I found the Teachers’ College challenging in many ways. Our group was made up of students from Taborio, Tabwiroa, King George V and Elaine Bernacchi and Hiram Bingham, Rongorongo, Beru. Since we were admitted from Form 3, ours was a three-year course. Those students who were admitted from Form 5 and those who had been abroad on scholarships in New Zealand or Australia followed a two year course and therefore joined whatever group was in their second year at the time of their entrance. We entered in 1966, the year after the main building was completed and opened. Members of staff were mostly English and two locals for the vernacular, the Kiribati and Tuvalu languages. In all, there were 60 students: 30 boys and 30 girls. In TTC I kept company with the Taborio girls and continued to attend Mass and religious instruction for Catholic students. Gradually I began to enjoy life and made new friends. I still wanted to become a religious.

In the Christmas holidays of 1966, the Santa Teresa went to Nauru, and Takenrerei Taukoriri, Bwebwenteiti Tebwebwe, Ioanna Ben Kum Kee and I took the trip to visit our parents who worked there. The trip to Banaba took three days and we stopped there for several days before setting off for Nauru. Banaba and Nauru are raised coral islands, and from the ship it appeared we were looking up at them. On Banaba we met some ex-Taborio students who were working as typists for the British Phosphate Company, and as nurses in the hospital. We were also able to catch up with our relations from our home islands. We stayed for Christmas and the New Year in Nauru.

In my second year in TTC, Sister Berness Claxton joined the staff. Her fields were maths and education. We met over a boyfriend I had whom she thought was too old for me and too much of a playboy. She even told him to leave me alone. She became someone I could trust. She was the very first person with whom I shared my desire to be a religious. She listened attentively and offered encouragement every now and then but did not push me. From then on, we began a friendship that lasted till her death in 1990. In my last year at TTC, Air Nauru began flights to Tarawa. My parents invited me over for the Christmas holidays. I was apprehensive about going because I was finishing from TTC and my parents could keep me in Nauru. Sister Berness advised me to go and see my parents and I must trust God to get me out of Nauru. Consoled by such words, I had my first trip by plane at the end of 1968 after graduation from the Tarawa Teachers’ College.

Just as I had feared, my parents wished me to stay and work in Nauru. They had already approached the principal of the location school for a teaching position for me, but my father’s boss had advised him not to keep me in Nauru but to let me return to work in Kiribati. My father wanted me to go and see his boss, an Australian, to ask him to let me stay. I told my father that I could not do it. One day my father asked me who was writing to me from Australia and Hong Kong. My little brothers just loved going through my things, my bag and my suitcase and they had shown him my letters. Because the letters were in English he could not really understand the content. I told my father who my correspondent was. He was from Nanumea but at that time was studying abroad. My father expressed his displeasure at the thought of having him as my future husband. He had nothing against him as a person but he preferred I did not marry into that family. To me he was a good friend but there was nothing serious. Then he said, ‘You do not have to get married if you do not want to’. I was surprised to hear that from him.

On New Year’s celebration some cousins of my father were at our house. In front of my parents one of them said to me: ‘You can stay in Kiribati to work for as long as you wish. When you have had enough you come home to Nanumea. We shall choose a husband for you. We will make sure that you settle down well into your new home. If not, we shall take you back’. This I found disturbing for I was not ready to have anyone choose a husband for me but I also knew they could. This confirmed for me that it would be better to become a nun. When they had gone and my parents said no more about the matter, I assumed they agreed with them. One evening the Kiribati catechist on Nauru saw my name in the Catholic Itoi ni Kiribati (Catholic quarterly newsletter) among the Catholic teachers for the New Year 1969. In joy he poured out his heart to my father saying how happy he was that I was going to teach for the Catholic Mission even though I was not yet a Catholic. My father listened but was shocked as he was not aware of this. At home he quietly told me to change from the Catholic Mission to the government school. On this note I returned to Tarawa. It was not a pretty scene. In their displeasure my father cried and my mother was furious.

Back in Kiribati, I went to see the Chief Education Officer, Mr Urqhart. I thought he could make the change for me so I would not have to bother the Catholic Education Office. He was the principal of TTC in my first year and he used to give us oral English lessons. In fact he was not pleased with my visit nor the subject I discussed with him. He told me so. I sought the Catholic Director of Education, Sister Mary John Bosco Donnelly and Sister Berness. After much discussion Sister John Bosco and I went to see Bishop Peter Guichet, MSC. Sister tried to explain my problem with my parents to the Bishop. After listening to Sister, the Bishop simply asked me, ‘Do you want to teach for the Mission or for the government?’ I replied from my heart, ‘For the Mission’. That was the end of our interview. He turned to Sister and stated: ‘She stays in the Mission’.