2015/11/17

Diwali, Pinktober and more!

Bula vinaka to everyone.
I am Mrs Vosarewa Vuetaki, and this will be the last time I will send you a message in our BLOG.

GRATITUDE:　I am very thankful that I had an opportunity to work among Japanese staff and students. I have enjoyed the challenges and will embrace the new things I learnt over the years as an employee. The challenges encountered during my 4 years here have been sources of physical, spiritual, mental and social strength for me. I know that as I leave at the end of this year, I will take home a lot of good things that I have learnt from both my Japanese and local colleagues.

My topics for this Blog are:

1 DIWALI CELEBRATIONS
2 EXAMINATIONS
3 PINKTOBER

1 DIWALI CELEBRATIONS
Diwali is now celebrated in Fiji by everyone, young and old, showing unity in diversity. The thought of lighting up divas, shooting expensive fire crackers to light up the sky and lighting up homes signify the value of victory over evil. But – more than that, this festival of lights is embraced by all as a reaffirmation of hope where we can renew our commitment to friendship and goodwill and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple and may be not so simple joys of life.
Here at BPFBI, everyone likes to turn up in the Indo-Fijian cultural dresses (saris and salwa kameez) to show support for our friends. Stronger ties among us are re-built and unity is promoted. A spread of fastidiously prepared sweets awaited the i-Taukei teachers as they walked into the Home Economics Room to acknowledge as well as wish their friends a ‘HAPPY DIWALI’. Today, we are privileged to share with our friends and pray that our Inner Light will bring sunshine to those that are beleaguered and in captivity.

Teachers pose with their Diwali suits during Pre-Diwali celebration at Ba Provincial Free Bird Institute!!

A glimpse of our teachers in their glamorous attire awaiting the Diwali sweets..

2 EXAMINATIONS – INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL and then WHAT??
There is a time for everything…a time to sow and a time to reap…and the adage goes on….
Since the beginning of October, our students have been sitting exams ranging from TOEIC and Trials to the external ones. For many many weeks, the teachers labored ceaselessly to prepare for thorough revisions to ensure that students understood what they had been taught. Teachers spent the whole year sowing, and sowing and sowing! Now, both students and their teachers await their harvest and no doubt when the results are out, they should be satisfied knowing that they are reaping the fruits of their hard labour.
Another chapter of a lifetime approaches the end. Some students will go on for further studies while some may have chosen to ‘call it a day’, find work and move on.
Whatever the choice may be, I wish all the graduating students of 2015 a successful future.
My biggest gratitude goes out to my hard-working TEAM of teachers. You were great!!! You persevered and weathered all storms without a complaint! You became the mothers, fathers, nannies, mentors, lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, prayer warriors and great teachers for these students. Whatever amount of baby sitting and teaching you did, I know that you did it to your best! Your passion and love, no one can ever repay, however, we both know that our reward in Heaven is going to be more than we can ever imagine. Therefore, my colleagues, keep on working hard for better is the reward that awaits you…….Au revoir!
Arigato gozaimas!

3 PINKTOBER
We acknowledge the efforts of these three beautiful pinktober ladies who turned up in their pink outfits, ornated with their pink accessories to remember those sisters who have been victims of breast cancer.
Pinktober (in October) has been around for more than 12 years and is known as the month for Breast Cancer Awareness. This is a time when the nation calls on everyone to support activities which help to empower women who have died or are suffering from cancer. Many people concentrate on buying a pink spatula, wearing a pink spray or outfit, and carrying a pink bag to show their support while thinking that’s all they can do. It’s not!” Pinktober should be a time when we really should look for solutions to the rising number of cancer victims. It should not focus on ‘being seen in pink, and it is not all about boobs and bras; breast cancer is terrifying and dangerous! We need to save women! Not breasts! Children need their mothers, not their mothers’ boobs…! So here we go, PINKTOBER……!

Thank you very much!