I got lei'd!!!

No sick-o's~ Not LAID....but Lei'd! You may not know, but when I had the twins, I let my Water Safety Instructor Certification (what is required to teach swimming lessons) go. Stupid on my part. All I needed to do was teach ONE lesson, and turn it in to American Red Cross....but, I was a little busy, to say the least. So, I've been retaking the class, as a class at BYU- H. My aunt is teaching the class, so that's been an added bonus. Anyway, the last day of class is this coming Tuesday, but spent the past two weeks teaching the Lai'e Elementary School 4th graders how to swim. What a fun challenge that was! We team taught, as each class had 14 students which is entirely too many students for one instructor. While they were a handful, to say the least, and really didn't listen too often...(as an extra added bonus, I am currently sick with a cold, hence the time to blog, and have the worst case of laryngitis I have ever had.) That made for an interesting class today. Anyway, when class was over today (it was their last day) we gave them some treats, and in exchange a darling girl in our class hand made the gumball lei for us, and then the class gave us the shell lei. They made this huge banner that was given to my aunt saying, "thanks" that everyone signed, sang us the most adorable thank you song, and I received some memoirs of my own. Unfortunately, I still have an non working camera, so I had to scan everything, but you get the idea.











































* On a very serious note, my Aunt has been teaching this course in this area for a very long time now, and she said that every year the children get progressively worse and worse in regards to their swimming level. This was the worst she had ever seen. Being from California, I think you just automatically assume that everyone can swim. After all, you can't graduate High School without passing a swim test. Hawaii, of ALL places, does NOT have that graduate requirement, therefore, many here DON'T know how to swim. There are also no public pools available anywhere close to here either. They have this slogan here "Keep the Country Country", and while I can understand where locals are coming from, it is also a huge disservice to the community. If the children don't have any place where they can go swim publicly (pool wise, not Ocean wise, which is not always the safest, obviously) then I really don't know how the kids WILL learn how to swim. It is my understanding that BYU-H used to offer free- swim to the community, I believe in the summer, but no longer does. I really wish that I could push for something like that again, but it has been made very clear to me that I am considered an "outsider"here, and that my voice will not be heard. Maybe one of the locals can speak for me. It is IMPERATIVE that EVERY child learn how to swim, just like No Child Left Behind! There are many in this community that can not afford to put their children in swim lessons, and without a place for them to kind of learn on their own, I just don't see how they ever will. This saddens me....completely.