By Peter Kamara, 3rd Year Aspirant
Bomana,
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 16 Juily 2019 --- During
our holidays we were privileged to have a couple with us from
Australia, who volunteered to come and help the aspirants in
some English review, good manners, health and hygiene,
psycho-sexual growth and group dynamics (cf.
earlier news item from a fellow aspirant.
Also in
our schedule, we were supposed to have our debate and
declamation contest during these holidays, but priority was
given to the program of activities organised by the couple.
However,
this didn’t stop us from debating and declaiming. Fr Ariel
Macatangay, Savio Haus Prefect, convinced six of the aspirants,
who did not take part in the English review, to be the ones to
prepare for the debate.
There was
some reluctance at the start, but when the aspirants later
understood the value of this formative activity, then they took
the challenge upon themselves and prepared for it.
On 14
June, 2019 six of the aspirants debated on the topic “It is good
for the government to pass a law allowing same- sex marriage in
PNG.” Even though the preparation was short, the delivery and
outcome were superb and remarkable from both the proposing and
opposing camps.
One of the
judges, Mr Fred Gomes, expressed his gratitude, thanking the
debaters for their effort in delivering their arguments. “Your
points were very convincing and your arguments show that you
were well prepared,” he remarked. He also thanked Fr Ariel for
organising this debate, which can help aspirants to gain
confidence and improve their public speaking.
The
opposing camp came out as winners of the debate. Raphael Gobi
from the proposing camp got the prize of the best debater and
Peter Kamara from the opposing camp for the best English
speaker. Other participants from both side received consolation
prizes.
A week
after the debate, most of the same aspirants, who participated
in the debate, were asked again to prepare, this time for the
declamation contest. At first, these aspirants aired strong
reservations at staging such a contest given the limited time.
Nevertheless, Fr Ariel managed again to convince the aspirants
to take up this next challenge.
Each of
them was asked to choose speeches of famous presidents, generals
and other leaders of the world. On the 21st of June,
the aspirants had their declamation contest. The judges were the
three Salesian brothers with the assistance of Fr Ariel.
Even
though the time was limited, this did not stop the aspirants
from declaiming. Each of them gave their best but only one
always came out as winner. Melchior Vatabu, a first year
aspirant bagged the first prize for his speech, “I have a dream”
by Martin Luther King Jnr.
He expressed his joy at winning because he could not believe that he could do it in a limited time. “I am speechless, this is a miracle for me. This is my first time taking part in such competition like this,” he shared. He went on to thank Fr Ariel for the support and encouragement. Everyone enjoyed the night and the declaimers were happy after all their efforts and gains. They together with the judges expressed the gratitude for the efforts and support of the organisers. Fr. Ariel concluded the night with a good night talk.
