Moroni High Commencement 2014

Graduation of the 2014 class at Moroni High School on Tarawa Island, Kiribati.  There were about 100 seniors graduated and another 30 form seven (kind of a post graduate program like honors classes in American high schools) graduates.  They had their gowns and mortar boards and the whole exercise.  They don't do these in the Pacific so this is somewhat of an anomaly.  The guests were the Ambassadors from Australia and Taiwan, the President and past President of Kiribati and Elder and Sister Allend the Area ITEP Manager.  I'd be curious to know the real feelings of the Pacific area guests about the ceremonies.  Very unique to LDS high schools.

Notice the fun mat on the floor depicting the area and its culture,  

The flags are the country banner on the right and the school banner on the left.

 The students in white and suits are the form seven graduates who really graduated last year.  They looked wonderful.

This is the Graduation Theme and the speaker is Lita, the Principal.  Elder Allend picked up on the theme with an anecdote of hiking Angel's Landing in Zion's Park.  He alluded nicely to the trail, its dangers, and how the students should focus on where they are going and watch out for the obstacles in their path.  It was inspired!

One of the guests at the banquet, whose total commitment to the evening, made a lovely feast for all.  Actually, it was a tad undercooked, so Sis Waldron took ours home and cooked it up with barbecue sauce and we had pulled pork sandwiches.  

The banquet table was the length of the tennis court.  This shows the back half, most of which was dessert.

This last entree consisted of about twenty fresh lobsters and crabs.  The folks went through those like a tornado.  Nothing left but wreckage.

They had a bunch of the juniors dressed in yellow and black and tasked as ushers/waitresses.  Cute, cute, cute.  Eat your hearts out fellas.   Oh, notice the watermelon on the bottom left--compliments of the Learning Garden.  Dang, I had my eye on that one, too.  

The basketball court was decorated with this stage and the "Iron Rod" pointing to the "Fountain of Living Waters" and next to it the "Christmas Tree of Life."  The graduates changed clothes and reconvened to promenade around the court for pictures.  They are dressed in matching outfits that represented their clubs in the school.  I just put a couple in here so you could see how fun it was.  

This is another group in blue.  The fellow on the left weighed in at about 350 and they just didn't have the yardage (read acreage) to outfit him.  He is a nice enough young fellow but way, way overweight.

This is one of our favorite young ladies.  Teresa graduated form seven and is seen here with the rest of her form seven chums.  She turns 19 on Jan. 27 and is preparing papers for a mission.  A bona fide knockout!!

This is a posed snapshot of Hiba (Hee-bah--their version of Heber).  She (yes, she) is from Ghana, here with her family and attending this "Mormon School."  She wants to go to the Y.  Her parents are here on a humanitarian mission with a Muslim aid program.  We have been invited to work with them on some projects.  I hope we can.