Principal's Message Week 2 Term 3
During the school holidays Mr Webster and I accompanied four senior students from our college together with staff and students from St Patrick’s College in Sydney up to Papua New Guinea (PNG)) for a 12-day immersion experience.
An immersion is not a holiday, nor is it building, making, or fixing anything. In the first instance it is not about charity or helping a poor community. Rather, it is about the building of human relationships, appreciating culture, and building global bonds. It is my experience in taking students on immersion, that they gain far more than they give.
We used to call poor nations “third world” countries. We do not say this anymore. Instead, we talk about the majority world: for it is indeed the majority of the world that still lives at or below the poverty line.
Our trip to PNG saw us travel to the island of East New Britain, to stay with a Christian Brothers organisation called Vuvu. Here they run a life-training centre which offers boarding schooling of a practical nature for 20–25-year-old young men so that they might graduate with skills, certifications and the prospect of gainful, and meaningful employment. During their four years, the young men are taught carpentry skills, agricultural skills, sewing, baking, and are given the opportunity to get their driver’s licence. In addition, they go on work placements with local businesses such as a local mechanic business, balsa wood factory, shipping, and other light industry. Most young men graduate with a job. Br Bernard White leads the operation there with local staff.
Our boys got to appreciate and understand local cultural activities including dance and song, went to the Feast Day Mass of St Peter Torot – a three-hour celebration, engaged in some farming activities, as well as a climb of the local mountain Kombiu (Mount Mother). We explored the local area, including the volcano and hot springs, the local markets, and enjoyed the company of the Vuvu boys. They rode around on the back of a truck, swam in the ocean, harvested cacao and coconuts, and processed chickens.
The most precious and memorable experiences though will certainly be the bonds formed with PNG people, and I am sure the boys will attest, the friendliness, shared humour, and ready engagement in local dance and celebration. We even got to watch the final of the State of Origin!
If we are serious about building global connections, in a somewhat fractured world, then these opportunities are invaluable in allowing us to learn, appreciate, and come to know our nearest neighbours who inhabit a daily life that is so different to that experienced by the majority of people who call Australia home. The richness of our shared humanity is enhanced when we spend time in someone else’s home, culture, land, and life. I know our students took some potentially life-changing lessons from their time with our brothers in PNG. We share a common faith, and an Edmund Rice tradition, that lets us all know we are part of an international movement.
Live Jesus in our hearts,
Forever.
Dr Craig Wattam
College Principal
