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Friday, March 29, 2013

The calm after the storm

Here in Bozoum all seems ok, we managed to hold up through the first wave, thankfully with little damage…
In Bangui is a disaster…rebels, false rebels, thugs, took advantage o this situation to plunder everything. Private citizens, companies, corporations, businesses, ONGs, Red Cross, Unicef, Pam, churches, convents, schools, hospitals local radios…then scattered through the rest of the country…
Tuesday evening reached Baoro, then our mission. They took money and our car (thank God a Muslim friend of our managed to get it back)
Rebels got here in Bozoum Tuesday night, shot firearms, destroyed Police and military stations (no one was there to hold the grounds, they were all gone days before) sacked fuel station.
This morning I visited a sick person for the holy communion, I went there by foot (also because we’ve hidden the cars so they can’t steal them) it was a good occasion to check in on the people in the neighborhood…they are a bit scared, but hoping the worse is now over…
You can feel the tension around, however this morning a teacher thanked me for staying here. He said this helped him to hang in there and don’t panic.
And being close in Bozoum speaks volume. Rebels did not venture up to the mission to sack, mainly because people and youngsters set to it when Rebels got here. holding up close, monks, nuns, our friends in Italy, Check Rep, France, Cameron, Mexico…we really feel it. And gives us strength.
Also strong sharing and liasing with other Missions here is very important, and did us a lot of good keeping touch via radio and phone, gives us strength to keep going!
If things will calm down, we’ll have to think about the future and honestly, from signals around here I believe we’ll have few years of instability here…
Hiowever, as Guareschi wrote “NON MUOIO NEANCHE SE MI AMMAZZANO” (I wont die even if they kill me)....in God’s Grace, with brothers and sisters, we keep on going, his people here in Central Africa need help.





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