My special place in the community

My special place in the community is my catholic church, St.Bernadette. A church is a building publicly used for religious worship, in other words the house of god. Church is usually on a Sunday because it’s the Sabbath day. I adore my religion and my church.

St. Bernadette is a catholic church, meaning it is open to any nationality who’re both catholic or christian. Our parishioners are a diverse of races such as Americans, Tongans, Samoans, Cook Islanders, New Zealanders, Niueans  Indians, Chinese, Korean and  Filipinos. The more diversity, the more we get the chance to experience different things we aren’t usually accustomed to. Also, it’s quite intriguing to hear the different languages being sung in the choirs. Being around a diverse of races at church also helps prepare us for the real world, the same as going to school too!. All races get along significantly making church a positive environment for me.

A common part of going church is to pray. We pray for many reasons including asking for forgiveness, for many to meet with God in prayer, helps us overcome temptation, for the safety of others, peace and to ask for everyday needs. Prayers help me strengthen my face in others as well as myself and i’ve found that the more I pray, the less I worry. Praying is a commitment, part of worship and communion with god. The way a car cannot move without fuel is a way a Catholic and Christian can’t live without prayers.

At a catholic church, you hear parables and testaments read from the bible. The parables and testaments come with influential morals related to everyday life. Some teach you the importance of going to heaven and consequences of being a sinner. From my past Sunday school lessons (A group of Christians who extend their learning on God & Jesus), I have learnt various life changing morals that help others become a better person. I’ve learnt about having faith in God, as well as others, to forgive others to be forgiven by the lord, love your neighbours and to honour your father and mother. I take those morals and use them in my life so I myself become a great person.

My church has a lot of sentimental value for I grew up there with my 12 siblings and have been attending for my whole life. I got baptised there, along with my siblings, made lifetime of memories and made several friends who I now call family. The presence of my friends make me happy whether we’re in church or having discussions about the lord. This also gives me positive vibes that make waking up early worth it. St.Bernadette is also close to my old school, Bailey Road, which I miss very much. Going church, is the closest I can ever be to Bailey Road and it brings back much memories i’ve had at Bailey when I see it. It makes me jubilant and a little bit woeful.

Learning new things never end, one of my favorite places to learn is at church. You’re surrounded by amazing people of diverse races, you pray, you learn meaningful morals connected to life and for some, it may contain a special value.

What happens when you smoke?

What happens when you smoke?

Smoking is a fatal habit and action of inhaling, as well as exhaling the smoke, tobacco that comes in the form of a cigarette. The habits of smoking are dangerously common around the world and it has become a major addiction.

Inhaling and exhaling the drug, tobacco, is extremely harmful to your body for it contains many destructive chemicals. These chemicals can and eventually will have eerie health risks that can change your body horrifically. Health risks such as, risk of cavities, oral cancer, mouth sores, ulcers and strokes. Other health risks are possible lost of eyesight; going blind, mild to moderate hear loss, increase of heart attacks due to the smoke stressing your heart, heart disease and lung cancer, scarring your lungs giving you shortness of breathe and recurrent coughs. One of the most perilous effects of smoking, is lung cancer. The chances of getting lung cancer, depends on how much you smoke and the amount of time. There are more health troubles caused by smoking, these are the most common, but little do people know, smoking harms nearly every organ in the human body.

One of the chemicals that can cause damage to your  body is nicotine, this changes your brain causing the addiction. There are over 4,00 other chemicals in Tobacco which are all poisons and at least 60 of the chemicals cause cancer. Tar is a common ingredient in Tobacco smoke, the tar in a cigarette contains chemicals called carcinogens which strengthen the development of cancer cells. Another chemical is benzene, this chemical has been linked to various health risks including leukemia and kidney cancer. There are many chemical ingredients in tobacco smokes, many that target a specific organ in your body.

Many smokers think that smoking only affects their health, . Most people are not cautious of those they smoke around and they definitely need to take this in consideration. The fetid smell of smoke travels through the air and into other people's noses. They inhale the smell which  strengthens their chances of developing serious health risks.  

Smoking not only damages the smoker's health but it also creates major influences to the earth. Smoking and cigarettes pollute the earth, resulting in the water, air and on the land. Smoke From cigarette cause air pollution. The 4,000 chemicals are released and breathed out from the cigarette and into the air.  Everyday, millions of cigarette buts are left on the ground. Utmost are left in lakes and rivers. By mistake, fish and other water animals digest the cigarette buts, resulting in death of the  animals. During dry and hot seasons, cigarette buts can cause major fires, which is even worse for the environment. Those who smoke are one of the many contributors to environmental pollution.

Smoking can cause horrific damage to one and for some cause death. It is important that people know what smoking does to your body, to the earth and to innocent bystanders. All can be stopped, if people are more weary about the consequences of smoking.

Niva Retimanu: duffy role model assembly

On Mondy, Aaliyahna, Loto and I, were chosen representatives to introduce and thank our duffy role model at assembly, Niva Retimanu.

Niva is a samoan born radio host, raised in Invarg Cill. She is a award winning journalist and news reader for the number one station in New Zealand, Newstalk ZB. She has also worked at various other radio stations around New Zealand.

We led Niva into the hall, where Aaliyahna and Loto introduced Niva to the whole school, they talked about her career. As soon as they finished introducing Niva, I requested for her to address our assembly. Niva stood in front of the whole school and expanded on what Aaliyahna and Loto had said. During her speech, she decided to read us a book called, Kiss Kiss Yuck Yuck. To conclude her speech, Niva taught us a moto about reading. The Motto was “It’s good to read, it’s god to achieve”.

Before Niva left, she handed out the duffy books to the chosen top students from each class. Afterwards, the whole school sang the duffy song. In my opinion, I think we did an awesome job singing it, we were loud and sang proudly.

To conclude the assembly, I stood in front of the whole school and thanked Niva for taking her time out to come to our school to talk to us about her career and for teaching us the importance of reading. It was an honour to have met one of my Pacifica and New Zealand role models and to have thanked her. What an assembly!.

First Kayaking lesson at Russell!

On the 23rd of August, the year 7 and 8 students from Glenbrae school, were given an astonishing opportunity to kayak at Russell, which was one of the activities for our school camp.

Our group arrived at the Bay with our Adventure for Good(AFG) leader, Chris, where we met with our kayak instructor, Dan. Dan explained to us what we needed to do before hopping in the water with our kayaks. We received  small, scarlet coloured life jackets which we adjusted so that it wasn’t able to be lifted over our heads. At first, it was quite uncomfortable wearing the life jackets. My life jacket was suffocating me, but as I started to move more, I was able to breathe more easily. I began to feel nervous, but my excitement eased my nerves.

Afterwards, my group was instructed to grab our paddles and make a large circle. Both Chris and Dan stood with us in the circle and started teaching us how to direct our kayaks using our paddles. To turn right, we paddled on our right and to turn left, we paddled on the left side. If we wanted to paddle straight ahead, we paddled on our left and right. They also taught us the correct hand position in which our hands should be placed on the paddles. The most important skill we learnt, was how to raft up, which is when one person gets a hold of a buoy and links up with the other kayaks.

After we learnt how to direct our kayaks, Dan assigned us to our individual kayaks. Many of the smaller built students were assigned the orange kayaks, which were much easier to balance on and were wider. I, on the other hand, was assigned one of the slimmer and heaviest kayaks, the red coloured ones. We grabbed our kayaks and lifted them to the edge of the shore, where Chris and Dan asked us to show them how to sit in the kayaks. We all sat in the kayaks, backs straight in the seat, legs comfortably bent with our feet sitting in foot braces for a tight grip. As soon as we showed we were able to do this, we headed out to the water for some action.

The first thing we did as we got into the water was rafting up. We had to raft up on the buoy, it was slightly tilted in the water. For our first time kayaking, we surprisingly did an awesome job, though it was quite difficult linking with the other kayaks, without tipping. Later, we had to raft up  two more times before we played a game. During those two raft ups, I tipped my boat about three times. I was cold, soaked but as happy as ever!. The game we played was ball tiggy with a tennis ball, a fun but tiring game. To finish off our lesson, we wandered along the buoys and went on a small adventure. We kayaked among the shallow areas where many sting rays swam around. My group kayaked for a long period of time before rafting up one last time. We then kayaked back to the shore, carried our kayaks back and helped Dan by putting away the equipment.

Before Dan left, my group ate biscuits with hot chocolate. This calmed us down and definitely made us warmer. It certainly was a delicious treat too!. After our little tea party, we separated ways with Dan and said our goodbyes. Chris and Miss.Card then took us down to the beach, near the wharf to a small diving platform. Linda, Salote and I raced like horses to the platform where we played games, jumped off and dived off it. The boys followed and we had more fun!. At one point, we all lay on the platform, staring down the sun. It was an astounding view, the sky was painted ombre orange and the sea water glistened from a distance. Before we left we took multiple group diving photos. From there we departed from the beach and headed back to camp.

I enjoyed my first ever kayaking lesson and I know the feeling was mutual. I had an exceptional bonding time with my group and even better, I learnt new kayaking skills. I hope that one day I will receive another extraordinary opportunity to kayak!. It was a great experience!.