After 33 years passed in Chad, this is the first time I am writing from Cameroon, where we have been since September 2008.
Working in the Parish Office for five months gave me the opportunity of learning a lot of Cameroonian customs before we went to Njindom, the village where the Archbishop wished us to go, as there had never been religious before us.
I am in pastoral work where I meet many people who come to speak to me of their problems and difficulties, especially financial ones. I try to help them especially when I see how much they trust me, although so new. What worries me is the poverty of certain families who can't send their children to school even if it is compulsory. I try to persuade them that the future of their country depends on their children's education. So they should make all sorts of sacrifices to succeed and send their children to school, a task which is not very easy, especially when the father has no job.
I also meet youths who come from other villages to attend the only technical school that exists in our village. Having their families away, they rent single rooms where they live alone. Imagine the mixture of boys and girls. A real plague.
Many have no money to pay the rent of their room so they prefer to fast and pay their rent rather than to be sent away from school. My wish is to have some work to give them in order to earn some money as I have always done, but first we must furnish the little house the Archbishop gave us.
What about the schools? They are old buildings with leaking roofs where there are no doors or windows and where teachers are paid irregularly and very little, since salaries depend on the pupils' fees and when they are paid.
One of our Sisters works in a health centre where medical instruments need to be renewed and increased as many are rusted and others do not exist.
How much more work could be done if generous people will have pity on us?
The biggest problem we have in this village is that we have no water and not a well exists in the place. People walk for miles and miles to have some water. Before I close I want to say a big thanks to the Mission Fund and the Moviment Missjunarju for the help they give to Maltese missionaries.
May God bless their generosity and the sacrifices they make.