When school started, I went in as a boarder and was put in Standard 4. There were quite a number of Sisters in Teaoraereke, but Sister Ursula Begley, Irish, and Sister Callistus Flynn, an Australian, were the only two involved with the school. Boarders came from other villages on Tarawa and from the outer islands. The day students were from Teaoraereke village. Classes were Standards 1-4 and three classes in the Infants’ Section. In Standard 4 the girls sat the entrance exams at the end of the year to Immaculate Heart College, Taborio, and the boys to St Joseph’s College, Tabwiroa, Abaiang and the government secondary schools: Elaine Bernacchi School for girls and King George V for boys, both in Bikenibeu. I found the girls very kind, and we communicated in English as I could not speak a word of Kiribati. The radio had just arrived and every Sunday afternoon Sister Callistus sent for me to listen to the news in the Ellice language. I would be the only one in the parlour because the other three Ellice Island girls could speak Kiribati and they joined the others for the news in the Gilbertese language. One day we were called to see the first bus on Tarawa. The causeway between Nanikai and Teaoraereke had just been completed and the bus was on its first trip up to Bikenibeu. It was a big truck that had been furnished with long seats painted white, and had support posts along the sides to hold up the top as shelter from the sun and rain. I was still in Teaoraereke when I received my first letter from my parents. I took my letter and went off on my own to sit under the trees. To this day I do not remember what I read in that letter, but I was crying my eyes out. The Sisters came to hear of it and sent for me.

‘Did you receive any bad news?’ Sister asked.

I replied, ‘No Sister’.

Sitting down with me she said, ‘If there is no bad news, why so much tears?’

I said, ‘I am just sad and very homesick, Sister. This is my first letter from my parents’. She spent some time talking to me and then called one of the big girls and sent me off with her.