The Don Bosco Rural Training Center at Tetere kicked off the celebration of the Bicentenary of the birth of St. John Bosco with sports last Thursday 19th of March.
More than two hundred students of the DBRTC gathered at the sport field to showcase the first five categories of the competition.
The five teams were well prepared to try and impress the judges on their performances. The beauty queen and good guy, the marching, dance, banner and team work were the five categories taken up for the first part of the day.
The Salesian delegate for PNG and SI, Fr. Peter Bakero sdb officially declared the tournament open after the opening prayer by Fr. Alber Lenon sdb, parish priest Christ the King Tetere.
The Good morning talk was given too by Fr. Peter to inspire the students to play well and bring the fullness of God in their games. Br. Anthony led the school in the new cheer chanting the name Don Bosco. B. Francis was the main man to get all the actions going without delay.
Mr. Francis was the master of ceremony and he did a great job in keeping up the spirit of joy despite of the heat of the sun.
It was so inspiring when the students explained every details of their banner highlight the aim of the tournament. They were so passionate in their explanations and that showed how they felt about the school.
“We feel so much at home here and we are developing our different talents that we did not know that we do have. Thank you to Salesian family,” said Lloyd. It was expressed in a different way by Leonard Ouou and team Paul, “Give hope for the hopeless.”
The sport flame was lit and passed around and then finally reached Fr. Peter who then lit the tournament flame. The students gave a great mighty cheer in seeing the flame being lit.
The opportunity was given to the students to say few words of their experiences and how they feel about being part of the bicentenary celebration. John Stanley from Matthew team highlights the motto of their team.
“Don Bosco first started in Italy and now here in the Solomon islands. Thank you for bringing Don Bosco in our country. we feel that another great opportunity is being offered to us and we feel very much the presence of Don Bosco in our school. That why we feel so much at home.”
The other highlight of the day was the celebration of St. Joseph. All those who name after St. Joseph were called and they were garlanded by the students and wishing them a great happy feast day.
Fr. Joseph on behalf of all the Josephs in the school thanked the studetns for their initiative to mark the feast day with special activities.
In the end Sr. Sesilia Sala FMA compiled all the scores and came up with the winning team which was Cluster Paul Team. They were awarded 200 ice pops and they were so happy as the day was getting very hot. The other teams received some.
Everyone proceeded to the Mama Margarita Dining Hall of lunch. Sports will be resumed at 2:30pm. The students were so happy and look forward for their games in the afternoon.
May the best team win! You Train our Youth, you train our nation. Long Live Don Bosco in the Solomon Islands.
By Sr. Sesilia Sala FMA
