Total Pageviews

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Going back



Going back
Last Friday I accompanied Marisa and Flavio (my sister and her husband) to Bangui airport, and I let them leave, for this time!
On Saturday I went back to Bozoum, and in the afternoon I was called about a sick young woman: she is a child, Alphonsine, in her journey of preparation to be baptized. Her health situation seems quite serious and, unfortunately as it often happens , the living conditions of the family are disastrous: the father isn’t there, and the mother herself is very ill. While we try to understand how to manage the situation, also keeping in mind the people of the neighborhood, we at least give a gift to the child:  I baptized the girl. There, outside a hut, on a mat, we feel like being in a Cathedral.  The Mercy of God, like a breath, rests on Alphonsine, and makes her a beloved daughter of God.
Sunday morning we celebrate the pastoral "rentrèe": the beginning of the pastoral year, with a great celebration. In the following days we begin getting ready for the celebration of St. Michael , the patron saint of the Parish. Schools are now open, at least ours schools. Instead many state schools struggle to start, in part because of the teachers, and in part because of the students, now accustomed to not having a specific date for the beginning of the school year.
The construction work of two classrooms at our St Augustin school continues, and within a couple of weeks we should reach the roof level.
Meanwhile, among the many initiatives, Tuesday we start four days of training for the cooperatives that work at the now famous "Bozoum gardens". There are 25 Cooperatives , for a total of over 250 people, mostly women. After the training, they will go to work to prepare the gardens. We’ll support them with tools and seeds. They will be ready at the end of January to present the fruit of their farming work at the Bozoum Fair.







Cantiere per le aule del St Augustin



Formazione orticultori
Formation pour les groupements des jardins potagers




Saturday, September 22, 2018

School and schools





School and schools
The end of last week, September 14th and 15th, was a very significant moment for the Carmelite family in Central Africa.  On Friday evening, I presided over the renewal of the Vows of nine young Central African Carmelite friars.  Saturday morning, at 6.30, I welcomed five more young Central Africans who received the Carmelite habit, which marks their entry into the Novitiate. At 9.30 am another five young people (two Central Africans and three Cameroonians) concluded the year of Novitiate and made their vows to God to live in chastity, poverty and obedience.
Sunday morning, in Bozoum, we had another important event take place: we placed the statue of the Child Jesus of Prague in our church. The statue represents Jesus dressed as an Emperor. This reminds us of the importance and strength of God, who became man to save us. The Incarnation of Jesus (and also the clothes with which he is represented) reminds us of the great dignity of every man, and in particular of every child. So I chose this past Sunday, the evening before the opening of our schools, to take the opportunity to invite all parishioners to grasp the importance of our children and of their education.
The month of September, even in Central Africa, is marked by the reopening of schools, but with very different approaches and methods. Due to a heavy rainfall on Monday the school opening at our Mission had to be put on hold until Tuesday.  We have many schools to accommodate all our children from when they are very little to until they are young adults.  We have Kindergarten for the little ones, elementary for our school aged children, intermediate for our pre-teens and finally high school for our young adults.  In total we have approximately 1, 500 students that attend our schools, some of whom travel by foot great distances to be able to learn, it is truly remarkable how they throw themselves in their schooling.
Let’s hope they keep up the good work!





GesĂ¹ Bambino di Praga

I giovani studenti
les jeunes Ă©tudiants

la vestizione dei Novizi
la prise d'habit des Novices

le Professioni










la scuola di Dayanga



Monday, September 17, 2018

Sisters and brothers




Sisters and brothers
A few of you have been worried about my silence in relation to the blog. There has not been any problem in particular, but only the fact that on Thursday, the day I normally write the texts for this blog, I was travelling to Bangui.
In Bangui, among other things, I was able to greet the outgoing-Secretary of the Nunciature, Father David Charters, who worked for four years in Bangui; he was leaving a few days later in order to begin a new service to the Church working alongside the Permanent Observer of the Holy See (Vatican) at the United Nations in New York.
I went to Bangui for a very important event, which I was impatiently awaiting for: on Friday afternoon, my sister Marisa arrived with her husband Flavio. They had been here in 2008, and they are back now, sharing with me the affection of my family and of many people who love Bozoum and Central Africa. Suzanne, the mother of Hyppolite (the young man from Bozoum who is in Italy because of health problems), had travelled with them. She had just spent almost a month in Italy (Savona) with her son, together with all those who welcomed her and her son: Emanuela, Fiorenzo, Daniela and Alessandra.
On Saturday morning we left Bangui for Bozoum. The roads are getting worse by the day. In the asphalted area (asphalted only in theory, because half of the 300 kilometers results in a gymkhana between one hole and another) there are five toll stations. The toll isn’t to be believed that the drivers pay for the maintenance of the road, which to be honest has never been asphalted. Construction work is planned on the section that leads from Bossemptele to Bozoum (87 kilometers). The works began with great pomp, with the presence of the Prime Minister. After ten days the company chosen for the job has levelled only 200 meters of road. The only excavator this company has is already damaged, and there is nothing left to do but wait, continuing to jump from one hole to another.
In these days we are getting ready for the start of the new school year. Marisa and Flavio are kept busy. I have enlisted them to help with the printing of some books for our high school. On Tuesday afternoon a young man came in to talk to me. He is one of the leaders of the antibalaka (the armed militia that has attacked the rebels of the Seleka since 2013 and the Muslims too): he has been in prison for seven months in Bangui, and he has returned to Bozoum. He wants to change his life. He has gone back to his work in the fields, returning home again to his wife and children. May I ask to pray for this man?


good-bye don David


2 camion e 1 ruspa per riparare 90 km di strada...
2 camions et 1 niveleuese pour reparer 90 km de route

strada o fiume?
route ou rivière?






le fondamenta della chiesa di Bozoum
les fondations de l'Ă©glise de Bozoum

Preparazione dei libri di scuola
préparation des manules d'école






Sunday, September 2, 2018

Bye Bye SIRIRI




Bye Bye SIRIRI
With the end of the week approaching, so too did the teachers training session come to an end. The 200 participants from Bozoum and the 50 from Bouar could, during the six very intense days, learn more about the new method "Learning with fun", which the NGO SIRIRI.ORG of Prague has developed and offered.
Starting from five simple basic principles (demonstration, practical and useful teaching, cooperation, reflection and evaluation), the method develops in elementary school children the ability to understand, reflect and learn in a valid way. The education system in the Central African Republic is paralyzed by the high number of students and so few teachers (classes of 100, 200, even 300 children), and at the same time by a teaching method that relies heavily on learning by rote memory. Reading is also often replaced by memorizing. Together with the five principles, the "Learning with fun" method foresees, for the first years of school, not the use of French, but rather of the mother tongue, Sango. This innovation (expected but not implemented by the 1997 Education Act) allows children to read easily, and then move on to French with less difficulty. The training sessions in Bouar and Bozoum ended on Saturday. The schools will begin soon, in just a few weeks time. The 250 teachers are really enthusiastic. For many it will be a new experience. For other teachers it will be the continuity of what they have already done in the past few years. After the first grade, they’ll continue to accompany the kids, helping them to move from Sango to French.
Sunday was a day off for the 14 friends, members of SIRIRI.ORG (Alice, Anežka, Barbora, Charlotte, Fabrice, Guillaume, Jana, Julie, Lenka 1 and Lenka 2, Mirka, Nicolas, Sophie, Thameur) who came from Prague and from France for this training course. In the afternoon I took them to visit the rice plantations, which are at the height of their growth.
On Monday I went with them to Bangui. The following day we visited Saint Paul, the little church on the shore of the river Oubangui, where in 1894 the first missionaries arrived. The river, in full rainy season, is quite impressive. On the opposite side of the river, just a short distance away is the Congo. In the afternoon we went to the airport.
Bye Bye SIRIRI!



fine della formazione
fin de la session de formation Ă  Bozoum



visita alle risaie di Bozoum
Visite au Centre Rizicole de Bohoro

 


Bangui, di fronte al fiume Oubangui


Oubangui


Messa alla Nunziatura
Messe Ă  la Nonciature


avanzamento lavori a Bozoum
l'avancement des travaux Ă  Bozoum