Hope!

 

Hope!

 

I have been in Bangui since Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the plane to Bangassou.

This morning at 6 a.m. I was already at the airport: we were on the passenger list, but the ticket did not arrive. MINUSCA (the Blue Helmets), despite (or perhaps because of) a DAILY cost of 2.7 million euros, did not find the time, in three weeks, to sign the necessary authorisation. We hope to leave on Monday with another organisation!

We arrived on Wednesday around 1 p.m. I left Milan on Tuesday evening with Daniela Dalmasso, a midwife. She is coming to Bangassou for a month and a half to help in the maternity ward of our hospital.

This brings to an end an intense month, during which I met many people, saw many situations and received a lot of attention.

Living elsewhere for a long time also helps me to be amazed, every time I return to Italy, by so many aspects of life that I discover and rediscover.

I discover many paradoxes!

A lot of hope, and a lot of resignation.

So much wealth, and so much poverty.

So much ease of communication, and so much loneliness. But also a great deal of attention to the beautiful things in life, such as a simple greeting, a coffee, a farewell, a prayer.

So much hunger and thirst for God, and so much indifference.

There are many lively communities that pray and live in beautiful fraternity, and others that are frightened by the disappearance of faith and the scarcity of priests and seminarians.

But it is still a world loved by God! And He never fails to be close to each one of us, in very different ways.

He is there. And He loves!