Madagascar 3

Madagascar 3

I am finally back home in Bozoum. I left Madagascar last week. The meeting with the Francophone leaders of the African Carmel ended on Friday morning. In the afternoon I went to visit Sister Ernesta, a Carmelite, who worked in Central Africa for a very long time. She has been sick for many years yet she still greeted me with a smile when I said hello in Sango. We spent some time together, talking about the Mission and the parish of Baoro, where she had worked for a long time as a nurse. The days I spent in Madagascar allowed me to meet the other Carmelite Sisters of Turin, who also worked a lot in Central Africa. It was nice to see each other again, and I like to think of the work they have done as a great treasure.

On Saturday morning we went out with some of the Sisters to the east side of the island, 160 kilometers from Antananarivo. The road went up to 1600 meters, through a mountainous landscape. It was impressive to see that all available space had been cultivated. As soon as there is a bit of flat land, that land is cultivated mostly with rice. It was here in Madagascar that the technique for the cultivation of rice began, just the same as the one we introduced in Bozoum. Around the 1960’s a Jesuit father, Fr. Henri de Laulanie, developed this technique (which foresees transplanting small rice plants after a week - instead of weeks - with only one plant per hole, at very precise distances). This allows for more rice production than the traditional techniques. It is with this technique that in Bozoum some farmers manage to produce 11 tons of rice per hectare (when the average is about 2-3 tons, and in Italy it is 5-6 tons).

Around 11am we arrived at Andasibe, in the middle of the jungle. Despite the short time we were given, we were able to visit a part of the park. The vegetation was impressive as well as the animals. In particular, we saw crocodiles, from a distance ... the famous lemurs: a kind of monkey living exclusively in Madagascar. As we passed a stream we arrived at an area where the lemurs lived and they came to meet us. While I was busy trying to take a picture of them, one of them jumped and climbed on my shoulders!

After the visit we went to the Carmelites of Turin, who welcomed us with open arms. Here we met Sister Miguela, who was also in Central Africa for many years, and we ate lunch together. It was a joy to share memories but we mostly spoke about everything that has been happening in Central Africa, both suffering and rejoicing together. In the afternoon we returned to Antananarivo, and on Sunday after lunch I left towards Bangui arriving there the next day. In Nairobi I met Marta Scarzella, a young volunteer from Genoa, who, last year had been in Bozoum for three months. Now she works in Tanzania (she is an obstetrician) and comes for a few weeks to the paradise of Bozoum.