Quiet weeks!?!?!
Should have been a quiet week ... the
opposite instead happened.
Sunday we did celebrate here in the
parish the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and twenty people got the
Scapular, a small square brown fabric, a sign that recalls the consecration to
Mary and the protection of the Virgin. On Monday we begin the training with CRS
(Caritas in USA) for the microfinance project. On Tuesday I called the nuns
working at Hospital in Bossemptele because Joseph, our mechanic-driver-handyman
for over twenty years, is seriously ill. We had brought him there nearly two
weeks ago, but after two surgeries his situation began worsening. There is an intestinal blockage, with adherences
and perhaps also some perforations due to a neglected appendicitis. It’s
raining a lot, so I can only leave at 4.00 pm. After 2 hours and 87 km driving
I arrive in Bossemptele, beginning to get ready for tomorrow travel, over 300
km, in order to reach the Hospital. Our sick friend is really weak. On
Wednesday we wake up at 4.00 am, and after some last details we can finally
leave at 5.35 am. The trip, despite 40 km of awful asphalt, with a lot of
holes, is almost regular. Entering in Bangui unfortunately a truck, passing by,
smashes a glass of our car! Around 9.00 am we are at the hospital where luckily
we can find the staff and room where hospitalize Joseph. As I go for some
errands, it happens to meet the Vatican delegation that has come to prepare for
the visit of the Pope. They are here just for an initial inspection. Pope
Francis should come to Bangui on November 29! I do the fill up of the car. Then
I try to find the replacement part of the broken glass. It’s simply impossible.
At 2.00 pm I leave toward the North. At 5.30 pm I'm in Bossemptele. There I
leave the nursing sister who came with us, and around 7.00 pm I drive back to
Baoro where I arrive a bit tired after being for 700 km on the road. On
Thursday morning I leave for Bouar. The road is not paved, and a convoy of some
hundred trucks is passing by. They travel escorted (just this last week there
were attacks, kidnappings and killings on the road that goes to Cameroon ) and
the highway code is not an optional ! On my way back I find a pair of them
overturned. Meetings and visits, and in the evening I find myself at Yole, near
Bouar. On Friday morning, before leaving, I go to have a look to the fields and
farms of the Seminar. And I greet with pleasure my "grandchildren":
calves, descendants of the first cows that I had bought, beginning the breeding
in 1993, with the help of the Diocese of Cuneo. The remaining of the road is
"normal". There are even some bridges repaired by an NGO, ACTED, and
finally I arrive in Bozoum around 12.30 am. And so the "quiet week"
has resulted in 1,100 km of driving! As for now, what really matters is that
Joseph is being treated and is getting better! We are close to him with our
thoughts and prayers.
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| camion in viaggio un camion en route |
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| lo stesso camion... rovesciato le meme camion... renversé! |
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