Expected and unexpected events
Sometimes things don't go as planned, especially here in Central Africa, and it is always best practice to expect the unexpected!
Saturday afternoon I left for Balembe, a village 45 km from Baoro, to meet with the Christian community there and celebrate Mass. But, despite having informed them of my visit, there was no one to celebrate with.
Sometimes things don't go as planned, especially here in Central Africa, and it is always best practice to expect the unexpected!
Saturday afternoon I left for Balembe, a village 45 km from Baoro, to meet with the Christian community there and celebrate Mass. But, despite having informed them of my visit, there was no one to celebrate with.
On Sunday I
celebrated Mass in Zoungbe, still on the road to Bangui. The village was
small, and everyone come out to participate.
Tuesday afternoon I returned to Bouar and met with the Bishop, who in recent days went to Bocaranga and Ndim, two cities where the violence of the rebels and military groups continues. People are being threatened, and cannot go to the fields to work, nor hope to go to school, or be treated in the few hospitals or clinics that are in the area. Some NGOs and OCHA are seeing what can be done, and are trying to coordinate initiatives in order to help these isolated communities.
We also discussed with the Bishop the updating of the diocese's website, which an Italian friend created a couple of years ago: https://www.diocesebouar.org/
Over the past few days we have been reopening the village schools. The number of members continues to increase: we have over 1,200 children enrolled. For registration we asked for a small donation of 2 euros for the whole year (this barely covers a couple of months of a teachers salary, the rest is given through many good peoples offerings). This year we tried to propose a new form of payment: whoever wants, can pay with the products of the fields. Many brought corn, peanuts, or cassava, which were produced by them and more readily available to most people.
Yesterday and today, Wednesday and Thursday, 6 and 7 of October, I went to the most distant villages, in Bayanga Didi.
Everything was ready, and we were already 40 km from Baoro when they told me that it was not possible to go from the usual road, and we would have to take another one. Not quite a road, it was a path in the middle of the savannah, with grasses that were one and a half meters high, and very dense trees. It took me almost 2 hours to travel 30 km!
But, thank God, and with a little luck, I arrived at Bayanga Didi around 6pm. We are preparing a kindergarten class. There are many children, and elementary schools, for now, are not running. Not being able (yet) to intervene in schools, we start with kindergarten. There are about eighty children that parents would like to enroll. This morning we had a meeting with the village leaders and the people of the area, to see how to organize the area for the children.
Tuesday afternoon I returned to Bouar and met with the Bishop, who in recent days went to Bocaranga and Ndim, two cities where the violence of the rebels and military groups continues. People are being threatened, and cannot go to the fields to work, nor hope to go to school, or be treated in the few hospitals or clinics that are in the area. Some NGOs and OCHA are seeing what can be done, and are trying to coordinate initiatives in order to help these isolated communities.
We also discussed with the Bishop the updating of the diocese's website, which an Italian friend created a couple of years ago: https://www.diocesebouar.org/
Over the past few days we have been reopening the village schools. The number of members continues to increase: we have over 1,200 children enrolled. For registration we asked for a small donation of 2 euros for the whole year (this barely covers a couple of months of a teachers salary, the rest is given through many good peoples offerings). This year we tried to propose a new form of payment: whoever wants, can pay with the products of the fields. Many brought corn, peanuts, or cassava, which were produced by them and more readily available to most people.
Yesterday and today, Wednesday and Thursday, 6 and 7 of October, I went to the most distant villages, in Bayanga Didi.
Everything was ready, and we were already 40 km from Baoro when they told me that it was not possible to go from the usual road, and we would have to take another one. Not quite a road, it was a path in the middle of the savannah, with grasses that were one and a half meters high, and very dense trees. It took me almost 2 hours to travel 30 km!
But, thank God, and with a little luck, I arrived at Bayanga Didi around 6pm. We are preparing a kindergarten class. There are many children, and elementary schools, for now, are not running. Not being able (yet) to intervene in schools, we start with kindergarten. There are about eighty children that parents would like to enroll. This morning we had a meeting with the village leaders and the people of the area, to see how to organize the area for the children.
I
was also planning a meeting with the Christian community of Yoro, 5 km
away. But I couldn't go because there were some armed men, who were
holding the people hostage ...
I left around 10:30, together with Marie, who is to be the nursery school teacher. I took her to Baoro so that she could do some training and begin to prepare for this new class.
I left around 10:30, together with Marie, who is to be the nursery school teacher. I took her to Baoro so that she could do some training and begin to prepare for this new class.
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| https://www.diocesebouar.org/ |
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| Zoungbe |
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| Pensando alla Scuola Materna - Bayanga Didi A l'étude de l'école maternelle |
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| Strada... per Bayanga Didi Route... pour Bayanga Didi |
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| Scuola di Pate Bonambolo Ecole de Pate Bonambolo |
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