Skip to main content

About

Loué Jésus-Christ!

Welcome to Loving Africa! 

In 2021, I spent five months serving in Gabon, on the west coast of Africa. Mine time there, living at the Mission Ste. Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus, in the "professional capacity" of a nurse (I spent more time in the kitchen than the clinic!), was an experience I would like to share. Here you will find my story, and all the people and things that made up that stories: our dear priests, Canon Fragelli and Canon Sigros, the seminary candidates and oblates, who were my brothers for five months, and the postulants: my sisters! Feast days, Forty Hours Devotion, processions and birthdays make up this story, but there is also the day-to-day experience: Mass, clinic work, meals, French class, choir practice... 

Each day, each hour, was a thread that wove this tapestry, one I hope you enjoy seeing as much as I enjoyed making it--or rather, being the one Our Lord used to make it.

In Christ the King,

Sarah

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tribute to Canon Fragelli

Canon Henrique Fragelli, who rebuilt and revitalized the Mission Ste. Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus since 2012, died this morning in Brazil. His health had been fragile ever since contracting covid in May 2021, requiring a prolonged hospitalization and a double lung transplant. He had recently established a new mission in Rio de Janeiro at the invitation of the archbishop; today, as was noted by the Prior General of the Institute to be the first day of the month of St. Joseph, patron of a happy death, the Lord called him back to Himself.  I can only imagine the mourning at his beloved mission. For my part, I have a few personal memories: -- Canon working with me to arrange my mission trip; offering me his arm when I nearly collapsed upon my arrival and later calling my mom to let her know I had arrived; teasing me: about my ridiculous facial expression when he was taking a picture, about making hamburgers because I'm American; urging courage and patience with learning French; simpl
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bambinette and 40 Hours Devotion

  We were supposed to be having English class... After Benediction on my very first Thursday at the Mission, I met a number of girls I would see quite often over the next five months. They were the "Bambinette". Down the road from the mission, across from the school, is "Maison Maria Bambina" (House of the Child Mary). In French, it is called an "internat"; we typically called it an orphanage, though not all the girls there are strictly orphans. I find that "boarding house" captures the idea more correctly. The girls there live together with Maman Ngnigone, the "house mother", keep a regular schedule (though I could question how regular) and attend the school.  I hadn't been at the mission for a month when Canon Fragelli mentioned to me that the girls needed help with their English, and that Maman Ngnigone had asked if I could tutor them. So, after arranging with Maman for a good time (every Friday at 3 p.m.), off I went down the r
Post a Comment
Read more

Happy Birthday to... Me

This post is all about... me. Actually, that's not true. It's simply more stories, following the course of the narrative, that happened to take place on my birthday. They would be great stories otherwise, but they're even better because it was my birthday.  Hearts are full of continued Easter joy during the octave. The sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes is read at Mass every day, and after the penitential days of Lent and the intensity of Holy Week, we come into a sort of liturgical spring, where the liturgy bursts forth and blossoms. The last day of the octave happened to be my birthday. It started a pretty normal Saturday, with Mass at 8 a.m., followed by breakfast with everyone.  My usual Saturday routine was to work in the kitchen and clean my room. It was also the day that the oblates and candidates would wash and clean the school buses, out on the road in front of the mission. On this particular Saturday, they got one stuck in the mud. I went go watch and laugh at them
Post a Comment
Read more