Hello to my fellow
Marist Students in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific countries.
I am a Year 10 student at St Joseph’s Mabiri on the island
of Bougainville. My name is Noah and I am 22 years old. The
war on Bougainville has been over since 2000 but I have only
just started my education again. During the war I was a small
boy but I had a job with the Bougainville Revolutionary Army
(BRA) as a forward scout. I could walk through the jungle and
tell the BRA soldiers where the enemy forces were and also carry
food and supplies.
St Joseph’s
is a new school started by the Marist Brothers. Before, it was
at Kieta about 60km to the south, but during the crisis St Joseph’s
was burnt down. During the Crisis, the Brothers came back and
began to rebuild the school at Mabiri. Everything at the school
is new and is built from timber that we cut from our own trees.
The boys do all the work of milling the timber, and building
the buildings. Marist Solidarity in Australia has helped us
with things we cannot get for ourselves like roofing iron, nails
and tools and a portable sawmill. Without these things we cannot
finish our school.
I think St Joseph’s
is the best school on Bougainville. We even have a computer
room now. The computers we use have been donated by Marist Schools
in Australia and we are learning to use them and maintain them.
We also went to Kieta and collected the statue of St Marcellin
from the jungle and brought it back home. The people of Bougainville
were really happy to see Marcellin on the back of the truck
as it drove along the road.
Some of my classmates
are helping to build an Education Centre at Arawa near our place.
It is another Marist project on our Island. We are proud to
do this because it will give services to about 50 village schools
near to it. My primary school at Bruni village will be able
to have services that we never had before. At last peace is
coming to my beautiful island. |
