It was supposed to be just another ordinary day on the mission. But then something happened that no one had expected. And then came another story – one that is hard to ignore. The rainy season has also come to an end, and with it, work has begun on the construction of more deep wells. In a letter to our Dehonian Missionary Family, Father Jakub Szałek from Chad writes about what has happened over the past few weeks.
Praise be to Jesus Christ!
Dear Piotr!
From faraway Chad, I send warm greetings to you and the entire team at the Secretariat. Piotr, please send me the names of the Donors for the next five wells. We've started digging them!
In Poland, the summer holidays are over; in Chad, the rainy season is coming to an end; and I am beginning another year of my missionary work in the heart of Africa. This is already my 22nd year. As always, I have plenty of work to do, field trips to make, and meetings with people to attend. Life on the missions is interesting every day and full of surprises…
The people I meet and spend time with always bring something new and interesting into my life. Their life stories are incredibly rich. Some are joyful, while others are sad, because everyday life in Chad is far from easy. Life here is a real challenge!
A few days ago, I met with the catechists from my villages. They told me what had been happening in their communities. I enjoy listening to their stories. One of them told me about an incident that had taken place two weeks earlier. A hippopotamus had appeared out of nowhere in his village, located a dozen or so kilometers from the river. It wandered into the village at around five o’clock in the morning and began wreaking havoc, attacking both people and animals. “Hippo” was extremely aggressive. When the villagers tried to drive it away, it became even more enraged. It attacked cows and calves, seriously injuring several people. As of now, three men with serious injuries are still in the hospital.
The villagers had no choice. To protect themselves, a dozen or so hunters, armed with spears and axes, had to kill the uninvited guest. And, as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining… Despite the injuries, the village soon filled with a festive atmosphere! There was plenty of meat, and everyone could eat their fill. Unfortunately, in Chad’s poor rural villages, people don’t get to eat their fill every day. That's life…
In the same village, unfortunately, another story unfolded, one even sadder than the first. Our altar server, Sylvestre, is 17 years old and attends secondary school at my mission. During the school year, he lives with his aunt in the city of Laï, while he spends the summer holidays with his parents in the village of Mibigue, helping them with farm work. This year's summer holidays turned out to be tragic for him. Only now, a few weeks later, have I learned what happened.
While spending the summer holidays at his family home (in Chad, the summer holidays last four months, from June to September), Sylvestre was told by his father that he had found him a wife! A few days later, a 15-year-old girl arrived at the house. Sylvestre was in shock. After a long, exhausting day working in the fields, he returned to their small home to find his bride waiting for him, ready to spend their wedding night together.
Unfortunately, in Chad, it is still common in some communities for a father to arrange his son's marriage by choosing a girl and paying a dowry for her. The girl is then expected to become his son's wife, often without having any say in the matter. She may soon become pregnant, give birth to children, and work hard in the fields. And that is how a new family is formed.
My altar server, Sylvestre, refused to accept his father's decision. He knew that if he spent that night in his little hut, all his plans for the future would be shattered. He would have to drop out of school and remain in the village for the rest of his life, working in the fields to support his wife and the children they would soon have. So he sat outside his mud hut until midnight. When everyone was asleep, he quietly gathered his belongings and fled to the nearest town, walking 25 kilometers. There, he went to see the sisters at my mission and asked them for money for a bus ticket to N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, some 400 kilometers away. He recently sent me a text message. He is now living with his uncle, who took him in and made sure he could return to school and continue his education. That's his story…
On top of that, this year is not looking promising when it comes to food supplies. The rainy season brought little rain. The rice fields are dry, and the rice plants are withering. It is going to be a difficult year. Famine may be looming… Here, most people make their living from farming, relying on whatever they can grow on their small plots of land. When the rice harvest is good, people have enough to eat. They can also afford to send their children to school and pay for treatment when they contract malaria or other tropical diseases.
Life in Chad is not easy…
That is why I ask all of you to keep my mission, me personally, and the people of Chad in your prayers. I, in turn, assure you that I will keep you in my prayers as well.
With a priest’s blessing from the heart of Africa +
Father Jakub
