APIA: 8 June 2012 -- If you want excitement that's a
touch out
of the ordinary, then head for Samoa for Independence Day,
or head for
nearby American Samoa on Flag Day. Any of these events would
not be
what they are without the boys from Don Bosco, in Alafua,
who have made
a name for themselves over many years now for anything from
dancing to
long-boat-racing. This time it's the latter - the famed
'Fautasi' race.
Read on.....
(We've grabbed a couple of photos of lower quality, but Fr
Chris Ford
is hunting down some better ones for us).
"It is all celebrations here at the
moment. 5 days of public celebrations for the 50th
anniversary of
Samoa's independence from NZ culminated with the Fautasi
(Longboat)
Race Final. Fautasi racing is an amazing art,
considering that
each boat has a crew of about 50 rowers, a drummer and a
captain.
Don Bosco Technical Centre, Alafua, actually had two crews
rowing: Segavao II
(the 'old boat') and Segavao
III (the 'new boat').
The boats actually belong to a neighbouring parish, where the
Prime
Minister, Tuiliapa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, is a parishioner, and
the
captain, Zita Martel, the only woman to captain a fautasi
boat, is also
a parishioner of the same parish. The Captain of the
Segavao II
is Lui Mulipolo, a teacher at Don Bosco and the brother of Fr
Sefo SDB.
The two Don Bosco crews came 1st and 5th in the final (out of
10). While the result was the extraordinary culmination
of months
of preparation by staff and students at Don Bosco, it was
never a
foregone conclusion. The second fautasi home, from a
village on
the small island of Manono, had actually recorded the fastest
time in
the heats. Some of the crews played a few games that
delayed the
start by 45 minutes (massive calls for their disqualification
of
course). Some suspect it was a conspiracy against the
Don Bosco
seconds crew whose boat performs very well in deeper water (so
delay
the start, let the tide go down and you take away some of
their
advantage). The Don Bosco Segavao III (new boat) was
illegally
rammed no less than three times at the beginning of the race
as the two
Don Bosco boats and another crew battled for control of the
race.
Captain Zita would later praise her boys for "holding their
nerve " and
"not panicking" even in the face of great adversity and
considerable
hostility from other teams.
Later in the day, many of the young people knew not only the
precise
finishing order of the whole field but the times for each and
every
boat. Segavao Don
Bosco III
actually set a new race record of 38.8 minutes. It must
be
remembered that Fautasi racing is a national obsession that
even rivals
the Samoan obsession with Rugby. It is a bit like the final of
the
World Cup and the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games rolled
into
one, whenever there is a race. This morning the harbour
foreshore
was thronged with many tens of thousands of spectators for a
race that
was due to start at before dawn on the 6:00 am high tide.
In true Samoan and true Salesian style the boys from Don Bosco
celebrated their success in song. The crews chanted as
they did a
lap of honour of the harbour and then returned to shore.
Their
supporters promenaded by the truckload (literally) singing and
dancing
in celebration.
This year's win is especially sweet for the Don Bosco boys as
last year
they were forced out of the race and onto the rocks, not not
only one
race but two, by rivals who were roundly beaten in a very
convincing display of camaraderie and unity by the Don Bosco
boys whose motto this
year was "One Beat" referring both to the beat of the drum
that sets
the timing for the race but also to the beat of the heart that
unified
the crews.
Anyway, there are a lot of very happy people around at the
moment".
