Who leaves and who does not leave
This
morning a brother of mine, Fr. Norberto Pozzi, left Bozoum to return to
Italy, because for four months he has gone from one case of malaria to
another.
This
is Africa! Between the weather, mosquitoes and work, it sometimes
happens that you to realize the limits of your body, and have to take a
break.
Fr.
Norberto is from Lecco and is a hard worker, and also has one of the
longest beards in Central Africa! He arrived in Bozoum in 1980 as a
volunteer, then became a Carmelite, and is still here today. He is the
one who takes care of most of the villages around Bozoum (around may be a
somewhat of a relative term as the most distant villages are about
80/90 km away). He is the one who follows the twenty or so village
schools, allowing more than 3,000 children to go to school.
While he leaves ... the Chinese remain! We thought they had left
last week, but instead they returned, and every morning, at 5, when I
get up, I hear their machines working down the river (4 km away!).
The
report of the Parliamentary Investigation Commission clearly denounced
the destruction of the environment, the pollution of water for hundreds
of kilometers, and recommended the suspension of work. It also came to
light that the sites from which Chinese companies extract gold are not
even in the areas for which they obtained permits: out of 19 sites, only
2 have been authorized.
The
problem has become dubbed "Bozoum-gate", and there are allegations of
corruption at very high levels. Unfortunately, Bozoum is not the only
site in which foreign companies (primarily Chinese and Russians) extract
gold and diamonds, impoverishing the country (and enriching only a
few).
We'll see.
Who leaves and who does not leave ...
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