austraLasia #2865 New Salesian school opens on Savai'i, in Samoa
SALELOLOGA (Samoa): 3 June 2011 -- Already described
as a new 'jewel' in the South Pacific, the Don Bosco High
School and Vocational Centre at Salelologa on the 'big'
island of Savai'i, Samoa, was formally opened on 3 June, in
the presence of the Prime Minister of Samoa, His Excellency
Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, and His Grace the
Archbishop of Samoa, Alapati Lui Mataeliga. Present for the
occasion was the Salesian Provincial of the
Australia-Pacific Province, Fr Frank Moloney, and of course
Salesians, Sisters, friends and students and their parents.
The long awaited Don Bosco School is the
only Catholic Secondary school on Savai'i where more than
90% of the population are subsistence farmers.
Fr Mosese Tui sdb is the Principal of the
school, and has also overseen the entire building operation.
Given the difficult terrain (volcanic rock and jungle
growth), the relative isolation in terms of material
supplies, the Provincial recently described the
accomplishment of Fr Mosese and his team as nothing short of
a miracle. There are already more than 100 students at
the school, which opened for students at the beginning of
the 2011 school year and already has the first building
stage, comprising a number of classrooms and an
administration facility completed. Plans are already drawn
up for the Salesian residence, chapel and a volunteers
residence. In fact, the project has been ably assisted
by two Cagliero Volunteers from the Province Mission
Voluntary Service program of that name, one of whom is a
master tradesman and has overseen the finishing touches.
It goes without saying that a project of
this kind is very costly: distance, isolation and therefore
transport requirements add to already high building costs in
the area. The project is funded through the Province which
has welcomed the support it has received from the Bonn
Mission Office and is seeking further funding arrangements
from other sources of the kind. A feature of what is often
called 'mission solidarity' in Salesian terminology is the
wholehearted backing of every Salesian community in the
Province - Fr Moloney was able to announce with not a little
pride, that he was the bearer of some $60,000 towards the
project, all contributed from 'local' Salesian sources in
the Province.
A sideline, but an interesting
little fact: for the past 30 years of the Salesian presence
in these beautiful and fruitful (including vocationally)
islands, our presence there has been distinguished by a
little-known fact - Samoa sits just 32 kms east of the
International Dateline, meaning that the Australia-Pacific
Province is the only Salesian Province in the world with two
days in one, so to speak! When it is Thursday in Samoa
it is already Thursday in Australia! this has made
communications tricky at any time, but especially tricky
when unsuspecting international visitors overlook the fact
and miss flights, or think they have time on their hands
when in fact they have none! All that is due to pass
shortly. Samoa has decreed that probably on 29 December, it
will 'change sides' (it already did that with its roads a
year ago!). And just how is something like that
decided? "There is nobody that can say yes or no", says
David Mumford of the group which publishes Collins and Times
atlases for HarperCollins. "The country decides for itself.
Then it's just a matter of publicising it, informing the
international community and the map-makers". Would that
running a heap of other institutions, the 'pia
società' included, were so simple! _________________
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