G.O.A.. CELEBRATE THE FESTIVE SEASON IN KUWAIT
GOANS CELEBRATE THE FESTIVE SEASON WITH XMAS TREE PARTY One of Kuwaits oldest existing Goan organization, The Goan Overseas Association (Goa Maroons) organized their annual Christmas Tree party lets Be Friends at the Asia Asia Restaurant (Kuwait City) on 4th December 2009 from 11:30am until dusk. This traditional and prestigious annual year-end event is one of the highlights of the Indian Community calendar in Kuwait and a jam packed gathering celebrated the theme, lets be Friends , in the true Goan spirit of spirituality, friendship, fun and games. The host Julio Cardoso got the ball rolling by welcoming the guests and announcing that Christmas is the time for loving, caring and sharing and laying out the days program. Taking the cue, DJ Mario set the mood for the afternoon, by playing a set of Christmas carols which had the extremely energetic guests, making a beeline for the dance floor. In between, Games for children were conducted in the 0-4, 5-8 and 9-12 categories, as well as a game for teenagers. The adults had their own share of games with the four corner quiz and a unique Best Friends Contest which was won by Earl Pereira and Singola DSouza. Just before lunch, in a moment of magic for the 60 odd children present in the hall, Santa Claus made his grand entry showering the tables with sweets and toys from his bag, and after passing his Christmas message by asking the children to be good during the festive season and coming year, he got into the serious business of distributing toys to all the children present. The teens were pleasantly surprised too, to find that Santa had not forgotten them, as he brought gifts for them as well. The highlight of the evening was of course the Tableau visualizing the events leading to the birth of Jesus, beautifully enacted by the members children, Bernie Mello and Keegan Carvalho as Mary and Joseph, Jeremy Figueira, Martin DSouza and Brian Mello as the shepherds, Rochelle DSa as the angel and Ethan Fortes, Aspinall Correia and Steven Fortes as the three wise men. Assumption DSa the team manager and one of the founder members of G.O.A who recently celebrated his 80th birthday and plans to retire from Kuwait shortly was also honored with a special memento for his contribution on and off the soccer field by the G.O.A Managing Committee. In his Thank You note, the Vice President Tony Correia thanked the sponsors and donors including Red Bull, Apollinaris, Peter DSouza, John Vaz, Tony Fernandes, and all the guests for making this the best XMas Tree party ever. He also had a special word of appreciation to the Goa-World team and the local English dailies, Arab Times and Kuwait Times for their usual support to the Association.
