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| Yoro |
How wonderful!
In the various villages with Christian
communities, they also have a small church. It usually begins with a
shed with a few wooden poles and a thatched roof, it then grows to be a
more solid church, with concrete and sheet metal.
The
celebrations are very lively and participatory, but the chapels are
often very simple and bare. This is why we try to adorn them with
drawings and paintings: that somehow illustrate to whom the chapel is
dedicated, as well as brightening the environment and helping those who
pray.
These past few days I visited the most distant villages. I
left on Friday afternoon with 3 artisans/artists. They are the ones who
will be decorating the chapels of Yoro, Bayanga Didi and Samba
Bougoulou.
Once in Yoro, after a couple of hours by car, the
artisans immediately got to work, until late at night, and worked all
day Saturday. The chapel of Yoro is dedicated to the Holy Family. There
are two paintings: one is Joseph embracing Jesus, with the Virgin Mary
behind, and the other is the Flight into Egypt.
On Sunday, we
celebrated the Eucharist and the baptism of 12 babies, where I explained
the paintings. Now it will be more beautiful and easier to pray in this
church.
On Saturday morning I went to celebrate Mass in the
small village of Sinaforo, and in the afternoon I went to Bayanga Didi
to prepare the artists' work.
There are, in these villages, many
children. Unfortunately the schools aren't in session nor are the
students learning to the best of their abilities: in Bayanga Didi they
haven't started yet, while in Yoro I asked about thirty children to read
what I had written on the altar, and there was no one able to do it!
In
Bayanga Didi, however, I found a nice surprise: while I was saying
goodbye, first one, then other children began to recite a poem (learned
at the newly opened Kindergarten) by heart. Theme of the poem:
"Aurelio's machine"!
On Tuesday morning I left for Bangui to visit the construction site of the new convent. The works are moving along slowly.
The
road to Bangui (the main artery on which 95% of the goods pass) is very
damaged, particularly between here and Yaloke. On my return I found
some work in progress, financed by the World Bank. The hope is there,
but we are sorry to see that the work being done is not the best: after
having plugged some holes with earth, they cover them with gravel and
sprinkle a veil of tar ...
They are well-funded jobs, and the
lack of controls makes them almost useless: within a few months the
passage of trucks and the rainy season will ruin much of the work.
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| Sinaforo |
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| Pittore all'opera L'artiste au travail |
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| Battesimi a Yoro Les baptèmes à Yoro |
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| Yoro, la Santa Famiglia Yoro: la Sainte Famille |
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| Lavori al nuovo convento di Bangui Travaux du nouveau couvent de Bangui |
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| Lavori in corso Travaux routiers |
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