End of school

School is out for summer!

As the students, teachers, and senior missionaries prepare for the end of summer, we remember many fun activities.

Senior Sneak

Each year the seniors get a day to 'sneak' away and have some fun at the beach.  I heard rumors that in the past they had the high school seniors do a service project and many of them would sneak away.  They decided to give in and make it a fun day.  

We met at the school, had some breakfast and bused the kids to the beach. 

Beach Party 

Beach Rugby, Volleyball, and playing in the water.  

Karen taught a group to play 'SPAZ' with Uno cards

Food - someone gave the group some taro and even a couple small pigs 

End of school 'Prize Giving' 

A big deal is at the end of school they give out awards.  They call this 'prize giving'.  The school gives out the awards and the parents give candy ulas (leis) .   It gets a little crazy with some of students getting quite a few prizes.

Giving out awards 

I was asked to help hand out some of the awards.  I was not expecting to do this and dressed in my grubby clothes because I was helping with grinding off and painting the benches the senior were giving to the school.  I would normally wear my white shirt and tie.  

Senior Gift 

Each year the senior class give the school a gift.  This year they decided to replace some old benches with some new metal ones.  The students help weld the benches built in the welding-auto shop.  One bench Brother Rasch had the inscription on.  

Final product.  Bud and Ameet sitting on it during graduation. 

Building the bench 

Brother Rasch was the master mind.  The other students and teachers helped with the welding and painting.  

Teachers and Bud help grind and paint 

Students help weld

Getting Reading for graduation 

The Technology and Seminary teachers were in charge of helping for graduation.  A lot of work went into getting things ready.  

Karen and Sister Passi stenciling fabric for decorations. 

Graduation

Teacher, students march into the gym for graduation.  We had to march in with the teachers.  

 During the program, the students did a little dance. 

After graduation

 Lunch for teachers after graduation.  

Prom 

The Senior Prom is the night of graduation rather than on a separate evening .  This is probably the only time I have seen the students in regular shoes.  They get dressed up for a big dance.  Some even have a custom Tux made for the occasion.  Check out the fancy tux on the student on the left.  

Even the Senior Missionaries get into the fun.  

Namua Island and flying foxes

Namua Island 

Namua Island is a small island on the southwest corner of Upolu.  There is one resort with no electricity.  Their water source is from storage tanks.  

Getting to Namua Island

The only way over to the island is by small boat.

Beach Fales

The accommodations are a beach fale right by the water.  The tarp can be raised to let the ocean breezes in or lowered to keep the rain out.  

Luckily they come equipped with mosquito nets.

Hike to the top of the mountain

A group of Senior Missionaries hiked to the top of the mountain.  We enjoyed beautiful vistas on the mountain top

.  

 Flying Foxes - (bats) 

On the top of the mountain we saw large bats they call Flying Foxes.  They are nearly 1.5 feet tall with over 3 foot wing spans.  

During the day, they hang from tree branches. 

 We threw a few sticks and rock out to stir them up.  

Video of Flying Foxes 

At dusk, hundreds of Flying Foxes swarm the sky, as they go to the main island for food

Lunch with a school group from New Zealand 

A group of middle school students came to Samoa to donate sports supplies to some of the schools as a humanitarian project.  The resort fixed us a Umu style lunch  (cooking on hot rocks with food wrapped in banana leaves)    The students performed some traditional Maori dances from New Zealand . 

Crab Races

In additional to snorkeling, shell hunting, eating and reading, the Senior Missionaries picked their favorite Hermit Crabs and had crab races to see which ones could cross the circle in the sand first. .    

Major Relaxing 

Bud finally got to try out his hammock.  A great way to have a little get-away.

SQA Certification of Vocational Area

SQA Certification 

We made application for our vocational area to be certified as Post-Secondary institute.  The group in the Samoa government is called SQA (Samoa Qualifications Authority).  This would allow students to earn university credit while still in High School  

SQA inspection of site

As part of the certification, the SQA group had to make a site inspection.  Our students provided a wonderful meal for the SQA group.  

Training on program curriculum

The SQA organization provided our teachers and us training on how they would like us to document our curriculum to comply with their standards 

Teaming with Martin Hautus University 

A local private university, Martin Hautus is allowing us to team with them.  Martin Hautus provides training for Tourism and Hospitality.  We provide Level 1 training to our students and they can go directly into their Level 2 & 3 courses after graduation.  Martin Hautus has allowed us to use some of their Level 1 curriculum.  

Coastal Walk

Coastal Walk - one of the most beautiful walks on the island

The beaches are GREAT here in Samoa!  However, one of the most picturesque walks is located by the National Forest.  The lava beds drop sharply into the ocean.  It kind of reminds me of visiting the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.  

Cliffs

The cliffs drop off from a large lava bed into the ocean.  

Jungle hike to the cliffs

To get to the cliffs, you need to hike along a jungle like trail.

Group at the beginning of the walk. 

Looking over the cliffs

Blowholes in lava

The lava creates holes and when the waves come in the water shoots up through these holes.

Halloween

Halloween is alive and well here in Samoa!

Actually Halloween is not really celebrated in Samoa except for people from the US, New Zealand, and Australia.  (Which are a lot of the people we hang out with.) 

Senior Missionary Party 

Karen did not think it would be Halloween without the normal donuts making and pumpkin carving.  She organized up a party and it was a blast!

Everyone loved the donuts!

Pumpkin carving was a hit.  

Church Party

The 'Unofficial' church party was a pretty big deal.  Our High Counselor in our ward organized the party.  

A Samoan party can not be complete with out a loud sound system blasting out the 'Oldies' 

Kids loved the booths.

Senior Missionaries ran the dart booth with balloons.  

Neighborhood Party

Since most of our neighborhood are teachers, they transformed the play ground into a 'Haunted Playground'   The kids loved it!

The Jungle Jim turned into a Pumkin!

The swing set  turned into a Star Wars Spider Net

The Trick-or-Treat-ers converged on our apartment in mass.