REPUBLIC OF MARSHALL ISLANDS
First Aid From God
I From Papua New Guinea, Viviana Gunua Damagoi Kumbia is a high school teacher at the Delap Seventhday Adventist School on the South Pacific island of Majuro.
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t came as no surprise that my students preferred playing a good game of basketball to learning first aid. But as a teacher at Delap Seventh-day Adventist School in the Marshall Islands, I had been tasked with teaching physical education and first aid. And I was determined that they learn both. I’m not a first aid instructor, but I had been required to take a first aid class in order to serve as a college assistant dean of women. I’d never needed my skills until now. A few weeks into the school year, the Marshall Islands Red Cross Society held a high school first aid competition. Two students in each school were chosen to be trained by the Marshall Islands Red Cross Society. Then these two students would teach the other students in their class. The teacher must not do the teaching. My responsibility was to
provide things the students might need to practice for the competition. We were given only two weeks to prepare! A trainer had been appointed to help us, but he came only once because he lived so far from the school. He had left mannequins for the students to practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a 346-page Red Cross Society First Aid book, six strips of cloth, three long pieces of wood, and three tablecloths. The rest was up to my two students and me. I prayed for guidance. Then I photocopied the theory section of the book and handed the sheets out to my students to study for their test. I left the practical part to my two student trainers. I asked God to help us practice and study the things that would be included in the competition. I worried because I didn’t have a program guide for the competition and had no idea what to expect.
