A connecting thread…
Little by little the Internet connection is returning... and I'm trying to publish text and photos.
I haven't written since August 15th.
We are in the middle of the rainy season. I like the rain a lot and it makes me happy, but the streets unfortunately do not agree with this amount of rain!
Thursday, August 22nd we left around 10.30am for Gambo, a mission 75km away on the national road No. 1 which, in theory, connects Bangassou to the capital. In theory, because the state of the road was disastrous: the last truck that was supposed to bring us the cement and other material, which left Bangui in mid-June, arrived in Bangassou at the end of July, after a month and a half of travel!
60 km from Bangassou there are about 200 meters of road so bad and fearsome that it deserves the name "General", and it is here that we got stuck in the mud for some time.
We managed to get out of it, and arrived in Gambo at 2.30 pm, after 4 hours on the road.
Here there is a parish, where a priest and a deacon live and work, and on Sunday we celebrated Confirmations.
In the afternoon we began to meet the priests and those to be confirmed for the catechesis, which will continue on Friday and Saturday.
We met the pastoral council, and then the leaders of the Mission school: around 300 children will receive a good education. The structures are very precarious: they use 2 parish halls and 2 straw sheds. The dream is to build a proper school, which we will start in the next few months. Also, with hopes to find financing!
On Sunday morning everything was ready and the celebration of mass was solemn and well attended: even children who could not yet walk or dance (in time!), were able to at least clap their hands!
We left around 12.30, hoping that the "General" was not as terrible on the way out. In fact, there was no rain during the night, and we managed to pass without too many problems. We arrived in Bangassou around 4pm .
On Tuesday I got back on the road, to accompany a priest to Ouango, a parish 75 km away. The road was fairly good, and in two hours we arrived at our destination.
Wednesday morning I continued to Bema, the mission on the river where I had been in April. The river was swollen with water, and the level had risen by at least 2 meters. The road in the village was a 20cm layer of mud, and people had to go barefoot to be able to walk!
Little by little the Internet connection is returning... and I'm trying to publish text and photos.
I haven't written since August 15th.
We are in the middle of the rainy season. I like the rain a lot and it makes me happy, but the streets unfortunately do not agree with this amount of rain!
Thursday, August 22nd we left around 10.30am for Gambo, a mission 75km away on the national road No. 1 which, in theory, connects Bangassou to the capital. In theory, because the state of the road was disastrous: the last truck that was supposed to bring us the cement and other material, which left Bangui in mid-June, arrived in Bangassou at the end of July, after a month and a half of travel!
60 km from Bangassou there are about 200 meters of road so bad and fearsome that it deserves the name "General", and it is here that we got stuck in the mud for some time.
We managed to get out of it, and arrived in Gambo at 2.30 pm, after 4 hours on the road.
Here there is a parish, where a priest and a deacon live and work, and on Sunday we celebrated Confirmations.
In the afternoon we began to meet the priests and those to be confirmed for the catechesis, which will continue on Friday and Saturday.
We met the pastoral council, and then the leaders of the Mission school: around 300 children will receive a good education. The structures are very precarious: they use 2 parish halls and 2 straw sheds. The dream is to build a proper school, which we will start in the next few months. Also, with hopes to find financing!
On Sunday morning everything was ready and the celebration of mass was solemn and well attended: even children who could not yet walk or dance (in time!), were able to at least clap their hands!
We left around 12.30, hoping that the "General" was not as terrible on the way out. In fact, there was no rain during the night, and we managed to pass without too many problems. We arrived in Bangassou around 4pm .
On Tuesday I got back on the road, to accompany a priest to Ouango, a parish 75 km away. The road was fairly good, and in two hours we arrived at our destination.
Wednesday morning I continued to Bema, the mission on the river where I had been in April. The river was swollen with water, and the level had risen by at least 2 meters. The road in the village was a 20cm layer of mud, and people had to go barefoot to be able to walk!
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| La chapelle de Gambo |
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| La scuola provvisoria, molto provvisoria Les salles de classe, très très provisoires |
