Schools and churches

 

 

Schools and churches 

Saturday July 24 I returned to Baoro, after days spent in Bangui. 

On Sunday the 25th I celebrated mass in Zoungbe, a very small village on the road to Bangui. Today we had 2 baptisms and a First Communion. For the small community it was a beautiful moment of celebration, where we also had Christians from nearby villages participate.

Driving lessons have begun for the 2nd year students of our Mechanical School: both theory and practice. The two teachers will explain the theory, along with road signs (which they will very rarely see on these roads of ours); and they will practice on the sports court, and then on the paved road (which they will also rarely see!).

 These days we are rearranging the chapel of Pate Bonambolo, a village 15 km on the road to Carnot. It is a beautiful chapel, built in 1967, whose roof (and other things) need to be redone.

In front of the Mission, here in Baoro, there is an elementary school. This morning the Director called me to help him rebuild the roof of one of the buildings, which was blown away by a bad storm in April. Unfortunately the school is occupied by the military (Central African and Russian). Arriving in February, they made it their base, and we don't know until when. 

The children who attended it had to move to the nearest schools, which unfortunately are far away, especially for the little ones. They also forced the teachers to work double shifts, teaching school even in the afternoons. 

All this has caused more than 500 children to drop out of school. For an occupied school!

 

Battesimi a Zoungbe
Baptemes à Zoungbe

Lavori nella cappella di Pate Bonambolo
les travaux dans la chapelle de Pate Bonambolo

Scuola occupata...
L'école occupée

Scuola Guida
Auto école - Baoro

 

 

Mechanical school: last act, etc.

 

 

Mechanical school: last act, etc.

Friday 16 July, the feast of the Madonna del Carmine.

While in Bangui Cardinal Nzapalainga blessed the first stone of the new Carmelite convent, in Baoro we celebrated the end of the school year for the fifty or so young people who attended it. They are students who come from Bouar, Baoro, Ngaundaye, Berberati, Bangui… and who attended courses (theory and a lot of practical work) for 2 years.

Thanks to various friends, including the MAMO Foundation of Verona, we were able to end the year and give the second years their "Mechanic" certificate. The first 5 students also received a bag with tools, which will allow them to start working.

Some of them, in the following days, also started driving school lessons, which will last until mid-August.

Sunday, July 18th I celebrated baptisms in Barka Bongo, and on Wednesday I went down to Bangui to follow the work of the new convent.

Thursday I went to Batalimo, a village on the Oubangui River, in the middle of the forest, 120 km from Bangui. Here I visited a sawmill, to choose the timber for the doors and windows, which we will make in the Baoro carpentry.

Friday morning I met the construction company staff, to present the project and to have them participate in this great work of construction.

Good job.

Ecole mécanique: les enseignants - gli insegnanti

Ecole mécanique de Baoro

Barka Bongo

Bangui, Carmel

Batalimo, il fiume Oubangui
Batalimo, le fleuve Oubangui

 

 

 

 

Almost online again!

 

 

 

Battesimi a Bawi
Baptèmes à Bawi

Almost online again!

The connection is finally back, albeit with some hiccups and often slow, but also quite expensive.

However, our work still continues!

The celebration of Baptisms continued in the villages. After having done the most distant villages first, I am now reaching the closer ones. Sunday the 11th I was in Dobere, where there were 9 baptisms, and about twenty new catechumens who began their journey of preparation for Baptism. I also celebrated, like the connection, with some hiccups, because I had a bout of malaria. But I managed to complete them and above all to experience the gift of new Christians with the small community of the village.

And at the end of a school year, it too with hiccups, we came to the closure of the activities in the 9 village schools. From Monday to today, Thursday, I went from school to school to attend the small end-of-year ceremonies: some speeches, some poetry and some sketches, and the delivery of report cards.

I like to live these moments with teachers, parents and children. I like to see the imagination of the teachers, who compose poems, songs and skits that the children perform. I like to see the joy and pride on children's faces when they receive their report card (and they know they are promoted). And I always like and move to see the pride and joy of parents who come to hug their children, bringing a biscuit, or a simple hug.

It is a difficult time for everyone. This year, due to the fear of war, covid and elections, the number of pupils in our schools decreased dramatically: from 1,800 pupils at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, we went to 750 in June 2021. More than a thousand children did not attend school this year!

This will require a big effort to get them all back to school for this September. And we are all working on it: parents, children, teachers.

Courage!

 

 

Pate Bonambolo

Dobere

Dayanga

Kouisso Baguera

 

Still silence

Still silence

We "celebrated" a month without internet connection, throughout practically all of Central Africa.

The "Orange", the service provider, which has been closed for a month, slowly is starting to open again, but only for phone calls. The Internet connection, on the other hand, is still not working.  The other 2 service providers on the market, Moov and Telecel, are, if possible, even worse. The connection they offer simply doesn't exist: they charge for a service, but then they don't provide it. Even in the capital, where I was last week, it was not possible to download mail or receive messages on whatsapp. In the capital!

Courage! When Google or Facebook are not accessible for ten minutes, it is news that goes around the world. It makes me laugh thinking about a month without any connection ...

Today I am able to write something, but only because I came to Bouar, 70 km from Baoro.

We hope to find a solution before Christmas!

Meanwhile, let's go ahead!

On June 18th we finished the school year for our kindergarten students, "Il Germoglio". The 230 children who attended gave a show, with songs and skits, and then started their holidays.

In the meantime, pastoral activities continued in the villages. This is a time for baptisms, communions and weddings. For the more distant villages, the celebrations took place on the 19th and 20th of June in Samba Bougoulou, on the 26th and 27th of June in Bayanga Didi and Yoro, and on the 4th of July in Bawi.

These are very strong moments for the Christian community of each village. Preceded by a long preparation with the catechists, by the exams with the father and the catechist, and by the final preparations (having braids made for women and girls), the baptismal masses are intense and very engaging.

I took advantage of the visits to the villages, to try to understand also what the school situation (often disastrous) was like; safety, hygiene and all that is the life of men and women in places where there is little, and the needs are so many.

This is how in Bayanga Didi, waiting for the arrival of the catechumens, I repaired the well pump. A foot pump, broken down since January.  The cries of joy of women and children at the arrival of the water filled me with joy.

Joy 2.0.