The Power of Popcorn!

J. Roughan

9 April 2009

Honiara

 

An unsung woman from Savo Island returned to the Father on Monday this week. After serving her Master for more than 50 years as a religious sister in the Daughters of Mary Immaculate (DMI) community she has now left this world for a better place. While here on earth, however, she didn't waste much time but left her mark on Solomons history in such a way that it will be a hard act to follow.

 

Her track record proved once again the Bible's teaching that it's the world's little ones that make the biggest difference. Back in 1981 Noella had a dream. She found that so many little kids were hanging around the town's streets, were not going to school and had little hope of ever finding one for them. Solomons population boom was just beginning to explode and Honiara Town was struggling harder and harder to cater for the growing number of young ones. Sr. Noella set about doing something about it!

 

But how do you kick start a dream with only a few bucks in your purse. Of course, speaking to the Good Lord about the difficulty is a great first step but usually His answer goes something like this: Use what you have at hand and keep me informed. That's exactly what she did! 

 

Like every good development worker knows, you don't wait for the handout, or the money grant or some miraculous gift raining down from heaven to get things started. What Sr. Noella found at hand, she pressed into service and used well. At the Holy Cross Church compound, for instance, she put to good use two small wooden buildings and a near-by large rarely used assembly hall. That was Holy Cross Kindy's start.

 

Of course kids parents chipped in with modest school fees but these never really covered the full running of the school. At that time, government didn't pay Kindy teachers salaries. These had to be found by the school itself. Electricity, water and school running costs mounted monthly and Sr. Noella was soon looking at a debt mountain.

 

Here's where Sister's genius kicked in. Selling popcorn could be an answer to the Kindy's financial problems  Popcorn sales around town especially in the area opposite the old Town Market was her way of getting enough cash to keep the little Kindy going. Bishop Gurunku of Holy Cross had gifted the school with $500, a sort of seed money, but after that other funding was all up to Sr. Noella and her small teaching staff.

 

But the Kindy soon ran into a greater difficulty! Honiara's schools were themselves filling up and could offer little or no space for Holy Cross Kindy 'graduates'. Starting a Kindy was one thing but creating a whole new primary school system was something else again. But no matter Sr. Noella set her sights anew in 1986.

 

She talked Honiara Town Council authorities into giving her a piece of land--Nggosi, in west Honiara--to be the site of a new primary school. Of course we all know that Bishop Epalle School--3 Kindy classes, 14 primary classes and 12 Secondary forms, 1-6--now occupy the Nggosi land area.  

 

Sr. Noella's original dream of a small kindy in the middle of town had now blossomed into a full stream school boasting of more than 1,300 students and has been going strong since 1991. But it's worth while to remember that all of this started off with a single woman's dream back in 1981. Materially she had but a few dollars in the purse but did have a great trust in the one who had chosen her from the beginning to do this work. When she finally entered into the presence of her Creator last Monday, He asked her about the five talents he had given her and what she had done with them. When she showed how she invested the five talents and came out with almost 30 (classes now going strong at Epalle) He will certainly say to Noella: "Come beloved of my Father and take up your rest now!"