Christmas in Oceania

Dear friends,

for Christmas, since it is our summer vacation, most of the people of Honiara return to their home islands to celebrate and rest with their loved ones (Honiara in fact is a city of emigrants, both for study and work).

When we asked our students what Christmas is like here in the capital, they said, “Oh, you know sisters, Christmas in Honiara is a time of great theft!”

Since in fact many houses stay empty and factories close, thieves have a party. Kind of like in Milan in the month of August. And so everything is padlocked and night guards are hired.

However, one night a few years ago, thieves came to “visit” our school. They entered the mechanical workshop and stole the two welding machines and some small tools such as screwdrivers and hammers. Apparently there is no escaping…and we sisters were afraid for our house under construction, where quite a lot of material lay waiting to be put in place.

Here, the reality is often stark and difficult, the human being comes to lose his dignity because, uprooted from his family, he finds himself living in material and moral poverty, often without work and without hope.

But Jesus has precisely chosen to come into this world and love us as we are, to tell us that he has confidence in us and that it is possible to build a different world.

This is my wish for all of you this Christmas, for next year and for all the years we will have to share together.

A hug.

Sr Anna Maria Gervasoni (Missionary of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to the Solomon Islands)

Source and image

• Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni
• spazio + spadoni