We are living on a small island with no theater, bowling alley, skating rink, mall or public parks. There are those who complain about being bored, but that has yet to be the case for me. When I was first thinking about working as a principal of a small school with but a handful of teachers I thought, how hard can it be? Let’s just say everyday keeps me on my toes and there is never a dull moment!
Last week our seniors worked the concessions for the opening of the new movie, The Sound of Crickets at Night. Yes, I said we don’t have a theater. But we do have a large meeting room at the hotel that can be set up with a projector and screen. Our board president has been making local films for the last few years (the last two have been award winning at several international film festivals) and his new one has just released. So the seniors are taking advantage of the opportunity to fundraise and are selling microwave popcorn and hotdogs at 22 showings over two weekends. So that occupied most of last weekend.
As to my week, I am teaching Algebra 2 and a College Seminar class. I am also my own secretary, counselor, and custodian. Of course there are staff and parent needs to continually. This week I also gave placement tests to two new students and welcomed them to the fold. I am also responsible to write multiple grants so we can keep afloat financially and also improve our school. I was relieved to finish a mid-term report and send it off yesterday for one of my grants
There is both PTA the Board of Directors to write monthly reports to and their meetings to attend. This last Thursday we had a general PTA meeting planned. All parents and staff are expected to participate. We were all ready to go when we heard one of our beloved board members had just passed away. Our power was out and the internet down so we couldn’t really connect with parents to let them know the meeting was cancelled. It was a tough evening, sharing the news and trying to figure out how we’ll move forward without such a vital voice in our community. It turns out that folks here care in ways that are similar to home; we take up a collection and bring food to the family. One difference is that the children often attend school the next day. Robert, the little 2nd grader wore his father’s flip-flops to class. Evidently this is how the family gives the children a place to be so the adults can tend to the business of grieving and planning a funeral. In the midst of this, school still goes on.
There are folks who constantly call or drop in with invitations for the principal. Sometimes they give me an hour’s notice, sometimes a week or two. There is an expectation that I attend and I try to comply as much as I can. So far this school year I have been invited to opening and closing ceremonies for community college/Taiwanese exchanges, a hearing deficit workshop, a 3-day diabetes seminar and a high school college fair for the University. The USP Day was how yesterday began.
All of my high school students met and sat outdoors on USP’s beautiful campus grounds. The ceremony started 45 minutes late because the RMI President was invited and they cannot start the ceremony until he either comes or sends his regrets. Once we knew he couldn’t attend, we heard speakers and watched cultural dances. The students were then given tours of the campus, saw the facilities and looked at displays the college students had produced. Meanwhile, the high school teachers and principals were gifted with plates of sandwiches and desserts.
Shortly after returning to the Co-op campus I had visitors. These two women came by to introduce themselves and ask our participation in an upcoming Bob Festival (bob is the Marshallese word for pandanus, a tree that grows on the islands. The islanders eat the fruit and use the leaves for thatched roofs, woven mats, handicrafts and more). They want us to sell raffle tickets and build a Bob Float. The student body officers are excited to participate so we are in. Before we finished our conversation, I had another visitor.
We are getting ready to celebrate Manit (Marshallese culture) in a couple of weeks. My next visitor was looking for my students to help lead some traditional games at the island-wide fest. He announced a meeting for us to attend at 5:30 that (yesterday) evening. I asked the students but they gave me the impression they weren’t going to be able to come, even though I volunteered to pay for their food. Meanwhile, I had students in the library earning community service hours.
Several of you have been very kind to donate books to our high school library. Some of you have even garage sale and/or bargain book sale shopped. We have some lovely reading choices now, thanks to folks like the Chutes, Smiths, Riefs, Jaquishs and Williams! We were able to shelve some of the books but quickly ran out of space. This summer one of my priorities was to have new shelves in the library, just for the high school students. Our maintenance man just finished building two new sets of shelves and the students spent their Friday afternoon happily sorting, alphabetizing and beginning to shelve the books. It was wonderful! They told me they might not have enough shelf space and I told them not to worry, that we can figure out!
Oh, how I underestimated the group of students I volunteered to feed! Five of them showed up for the dinner meeting and were happy to order at my expense (I was thinking 2)! I think the committee didn’t quite know what to think of us all showing up at their planning meeting but the students made me proud. By 7:00 the meeting was wrapped up and we had some idea of how we would fit in to the program.
Now it’s the weekend. Willard is off fishing and the internet is down. I am writing my long overdue blog, doing some school work, walking the dog on the beach, and enjoying some new art supplies. I may get a snorkel in and hopefully there will be fresh fish for dinner!
Our love to you,
Becky and the Cabana Boy
 |
| High school students organizing the new high school section with their newly donated books. |
 |
| My beautiful high school students at the University of the South Pacific for a presentation |
