SALELOLOGA
(Samoa): 25 October
2013
-- For the
past nine
months, Catherine Lutvey has had to go without hot showers,
learnt to
sleep without a mattress and survived a 182km walk around a
remote
Pacific island. Since January, Catherine, a primary school
teacher from
Brisbane, has been volunteering for the Salesians on the
island of
Savai'i, Samoa.
How she got there
A visit to the Melbourne archdiocesan website led Catherine to
the Salesians' Cagliero
Project, an
overseas Catholic volunteer service for youth. (In fact
Cagliero
describes itself as the Australian Salesian Missionary
Project).
"I researched and liked the Salesians' philosophies, which is
all about
living in community and helping young people, which is what I
wanted to
do because I'm a teacher," she said.
What is it about?
The Cagliero Project sends young people to Thailand, Cambodia,
Zambia,
the Solomon Islands, and Samoa, Catherine's preference. Now
she is one
of three volunteer teachers working at Don Bosco High School
in
Salelologa, living with the priests, brothers and teachers
from the
school.
The Don Bosco school, built in 2011, is the only Catholic high
school
on the island and educates many of the children from the local
village
that Catherine, for now, calls home. "I'm living with eleven
men, which
is different to previously living with female housemates,"
Catherine
said. "There are two priests, two brothers, teachers from the
school,
and they're a bit cheeky sometimes."
Catherine had initially applied to volunteer for Cagliero
Project for
six months, but in March, she changed her mind and decided to
commit
for one year.
At Salelologa
"When I got there, I felt like I was just settling in and
getting to
know people," she said. "Any community, takes a while to
develop
friendships and connections with people. I get a lot more out
of it
because the relationships with kids and the other staff have
been
stronger."
Catherine said one distinct cultural difference between
Australians and
Samoans was community life and hospitality. "As soon as we got
there,
they were so welcoming - they make you feel like you're part
of a
family," she said.
Experiencing Faith in a new context
While the lifestyle is simple, Catherine said the Samoan
people had a
deep and rich Catholic faith."Young people are a huge part of
the
Church," she said. "You see people praying all the time, and
you see
them really proud to share their faith. The Church is
essential to
their lives, and they put it first." It's a faith that unites
the
entire village every hour of the day. At 6.30pm, the almost
200 Samoans
living in the village pause for 15 minutes to sing hymns and
pray the
Rosary. Stopping for 15 minutes each night to hear a
string of
"spectacular" harmonies is part of daily life for the village
and for
Catherine. During the prayer time, the entire village suspends
all
work, all activities and all movement.
The vocational question comes up
For now, Catherine is happy to finish the year in Samoa, but
whether
she would live there permanently was another question. "I
don't think
(so) at this stage, but then, there is a sense of that
vocation
attached to it in a way," she said. "I think I've probably
become a bit
sceptical of life (in Australia) too. "It feels right in so
many ways
to be there, which is a very uplifting feeling at times when
you find
that sense of self. It is a place where I do belong and can
really give
something to the community and get something back from them as
well.
