Last weekend, I went to the World Youth Day and Vocation Celebrations (WYDVC) Kuching 2008.
It was organized by the Kuching Archdiocesan Youth & Vocations Commission (KAYVC) to enable the local youth to experience the actual World Youth Day (WYD) which will take place in Sydney on the 15th-20th July, 2008. In other words, the WYDVC allows us who can’t afford to go to Sydney for the WYD to get an idea of how it would be like…and to experience it first-hand.
Basically, the WYD is organised by the Catholic Church and it brings together young people from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith on a more regular basis. It is a huge gathering of Catholic (and some Non-Catholic) Christians all over the world where they come together to pray and worship together as a community. Through the WYD experience, young people from throughout the world will make a pilgrimage in faith, meet, and experience the love of God. It is also attended by the Holy Father, The Pope himself.
Similarly, the WYDVC is the Kuching Archdiocesan level-WYD whereby everyone from parishes as far as Sri Aman, which is 2-3 hour’s drive away from Kuching, all come together at the Catholic Memorial Pilgrimage Centre (CMPC) Singai in Bau (about an hour’s drive from Kuching) for the ultimate closing of the pilgrimage attended by the Apostolic Delegate who is the Pope’s representative of the region.
I knew it was gonna be HUGE! They said AT LEAST 1,200 people would be there but I couldn’t quite imagine how BIG that crowd was until I was there myself…
On 12th April: Participants gathered at their respective parishes and used buses to go to Singai.
I hitched a ride with some friends on a turbo-charged ISUZU pick-up truck. 
I was shocked at the crowd when we got there…and we were just at the foot of the Mountain!
Yes, MOUNTAIN. We needed to climb up to reach CMPC ,so we ditched our truck and proceeded on foot.
More people…
They set up registration counters at the foot of the mountain. I was categorized as “walk-in”.
Into the woods we go…
Up the mountain we go…Think this is steep? There are others even more steeper!!! Check out the number of people making their way up…
This guy even angkat tong gas go up and can still SMILE! I only brought a bagpack and even that was tiring!
Finally…made it up those final steps…
That cross and icon (picture) travelled to all the Parishes before making its way here.
The crowd at The Chapel…
They even pitched tents to accomodate the crowd at The Grotto.
“Receive The Power” - inside The Chapel
Even more people at the foot of The Chapel…
At The Chapel: Getting ready for the Opening Mass to begin.
Later that evening at The Ampitheatre.
With some friends, waiting for the Youth Festival to start.
The crowd seated to my right…
…to the left, to the left…
So now you know how a crowd of more than 1,200 people looks like…Now imagine a crowd of 125,000 people - that’s the expected number of people going for the WYD in Sydney! One word: Fu-Yoh!!!
And it was night. The First Day.
There was still the next day, 13th April, to look forward to…but taking into consideration the number of people and the very slim chances of getting a good night’s sleep (there were too many of us that it was impossible to provide “proper” accomodations) or even the possibilty of taking a bath! (there were too many of us and the water was more needed for cooking purposes)…the opportunity to go and take a bath and sleep in my own bed was too much to resist…hehe…
I went down the mountain and back home so I can never imagine how the rest spent the night… ^_^
Maybe next time, I’ll be more prepared to “camp-it-out”…but eventhough I only joined in half of the whole WYDVC Singai, it was AWESOME still…looking forward to participate fully in the ones to come…
Posted in Personal | Tagged Apostolic Delegate, Holy Father, KAYVC, Singai, Sydney, The Pope, World Youth Day, WYD, WYDVC | 9 Comments »
