Three Towers: Student Newspaper from Xavier High School, Micronesia

Three Towers Online is published
every two months by the students of Xavier High School in Chuuk, Micronesia.

Vol. I. Issue I

www.xaviermicronesia.org

November 24, 2006

Disclaimer

Web design by
Vidalino Raatior
{Atawe Design}

NEWS

A Picture Perfect Picnic

By Rengel Ueki '09

The school picnic is a day when all the students at Xavier High School go to the sandy island of Pisiwi for a day of relaxation and a chance to get to know each other better.

On the night before every school picnic, some of the seniors go to the island and get it ready for the coming students the next day. This year the seniors that went were Donny, Michael Mapa, O’Keefe, Amaroy, Victor, Franson and Kevin. They went and cleaned up the place before we came.

On Thursday 2 November, the boys woke up and left Xavier at 6am in order to pick up the girls and take a boat to Pisiwi. Energy levels were so high that students were leaping off the overcrowded boat as soon as it arrived.

For the entire day, everyone played volleyball, swam, wrestled, jumped off the big tree and ate lots of snacks and ice cream. Thank you to the uppers who helped cooked the barbeque.

The picnic also gave couples a chance to sneak away and spend some romantic time alone.

When asked about the school picnic Tyson (SO) said, “Dawg, it was so good I can’t explain it because it was so radical!”

As for me, it was all cool and fun because I had a good time playing and getting closer to most of my classmates. I can’t wait until next year’s school picnic.

>>more info

around campus

Freshmen Entertainment

By Rengel Ueki (SO)

Every year, everyone except the freshmen, come up with skits or dances for entertainment. Every year’s entertainment is always different, but the day is always fun.

This year’s entertainment was sponsored by the Tritanz class, who were in charge of everything from snacks to setting up the gym. With the help of the Saintz and the Orionz, they made the entertainment fun for the Praetorianz.

The entertainment began after lunch on Friday 29 September. The gym was decorated and all the freshmen were seated at tables facing the stage. Each class and island nation performed a skit for the newcomers, including comedy, dance and love!

Dances included the ‘bus-stop tango’ performed by the Saintz, and a fast paced Spanish dance by the Orionz (led by Jackie). There were also many hula dances. Highlights included the Chuukese group’s impersonation of freshmen, Michael Mapa’s (SR) breakdancing routine, and the Yapese midget show. The Seniors impression of Hage-Ae’s (FR) first date was hilarious! The music and hosting of the whole day was thanks to Victor (SR). The grand finale, the fire stick dance, was a great end to an entertaining day.

Girl's Gathering

By Maylani Phillip (SR)

The 2006 girls gathering was a BLAST! “What happened?” is the right question to ask. Of course it’s a rule and more like a tradition that everything must be kept within the girls community. Not even our photographer could get past Lu-A (SO). However, let’s take a small peak.

On the evening of Friday November 10, the girls started off by taking a shower and preparing themselves for dinner and the activities of the night. The showering part didn’t go very well. Rose (SR), the shower conductor, gave each girl 3 minutes. This caused a whole lot of complaints. “1 shower for more than 1 hour at home!” complained a sophomore.

However, all the complaints disappeared when the girls had the whole Xavier campus to themselves as they started on their activities. There were games and competitions between groups, but the winner of the night was the group conducted by myself and Tess-Marie (JR).

It was also the cheering that made the whole night one-of-a-kind? The girls were loud (big time!), and the cheers were deafening, but at the same time everyone enjoyed it. The ‘ligers’, consisting of the crazy Junior girls, Were the highlight of the cheers.

The next day, Saturday, after breakfast the girls had a short, ‘sharing and reflection’. And the last activity was the girl’s picnic at Blue Lagoon. Everyone as just chilling out and relaxing after a tiring night.

It was said that the girls gathering this year was the best of all. As Bireen and Michko (JR) refer to it, “This is the real kind of gathering. This is the best gathering, but we’ll try to make next year the bestest.”

This gathering sure was one-of-a-kind.

environment

Recycling Rocks Xavier's Foundation

By Rengel Ueki (SO)

For a very long time Non and Makoto, the two people who run the galley, have been trying to keep the school clean for the students to have a good learning environment. They are the ones who started the recycling of cans on Xavier campus. They have collected the cans and brought them down to Kimuchi World Store, in front of the hospital.

The owner, Mr. Paku, has decided that he could help Chuuk State by collecting cans and sending them to America to be reprocessed and used again. Mr. Paku has a machine that can compact the cans so that they get smaller. He doesn’t really care that he doesn’t get any profit from doing this but he just wants to help Chuuk become cleaner.

Parts of Chuuk also started recycling but they don’t have enough money to buy gas to go to the Kimuchi World Store. Penia is the only place in Chuuk which I heard began recycling. But because of the gas price, it’s hard for them to go very far.

Recycling at Xavier started the 2nd semester in the school year of 2005-2006. Last year’s cans that were sold were only $7.50, which the galley donated to the school. Even though it is said to help the students care about the environment, many students had this to say, “Why should we work so hard to clean the island when we are the only ones doing it?”

>>more info

Xavier Cleans Up Chuuk's Act

By Rengel Ueki (SO)

Trash is the number 1 problem here at Chuuk. Everywhere you go you see a lot of trash. There are trash bags next to the roads, there are bottles and cans in the puddles and there was also trash in front and behind houses. It was our job to clean up the mess.

At 9:30 on Monday October the 2nd it was Chuuk’s Constitutional Day. Fr. Arthur gave us another way to help Chuuk, so we cleaned. We started at 9:30AM in front of Kurasa. It was hot because the sun was on top of us and when we looked before we started there was a lot of trash and the road was really dusty. That was how we started up our Monday morning.

At 10:30AM we made it to the front of Bernie’s Store and we were somewhat happy because we were about to finish. I was mostly tired because it is a long way from Kurasa to Bernie’s, but there was still a lot of trash and the road was still very dusty and the day was even hotter. That it how long it takes to clean somewhere which is somewhat small.

At 11:30 we were all at Andersen Field. We were so happy that we finally reached our destination and when we looked back, we could see the road was much cleaner but was still too dusty. Even though we didn’t pick up all the trash, the road looked cleaner because we picked up the big trash. That was how much time we spent cleaning Chuuk.

What I learned from this event in my life is that we should work together to do something good for our community

spiritual life

Spirituality Brings New Insights to Students

During the months of October and November, Xavierites have been reflecting, praying and sharing at CSPs and retreats.

The Sophomore and Junior Community Service Projects were held on Parem and Tonoas respectively. Students helped local Chuukese sponsor families with work such as clearing taro patches, weeding, sweeping and cutting. They also shared and prayed in small groups led by CM team members.

Students loved the experience, particularly staying at sponsor families and staying up all night sharing.
The Campus Ministry team, under the new leadership of Dali (PNI), did an excellent job in transporting and supervising the weekend events.

They were rewarded by a CM retreat from 2nd - 4th of November. It was a chance to brainstorm and do workshops in order to improve future retreats. One memorable exercise was being blindfolded and led by ’angels’ around the campus.

The staff and JVI’s also had retreats on the islands of Onei, Tol and Udot. Both were very helpful in allowing teachers to rejuvenate and get ready for another quarter.

The next upcoming retreat is the Juniors retreat. It’s reputation as a very powerful and emotional retreat has made the Juniors very excited as they prepare to leave today. Please pray for them.

>> Read Opinions on the Junior CSP

on the web

Website Wonders

The Xavier website is new and improved, thanks to the help of the students and the Aussie Dynamic Duo. Originally designed by Vidalino Raatior, the website was left untouched for a year and became outdated. This year, the website has been updated, and is now showing off students work. As technology becomes more important in Micronesia, alumni and benefactors can now log on and see what Xavier students are doing. Hundreds of pictures from last year have already been sent to Vid, who is actually making the changes, so hopefully, those pictures will appear on the web soon. There is also the entrance exam results of 2006 and plans to create a Xavier chat room for alumni to go to. Alumni have already noticed the changes and are applauding the new look of the webpage.

“Any more student work or any ideas for the website are greatly welcomed” said Nic.

Make sure you check it out today!