Total Pageviews

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Happy New Year!







Happy New Year!
Happily back home in Central Africa. I left the city of Turin on December 22nd, and after spending the night at Paris Airport, my flight landed in Bangui the day after, December 23rd evening. The all flight was smooth.
Saturday 24th I left around 5.30am and just before noon I was here in Bozoum, after 400 km of dusty and battered roads, especially the last 90 km. I found the whole Mission restless due to the last Christmas preparations: crib, decorations, singers and altar boys practices. At 7.00pm we begin the “Midnight Mass”. It’s a very solemn celebration, with beautiful songs, dances and a large number of altar boys, at least 60 of them. The schedule is due to tradition and also to security reasons.
On Christmas day at 8.30am we celebrate the solemn Christmas Mass. Large crowd of faithful, and the new church is full! Many children come to Mass carrying little toys, a doll, a balloon, sign that "Baby Jesus" did pass through our houses too.
These days there is a lot of dust, which limits visibility to a hundred meters. We didn’t have white snow, but all over there is a veil of dust covering everything. Since the day I'm back many friends come to greet and chat with me. It's nice to see each other again! These days will come here our young students in formation living in Bangui. Fr. Federico will be with them. A much needed breath of hope!
 In Bozoum I had some good news too: the UN peacekeepers, who had left in November, are finally back assuring their presence. Although little is better than nothing!  We start preparing the Agricultural Fair 2017, scheduled for late January. We hope to accomplish our project. So far, despite the promises, we have not yet received any funding.
And before reaching the conclusion of this year 2016, I would like to say a word of gratitude to the group of translators: Fr. Raffaele, Regina, Ludmila, Terezie and Martin, Fr. Juan Montero and Sister Maria Nazaré. They are the people involved in translating the blog in English, German, Czech, Spanish and Portuguese. Thank you, Merci, Danke, Dekuyeme, Muchas gracias, Obrigado!
Langue
n° post
 vues 2016
Italien
219
           94.751
Français
191
           50.274
Anglais
163
           33.529
Tchèque
181
           21.254
Allemand
144
           14.802
Espagnol
147
           13.050
Portugués
10
                 473
Total

         228.133

And best wishes to all for the incoming New Year given to us. I wish great hope and, above all, the certainty of being always in good hands: those of God.












entrando per la Messa di Mezzanotte
l'entrée pour la Messe de Minuit



non è nebbia... è polvere
ce n'est pas de brouillard... c'est la poussière