Dear Frederick Thought I will share this with you. 1) You may have read or heard that on 21st May 2022, *'Zaneta Mascarenhas'* was elected *MP in the Australian Federal Parliament*, representing the constituency of *"Swan"* in the City of Perth, Western Australia. Zaneta, is the daughter of my old Makadara friend and schoolmate: Joseph Mascarenhas, who emigrated to Australia in 1975. I have always had a fascination for that country ever since our school Principal, Mr Ildefonse De Souza, taught us the geography of Australia around 1956/57. One thing that remained impressed on my mind from those lessons was the issue of the "White Australia policy".
2) Since then, I have always been curious to want to know the experiences of our schoolmates who migrated to Australia, especially the early ones who I view as 'frontiersmen'. The first time I researched into the life of a schoolmate that ended up in Australia, was our school luminary: Dr Caetano Quadros. My findings, based largely on the eulogy delivered by his daughter Carmen, were released in 2020. 3) Zaneta's maiden parliamentary speech, delivered on 26 July 2022 recounts the lives of her parents, sister and herself, in establishing themselves in Australia and the challenges they have had to confront. The speech offered a fresh dimension into my research into Australia via the life experiences of yet another of our schoolmates. Knowing the Mascarenhas family from my earliest days, together with her packed speech, added an extra poignancy for me in putting this chapter together. Hence, this extraordinarily long chapter. Thought I would share this work with you. You may skip much of it, but reading Zaneta's speech, I am sure, will impress you as much as it did me. Furthermore, the contrasts in the lives of Caetano and Joseph, in making home in Australia, really fascinated me. I expect, everyone of us that did migrate to the UK, Canada, USA, Australia or wherever, will have an equally unique story to relate. 4) As per the point I made earlier, I have had a very long fascination with Australia going back to my school days. On reflection, my Dad who paid for my schooling at the Mombasa Goan School, that included those 'Geography' lessons on Australia, will be pleased that the fees paid then, are still delivering dividends. 5) Mombasa Goan School/Sacred Heart School celebrated its 90th Anniversary since its opening, in August this year. Take care and God Bless Marci Pereira 04 September 2022 Project: *"Archiving Memories of Mombasa Goan School"* *e-mail: <[email protected] <[email protected]>>*
