Media Release
Abu Dhabi, Nov 26: The Konkani Community of St Paul’s Catholic Church Mussafah, here conducted their third annual family get-together on November 16 at Yas Island Park with great fervor. After the Friday morning Holy Mass, all the people numbering approximately over 250 gathered near the picnic site. The get-together started as per scheduled time with prayer led by Br Suresh Saldanha and Fr Wilson Rumao, spiritual director of Konkani Community blessed the congregation. John D’Lima, main coordinator of the community welcomed the gathering and appreciated their support for all the events and requested them to continue the same for the future events as well.
Immediately after the opening prayer, traditional breakfast was served to all. Games coordinator Lawrence D’Souza formed 12 groups and a warm up balloon game was played by all the participants. Later, several other exciting games, such as Passing the plate which was very tricky, Balloon pick up, sack race, forming the number, run with cup & straw, eating the fruits, paper decoration, crosswords, breaking the earthen pot, plywood walker, water balloon etc were held, but the highlights of the games were ‘tug of war’ and ‘breaking the earthen pot’ which was tied at a height of 9 ft to a tree. People enjoyed each and every bit of all the games and appreciated the efforts of the organizers. In addition to this, lots of games were conducted for children of different age groups. There was an exclusive game for the volunteers which was really an eye catching moment.
The special guest of this get-together was the presence of Fr Ani Xavier, parish priest of St Paul’s Church, Musaffah who has given all praise to the Konkani Community and get-together organisers for their efforts and blessed the food and appreciated their activities not only for the community but for the whole parish in general. Traditional lunch was served.
Immediately after food, Crossword game was played and a good number of gifts were distributed to the winners. The highlight of the prizes was banana bunch (kelaincho godai) which was won by Maroon team as first prize. A member of the Yas Island Park management Ali was felicitated for his cooperation as he was a great help to the organizers in providing permission for the picnic as well as assisting in providing generator.
Immediately after lunch, games once again resumed first with the cross words and followed by other games. The highlight of the evening session was the kabaddi match played between the groups. At the end of the session, Paper decoration game was conducted and within a period of 10 minutes different groups came up with novel ideas, picturising Mother Teresa, different political leaders, Santa Clause, Mother Mary etc. People explicated their real inner talent while expressing such ideas. A Baila dance was performed as the final programme of the day. All the groups who cooperated throughout the day and the winning teams were given special prizes. In between, tea-coffee with snacks was served to all the participants which was enjoyed and refreshed all the participants. There was a special lucky prize winner as against the ticket and the lucky winners were given the prizes.
John D’Lima thanked all the people, sponsors and volunteers for their support. The get-together concluded with reciting Laudate Dominum praising and thanking the Lord for this wonderful day. The get-together came to an end and it was a fun filled memorable day enjoyed by all.