National Catholic Teachers' Day

National Catholic Teachers’ Day celebrating St. John Baptist De La Salle, the Patron Saint of teachers, is on May 15. The Diocese celebrated the day on Friday May 18^th.  Our staff were given special yellow t-shirts to commentate the special day. 

Mass was to begin at 8am at the cathedral. We were to meet at 7:30 in the staff room and walk over together. At 5 minutes to 8 - we were still in the staff room and the cathedral is at least a 15 minute walk. No one was in any hurry, but my American mind is going crazy because mass begins in 5 minutes and no one was going anywhere. Finally, the school bus pulls up (small 12 passenger van in the US) and takes a few teachers and half of the school choir who were going with us to sing their designated songs. The bus dropped us off and went back for the second half.

Everyone from Caritas showed up, as well as students and teachers from other schools, but no priest. Evidently, the priest assigned forgot and was not even in the area. The parish priests already said the 6:30 mass, someone from another sub-parish was called and we had to wait for his arrival. The 8 am mass began at around 9:15 - normal PNG time. His message was very good despite his late arrival.

After mass, we headed back to the school where the students had special plans in store for us. I was escorted to my home room where my students presented me with my first merriblouse- a dress and undercloth typical of what women of PNG wear in this day and age. The merriblouse is really pretty with purple flowers on white fabric. The undercloth was a purple lap lap. 

We were escorted by our students to the chapel for a variety of dances from each class.  The day included gifts presented to the teachers by their students. Each homeroom provided food for their class matron and students and my class did not disappoint. Chicken and rice, sausages, fried sago, fruit and chocolate cake for dessert. Yum!

The day ended with another cake presented to us by Sister Sara. Nice!

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I'm already looking forward to celebrating it again next year.

Thank you to all for your support and prayers for my mission. I feel lucky to work with a great staff and wonderful students. I pray for you daily too. God bless until the next message.