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Hearing of the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Columbans in Fiji, celebrated last week in Suva, the teachers of a primary school in Ba wished to honour their long association with the Columban priests of the town. In fact, the whole week from Monday 28th Feb to Fri 4th March 2022 was designated "Columban week" in school, with teachers - most of whom are not Catholic or Christian - exploring with the students the history of the Columban Fathers globally and in Fiji. Each class produced a poster or |
drawings, and all the children wore yellow - which is the colour of one of the "Columban house" of the school, the others "houses" being Marist, St Patrick and St Joseph.
On Thu 3rd March, the teachers all cooked and decorated the parish hall for a special lunch to which I represented the Columbans. We heard stories of the teachers themselves having been taught, corrected (sometimes slapped !) but ultimately loved by Marist Sisters and Columban Fathers.
| Mrs Kumar, the Hindu Assistant Head of School, spoke of how honoured she feels being part of the Columban family, and how she appreciates our team spirit, across religions and ethnicities. We certainly needed it coping with 2 lockdowns and the recurring bad weather. For myself, I noted how close the association of the missionaries has been to the school, founded in 1930..Ba was the first, and flagship Columban parish, due to both its high concentration of Indo- |  |
Fijians (a prime reason for the re-founding of Xavier College in 1952) as well as its large ethnic Fijian hinterland, where 2 other villages have their own parochial schools. While watching the slide show prepared by the Columban Mission Office, there were shrieks of delight seeing the photo of a very young Fr Paul Tierney, as well as being reminded of the price Columbans have paid, working for justice and inter-ethnic harmony here over the decades.
A beautiful anniversary cake was baked and a good Indian curry was consumed to end the afternoon. Thank you very much Master Ron Krishna and the staff of St Teresa's for so enthusiasticallly being a part of the unfolding Columban story.
Pictures showing teachers' families enjoying the celebratory meal, some of the posters made by the students, Mrs Kumar's (AHTeacher) address, and an unexpected visit from the Caritas Team in Suva, bringing wash packs in anticipating of further flooding here in Ba.
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