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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

MISSIONARY OCTOBER

 Here we are in the missionary october!

Every now and then my ears are burning….and I hope these weeks prayers were intensified for the missions and for all this amazing work that they do across the planet!

Last week, between Thursday the 18th and Saturday the 20th I was up north, visiting missions of  Bocaranga, Ndim and Ngaundaye, on horrible roads and even worse bridges, I travelled for 500km


During my trip I was on the road that goes from Bocaranga and Ngaundaye, where we gave seeds (peanuts, corn and beans) for more than 2000 families which were robbed by the rebels and were forced to leave their homes and villages. People are very happy, the crop this year was good because we had a lot of rain. Here they say NGU TI AWALI
(the year of the women)! It’s quite a rare event that presents itself and thanks to the good climatic condition gives fantastic results for the harvest!

This week I was in Bouar (another 500km) for a 3 days of training and breathing space with the parish committee from Caritas and Justice and Peace, as you can well imagine…we have a lot of work!

We focused on  “Africae Munus”, the pope letter in which he offered Africa the sythesis of the Synod of the african bishops. A very interesting and concrete letter, in which the church in Africa (and not only) is pushed towards an effort of reconciliation , justice and peace.
There were about 50 people: the representatives of 10 parishes and it was a good way to meet up and exchange ideas. There’s plenty of good will and to do attitude in order to face all the problems Africa is going through…..


YEAR OF THE FAITH



Yesterday, Sunday 14th of October 2012, we celebrated the opening of the Year of the Faith
A year to think over the great gift of Faith, as the pope suggested to the whole Church
A Faith to be rediscovered, as true deep joy for life, as meeting with God, Christ and brotherhood
A faith to be rejoined as understanding (how ignorant we are on such a reality, so important in our ilife!) and study, also as Life and coherence.
The beauty and gleam of faith!


Yesterday morning the christian community of Bozoum left from four different spots in the village and with a banner of the year of the faith, arrived together to the mission, and just before getting into the church they were given a piece of paper with the creed and few references for this special year

At 8.30 we celebrated the mass, which was particularly happy and deeply grateful for the gift of faith



Chesterton wrote this “the convertee often has the impression of looking across a side longed window on the presbytery wall, which was once for the leprous. He looks through a small window or a small hole that seems to get smaller as he gazes…only after he enters it, he finds out that the church is way bigger inside than outside. He left behind the side longed windows for leprous, and, in a way, even the cramped gothic windows, and now he stays under the wide domes as renaissance and universal as the republic of the world"



Thursday, October 11, 2012

Saint Michele’s Festival 2012

Today we celebrated patron’s day, St. Michele!
This week was very busy.
 Monday we had mass with primary, middle and secondary schools (almost 1000 kids…quite impressive!)
Tuesday we had a breathing space day about the year of the faith that will begin in october
Wednesday until Friday we had 3 day course on sexuality, love and married life
Yesterday we also had planned a procession with Saint Michele Statue, however rain made it impossible….
And today  big mass at 8.30 with dances, songs, colors, prayers and involvement.
Right after that, games (running, soccer, volleyball and basketball tournament , sack race, pinatas, hair brading competition)
And a small concert with bozoum choir performing!
Happy pastoral year!







 

opening of schools


Today 20th september, opening of schools here in bozoum! What an
adventure, it¹s really something!

These days I was very busy in the office as the parents were busy
enrolling their kids.
It moves me to see how many sacrifices they do. Today a man came to enroll
his kids on the first year of middle school.
All of them here, such pride!

So today, we began. Slowly. We visited the classrooms, we gave the kids
their school uniforms and we began with some introduction first!
 
Primary school kids are the cutest ones, looking so proud! And in the
creche it¹s so cool to see the older ones (4-5 years old) looking down at
the younger ones (3-4 years old) because they crys
Happy school year!!!
 
Primary school kids are the cutest ones, looking so proud! And in the
creche it¹s so cool to see the older ones (4-5 years old) looking down at
the younger ones (3-4 years old) because they crys
Happy school year!!!
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Père a ga awe

Père a ga awe


The Father is back!




Yesterday I arrived in Bozoum after almost 2 and half months of absence…. And entering in Bozoum I could hear the people cry Père a ga awe The Father is back!… And I really appreciated it!

On the 19th of july I went back to italy because I was unwell…the very next day I was already in Cuneo Hospital under the eyes of two very capable doctors. They eventually excluded surgery intervention however my exams showed an high anemia, several irregularity on blood levels and engrossed spleen. Basically the result of years of malaria caused me very low energy level and exhaustion….I spent some time in Negar Hospital, then back to Cuneo where I stayed most of the time, resting and taking it easy.

In the quiet moments I took some time to think… about the gift of health, also about how difficult it is to get medical care in Africa. Even relatively simple treatments (blood exams, ultrasound scan) are rather difficult to make, sometimes impossible, and in any case it would be too expensive and noone would be able to afford it.

The difference between western world is astonishing. Many resources are invested in Italy for healthcare system, although we often complain about it without realizing all that we have! And how often we demand everything, although for several countries in the world, these things are mere dreams…. 

I believe that the most important thing is to be thankful for a ll this, to help us live with more sense of awareness, responsibility and sobriety.
And thankful for all that somehow are trying to help, take care, comfort and heal the sick…it;s treu there is a lot of suffering, but it is even more true there is a lot of love.

And now…back to work! We have the festival of the parish, end of the month (saint Michele) and for this occasion we’ll beging again with  pastoral activities, beginning schools, agriculture, buildings…everything! Plenty of things to do!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Opening banks, growing talents

Today, after few months of works we finally opened the new Union Bank in Ngaoundaye, 220 Km north of Bozoum, close to the border with  Cameroun and Ciad. 
Back in  1992,  Dr Ione (legendary character here: she’s from Italy but living in Central African Repubblic since 1970)went to Bangui to exchange Ngaoundaye farmers’ savings.
Often people hide their savings at home and mice, termites or fire are destroying them. Unfortunately the Central Bank refused to exchange them.
Therefore she and some other people came up with a plan in order to keep the savings in a safe location. They enquired at the same organization that opened “Credits Mutuels” (union banks) however they weren’t able to work outside the capital or the big cities….
So the only option left was to open a small Union bank called Credit Mutuel Villageois di Ngaundaye.
Slowly it grew and started to allocate small loans. In january this year it had about  22.500 euro as mutual savings, with more than 160 holder members.
Now a UE found and with the support of a Danish ONG (DRC) we were finally able to build the new Union Bank in Ngaundaye, which is the following step of the former one. All of this develop the Mutual Saving and Credit Bank of Bozoum, located inBozoum and has 4 branches  (Bozoum, Ndim, Koui e Ngaundaye).
Why opening a bank?
I was actually thinking about that this morning….And it made me think of The Parable of the Talents: a man who is preparing to leave on a journey entrusts his possessions to each servants, apportioned to them on the basis of their abilities.
Once he returns, finds who invested and multiplied by 100% and who
dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. Lord reproaches him for not investing the money and being able to give back withinterests…

Money is a tool that can be really evil but also that can do a great deal of good. It can make people live in dignity being able to provide for themselves and their families…
It can be used selfishly, and only bring cold and sadness but it can be donated and give back joy and warmth…