The landscape we saw when we entered the land of African took us from Blantyre to Mangochi. It alternated at times with the colour of straw, the baobabs, the mud houses and the land that was suffering from drought due to lack of rain, with the hot asphalt, the bicycles and bici-taxis, the shops and poor houses, the markets on the edge of the road, women and children carrying wood tied on their heads to exchange or sell at the market. So many people, people who observed us, who smiled at us and greeted us by shouting: “alendo” (visitors/foreigners) “Takulandilani” (Welcome).
Finally, once we reached Koche, the uncertainties of how the volunteers should be accompanied, to serve better, gradually disappeared as the days went by. The Lord taught me to leave everything in his hands, every person, every situation. I had to trust, give, be willing to receive and be simple of heart, the rest would be done through the life shared and lived together with the community of Sisters, together with the young people and the people I would meet. And so, it was.
We spent twenty days in the Canossian community of Koche, Mangochi, in Malawi. Land of the “warm heart”, because Malawi is called that… “Warm heart of Africa”. The Sisters take care of the hospital of the community of Koche. Almost all ailments and emergencies are treated and the great challenge is the care of pregnant women, monitoring the nutrition of the newly born and children who are the most affected by malaria. The Sisters not only manage the hospital, but they take care of accompanying the sick in their family home and assisting them in their basic needs. Furthermore, they collaborate in the parish of St. Magdalene of Canossa, with the liturgy and catechesis.
Remembering, passing through the heartfelt experience I lived, gratitude and hope are ignited in me. Gratitude for the testimony of simplicity, of joyful donation, of fraternity of the Sisters and of the community of the people. Gratitude for the Canossian work that allows us to be closer to the poorest and most forgotten, our brothers and sisters. Gratitude for having shared the experience with Giulia, Laura and Nicholas, for having walked together this small span of history of volunteering, sharing our actions and above all our being with authenticity and freedom.
Remembering helps to revive hope, helps me to see with new eyes our way of making Jesus known and loved. The hope that illuminates the understanding of the gift received: our charism remains alive and is actualized where limitless charity promotes the person and courageously indicates his ultimate goal and the reality of being deeply loved. Remembering ignites in me love for my brothers. Remembering makes me recognize the beauty of relationships founded on the Lord, the beauty of free and generous service, the beauty of the poor in spirit and the wisdom of those who, having nothing, know how to give you everything.
My experience in Malawi, the first in Africa, was very beautiful. Full of sounds, smells, colours, songs and dances, meetings, faces, welcoming friendship. A beautiful experience of being at home, because the Canossian community is also my home, because there is a strong bond of belonging that is experienced by meeting as Sisters of the same spiritual family.
Thank you, Canossian community of Malawi, for sharing and giving life to our charism in that little piece of Africa, for realizing the desire of Saint Magdalene to go to every corner of the earth, “she was willing to become dust if it were necessary”, in order to announce the love of the Lord. Thank you for lighting up life, the charity that our holy Foundress shows us. May she continue to bless us from Heaven.
Sr. Elizabeth Jara
