Koala Krew Austraila Presentation

St Raymond Parish

Serving English parishioners in 15 communities across the South Shore

Established in 2007 as a parish

Parish Groups

St Raymond's World Youth Day Group: The Koala Krew's Australia Presentation

Our journey to Australia began on July 5^th. After saying goodbye to our family and friends, we said our prayers and settled down for an extremely long flight. By mid-afternoon on July 7^th we arrived in Young, the cherry capital of Australia. Originally Young was known as Lambing Flat. However after the massacre of Chinese immigrants in the 1800’s the name was changed to Young.

In Young we felt a strong sense of hospitality. The pilgrims participating from the parish of St-Mary’s also known as the Young youth, showed us around their small, picturesque town. Not only were the youth of the parish welcoming but also the community. There was no shortage of food. In the morning breakfast was prepared for us by our host families. When we arrived at the parish center, there was always coffee, juice and treats waiting for us. Lunch was prepared by the ladies of the parish. They also prepared an afternoon tea. Our meal schedule in Young was; breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and then supper which was like our desert and thankfully not a second dinner!

We were greeted with hand knit scarves upon our arrival. The ladies knitted over 100 blue and yellow scarves to keep us warm during our stay in Young. The scarves served a dual purpose. They kept us warm and helped us find one another while wandering around town. All we had to do was look for those colourful scarves and you were sure to find a pilgrim or two!

Our host families were all special to us. The group was spilt between a number of families. The families made us feel welcomed. During the time we were there the state of New South Wales was going through a major water shortage, but the families didn’t focus on that, they were just happy to be able to welcome us to their community.

We had the opportunity to visit many sights such as Chinaman’s Dam. It is a beautiful garden which represents the sister city of Young in China. It was such a beautiful and tranquil place to visit.

The Australians from Young also allowed us the opportunity to learn about their aboriginal culture. Fred an aboriginal, his son and nephew, taught us about their culture. He taught us some dances including the emu and kangaroo, introduced us to a didgeridoo which is a traditional wooden instrument and showed us some of the artefacts which are still used today by the aboriginal people as part of their celebrations.

How can you go to Australia and not get the chance to see or pet a kangaroo. We were fortunate to be brought to a farm that raises baby kangaroos whose mothers have been killed. That is where we had the chance to meet Jodi one of the most adorable kangaroos you will ever meet! We also got to pet and feed some Jerusalem donkeys, something I don’t think anyone in the group had ever seen before.

We also had the opportunity to meet the oldest nun in Young. She is in her nineties and made an effort to come and share in some of our adventures in and around Young.

Some of us were staying on sheep farms, and in the area of Young most of the farms are for raising sheep. Not for food but for their wool. One of our adventures took us to a sheep farm. We got a tour of the farm and its buildings, had the chance to hold a lamb, watched a demonstration of sheep shearing and took part in making damper. This bread is similar to the bread made by first nations people known as bannock.

We had been scheduled to go up to the mountains near Young for a hike, but due to rain which started non-stop since our arrival, our activity was changed. We went up to the town of Glenfeld where we learned about early settlers in Australia and more about the wildlife and local vegetation found in the area. After a short concert, by a wonderful university youth choir from the Philippines, there was a large mass with a bishop and two priests from France, the local priests and Fr. John. It was a wonderful celebration because there was a sense of community and friendship.

Our stay is Young wasn’t all about fun and learning, there was even some hard work involved! For the WYD events, the environment was a crucial concern given that there were such a large number of participants from across the globe. For our social project we planted some trees. We definitely wanted to make sure we were doing our part to take care of the environment!

In Young, we had a mass every evening before returning back to our families. The parish had a beautiful church and it was an amazing week of celebrations. Our group felt welcomed when asked to do readings for the mass and sing in the choir. In Young we met pilgrims from Samoa and Papua New Guinea. These pilgrims shared part of their culture in the form of a dance in bringing up the offertory.

Our second to last night in Young was very special. There was a cultural night in which all the groups had to present something. It could be a song, skit, anything which was representative of their country of origin. We all thought oh boy what are we going to do that will represent Canada? We had heard in the news that a few days prior to the event that an Australian soldier had died in the Middle East. The group decided that it would be very fitting to recite the poem In Flanders Field. But we couldn’t just recite the poem. It was very fitting yes, but a little sad and that’s not a lasting impression we wanted to leave with our hosts from Young. Laura suggested a song which she had learned through Boy Scouts. Laura and Erik taught us the song, which was a great hit and lots of fun to sing!!

After leaving Young we visited Canberra for a few days. We were lucky to be reunited with our friends from Young who gave us a guided tour of Canberra. We also had the opportunity to visit the parliament building. In Canberra the parliament building is only 20 years old. The old parliament building was a provisional building which was only supposed to be used for a few years. The interesting feature about the new parliament building is that it is built into a hill. The reasoning behind this is so that the government is not above the people but that the people are above the government. Visiting the government building you have access to the roof and are literally right above the government.

Our home base in Canberra was a school. Throughout the trip we had our morning and evening prayers, which comprised of two psalms and a scripture reading. We included all the prayers that were written in our red book, as well as prayers from friends we met along the way. On the last evening in Canberra many of the other pilgrims staying at the school had noticed us doing our morning prayer and asked if they could join us in the evening. That night there were an additional 20 people praying with our group. Pilgrims from Australia, Mexico and East Timor joined us in our prayers. What a unique spiritual experience praying together with others from around the world. It was very humbling to be asked by other WYD pilgrims if they could join us in this time of thanksgiving and reflection.

After Canberra we moved to Castle Hill, a suburb of Sydney. Castle Hill is located about 35 kilometres outside of Sydney. We were warmly welcomed at St-Bernadette’s Parish. The group was divided among a few families, most notably the Darcy family. This family was hosting 20 people, 7 from the Koala Krew. The Darcy family have graciously welcomed into their home over 300 people over a number of years. While some of our koalas were staying with them, they were interviewed by the local newspaper and 60 minutes Australia!

Our first week in Sydney allowed us to see lots of sights. The opening mass was held at the Barangaroo which was right in Darling Harbour. We participated in WYD activities in North Sydney and saw a performance at the Sydney Opera House. In Hyde Park we saw the WYD cross which has travelled across the globe and was even here in Candiac when the WYD events were held in Toronto. On the day we planned to visit St- Mary’s Cathedral, St-Mary’s was hosting a v.i.p., his holiness Pope Benedict XVI. The Swiss guards wouldn’t let us through. However we did get to visit St-Mary’s. We attended Sunday morning mass the day before coming back home. It was a magnificent cathedral both inside and out.

The final event for the World Youth Days is the pilgrimage to the site for the final mass. This WYD was no different. Our pilgrimage started in North Sydney at the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a beautiful day, sunshine and perfect weather for walking and did we walk! Our final destination was Randwich Racecourse. After an afternoon of walking we made it to our destination, tired and excited to set up camp before it got dark. After dinner on the site, we wrapped ourselves up in many layers and we took part in the vigil mass. What a special event. It’s hard to describe the feeling at this mass. You feel total peace, community, friendship even though everyone speaks different languages and comes from different backgrounds.

The final mass was just as impressive. We watched the pope arrive and were lucky to get some photos as he went around waving to all the pilgrims. This WYD mass was special in that there were a number of people from different countries who were confirmed. At the end of the mass, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the next WYD will be held in Madrid, Spain in 2011.

Our third week we were tourists. We took time to visit the zoo, the real one not the boy’s room in the youth hostel! Tarongo zoo, the aquarium, Manly beach and the Blue Mountains. We really got to experience first hand the beauty of Australia in its people and breath-taking landscapes.

What made this trip so special were the friends we made in Young. They were just so hospitable and so friendly that it felt as if we were right at home, as if we had never left.

All the families were wonderful both in Young and Castle Hill. They were so welcoming and made sure that we were well looked after. It was very difficult to say goodbye to our friends in Young. We had spent a lot of time with them during our two weeks at the WYD events. We had been very fortunate to meet up with them for all of the events and saw them almost every day. Before they left to go back to Young, they asked the group for one last favour. They asked us to sing the song that we had performed at the cultural night back at St-Mary’s. In closing we would like to share our song. (Song=Rise and Shine)

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