladder to go to the hole.  The hole is connected to another sink hole through a cave.  

Beautiful ocean views 

Beautiful park like setting 

Cool rock formations 

Senior Missionaries hanging out in a fale

Amazing People

It is all about the people you meet on a mission.  

One of the great things about going on a Senior Mission is the amazing and interesting people you get to meet.  These are both Samoan as well as people from around the world.  We meet people at the store, at the beach, and all over.  This blog is dedicated to local people around the our local area.  

Quarterly Interviews 

Each quarter we get together as missionaries for a dinner with the Mission President and his wife.  Sometimes we have the Temple Presidency and their wives.  I counted 30 Senior Missionaries including the Presidencies at our last dinner.  It is amazing hanging out with such great people. We always have great missionaries around since we live close by the Mission Home and Temple.  

Elders sang before dinner. 

Visiting Dentist Families 

Our Senior Missionary Dentist negotiated with the Samoan Government to allow Dentist giving Humanitarian service to come for two weeks.  (Previously the minimum was to 2 months.)  This allows more dentists and their families to visit and give service.  

The families give service and see our beautiful island.  Here are two young dentist families.  

Carden Family from  Tulsa Oklahoma for FHE 

Pulicifer Family from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for FHE 

Neighborhood Kids 

Our neighborhood kids come over for candy and suckers (lollies).  We usually get them to sing us a song.  

 

 

Lychee fruit anyone?

Lychee fruit - the fuzzy little fruit . 

Our friend, Elder Defense, introduced us to a very unusual fruit.  Lychee fruit looks like a fuzzy little ball and when opened it has a white fruit.  It tastes pretty good after opening.  

Cyclone Gita

Cyclone Gita

Elder and Sister Little became intimately acquainted with a southern hemisphere hurricane, called a cyclone.  Friday night, February 9th, brought a tremendous amount of rain, wind, lightening and  thunder, rampaging for about 4 hours.  We awoke Saturday morning to find no power, along with flooding, downed trees, mudslides, and damaged homes.  Cyclone Gita passed close to Samoa, and we were fortunate not to be hit directly.  

Flooding 

Our Temple President's house and another Temple Missionary's house were flooded, and parts of the temple were damaged by water.  The Service Center, where our administrative offices, like Finance, HR and IT are located, were also filled with dirty water.  The rest of the campus (and missionaries) remained intact (phew).  

Around town

Our Humanitarian Senior Missionaries asked us if we would fill up our Area Authority Seventy's truck with diesel (Elder Fata has been very ill). Below are some pictures of areas we saw driving around town.  There were no casualties from this storm, but Gita hit Tonga next, with even greater force and destruction.  

Getting gas - flooded roads.  

Getting around by bicycle

Movie theater

Downed trees everywhere