It’s not right that you don’t know | “Mercy lived” according to Father Piumatti
From the diaries of Fr. Piumatti, fd of Pinerolo and missionary in North Kivu for 50 years. Telling Africa and giving it back its word is a gesture of mercy toward it
I was on my way to church for Lauds, it was 6:30 a.m., and it was quite chilly because it had rained.
On the road coming up from the maternity hospital, I see three boys with hoes: Norbert’s two sons, 8-year-old Kambale, not very cheerful, 5-year-old Mika all bubbly with joy, and an older one about 13-14 years old, perhaps a brother of Mother’s.
“Hi John!” shouts Mika, glad to see me. I exchange a few words; they are going to hoe the field toward Vuliro on the hill behind the mission 40 minutes down the trail.
Then, Mika asks me, “Can you give me a kipuliza?” (these are the balloons that you inflate with your mouth–and that often burst between your lips!).
A few friends who can see “far,” sent us two or three sachets of them; as desired and precious as … aspirin! I go to the room to get three of them. In the bag I also take a cloth bunny and a very nice microscopic little car, and also three somewhat seasoned candies.
I hand out. The joy in those little eyes belongs to those pearls that cannot be described, but only contemplated, live.
Even Kambale smiles, delighted, although just before he had not hidden his lack of enthusiasm from me. Goretti, the mother, surely had to force his hand that morning to send him to the fields.
Mika disputes a bit because he would like Kambale’s toy car instead of the cloth bunny, but he soon calms down and is overjoyed for the kipuliza. As they leave, he looks at the candy in his hand and then asks his little brother, “What is this?”
Kambale, who is already more experienced, explains it to him, “You eat it, it’s sweet!”
Dear friends, do you understand? We are in the 20th century, six hours away from you, and there is a little boy who wonders what a candy is, is overjoyed about the inflatable balloon and goes hoeing at 6:30 in the morning. He is 5 years old! Tell it; not to the children, but to the parents! To move them? To upset them? No! Simply so that they will know, because it is not right for them not to know!
Source and image
- Father Giovanni Piumatti