August 2, 2014

It's been a while since I've posted. We have been really busy at work and work is boring to write about, because of all the work, we haven't been out to see or do anything fun. We've been working 6 days a week the last little while, so no Saturday fun stuff. Hopefully, we will have a little break in the workload for a while.

Besides the usual array of people we see from here and there around the world, it's been interesting to note that a whole new population of 'people in need' is appearing... missionaries. More and more now we find that we have young missionaries who did not graduate from high school. Most of them in this situation are from the islands. However, I spent time this week with a young missionary from the US. who didn't graduate high school.  He actually has dual citizenship with the US and New Zealand. He is half Tongan and half Kiowa Indian. He was born in New Zealand, but when he was three his parents gave him to his grandparents in the US to raise. Giving your children to someone else to raise is a fairly common practice among the islanders; it doesn't surprise me now like it used to. Sometimes parents, for whatever reason, decide to give their child to someone else to raise, sometimes a relative decides, for whatever reason, that they should raise someone else's child, and sometimes the village chief decides that a child should be raised by someone other than the child's parents. Most of the time these kids know who their 'real' parents are and accept that the decision to place them in a different family from their own was a good one. This practice is certainly different from our culture! Another interesting thing is that no one seems to worry about the legality of this practice of switching children around, no lawyers are involved or anything, the child is just given to whomever has been chosen to raise them and everyone moves on. Anyway, getting back to this young man... from age 3-16 he was raised by his grandparents (with a few years here and there when he was sent off to Montana and California with other relatives) on the Kiowa reservation in Oklahoma. When he was 16 he quit school and moved back to New Zealand to his parent's home. After a short time there, he and his brother left for Pauapa New Guinea to work construction for three years. Needless to say, his life from age 3 to about 18 was pretty rough and tumble without much stability or guidance. However, he turned his life around and made some significant changes and decided to go on a mission. He is one of the most well-known and highly-thought-of missionaries in his mission area. He's been here two years and goes home next week. His two years as a missionary has made him realize the long-term impact of some of his bad decisions in his teenage years; one of the main ones being the fact that he quit school before graduating. I've spent time this week researching options for him to get high school equivalency, looking at options in both New Zealand and the US. At this point he feels like the US is where he wants to live the rest of his life, so that's the direction we're working now, although both countries have nearly the same options. His long-term goal is to get into the US military. I knew that you couldn't get into any branch of the military without a high school diploma, or at least a GED, but didn't realize that with only a GED your chances of acceptance are pretty low. Luckily though, it is possible to earn a high school diploma through adult education centers. It's pretty cool that this opportunity is free to anyone who wants it. You don't even have to be a resident of the state you're living in. This educational opportunity is going to be a great blessing to him. He's very determined to get to the States and get started. I really admire his determination to overcome his background and move forward.

Because we've become so much more aware of the educational needs of many missionaries, we are changing the way we work with them now, we're going to start identifying those in need of education much earlier than the week (or sometimes the day, they go home) so we can help them have all their ducks in a row before they get home. For those from the islands, BYU Hawaii has great options. It offer 'bridging' classes for those who do not have a high school diploma, which is about half of the missionaries we see. Once the person has completed these classes, then they can apply for acceptance into the university. The university offers a great loan program to those from the islands, much of which will be forgiven if they return to their home country to live for at least five years. The idea there being that their education will help their country's economy and the person's example will help others to see that, they too, can change their life by getting an education. I now know more about the options and opportunities available at BYU Hawaii than I know about any other university in the US. Along the same line, thanks to the Chinese students we work with, I also know a lot about getting into many of the high-end universities in the US. I think I will start a second career when I get home... high school guidance counselor.

Grandkids:

My computer started acting really funny the other day; it was making really weird noises. I Face Timed Uncle Tyler and he listened to it and said it sounded like the fan inside my computer was having problems. Thursday while Grandpa and I were working downtown, I took my computer in to the Apple store and a repairman listened to it and he said that it was definitely the fan. He looked up the fan part I needed and it turns out that my computer is so old they don't make parts for it any more! That was sad to hear. However, he told me about a Mac store that fixes computers and told me to go there and see if they had any parts from old computers that they could use to fix it. I went to the store and a really nice man looked around his spare parts and he found a fan for me! He told me he would give me the part for free and only charge me $30 to replace it. He said it would take about an hour to fix it. Grandpa and I didn't have anything to do for that hour though, so we decided to go for a drive by the ocean. Here are some pictures from our one hour drive:

The ocean is so pretty here. I wish I lived closer to it!

I've decided when I get home I am going to learn how to sail.  You can come with me and we will go on an adventure!

This is a fence that surrounds a soccer field. It's made out of tiny sticks.  The fence is made just like a thatched roof is made, except it's a thatched fence, not a thatched roof.

This is a private Catholic girls' school we found on our drive. The buildings reminded me of Harry Potter. What do you think of the girls' uniforms?

This girl let me take her picture. She has won awards for being a good student, can you see the badges on her blazer?

Here's a better view of the school.  800 girls go to school here, grades K-12. Guess how much the girls' parents have to pay for their daughter to go to school here???  It's $16,00 for elementary and middle school grades, and $25,700 for high school kids.  If you board (that means live at school, like Harry Potter did) it costs an extra $22,000. That's a total of almost $48,00 a year!  Wow, your mom and dad have to make a lot of money if they want you to go to school here. 

I liked the gates on this school. They are very fancy.

Grandpa and I found out that you can see some fun things in just one hour in downtown Sydney!  I hope you all have a great week.  Be watching the mail in the next week or so, I'm sending you all a surprise:)