“Putting your heart” among a Gizo | Life in Oceania

Directly from Oceania, from the Solomon Islands, the stories of Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni, missionary of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians

By Anna Maria Gervasoni

Exploring the Solomons

Hello everyone!!! Let’s see what to tell you about the mission to Gizo. It is a very small town, but there is practically everything: the Chinese people’s stores (dark and dusty holes, but with everything and more: in the same store you can find screws and bread, mattresses and cans of tuna!), as many as two banks, the hospital (built brand new by the Japanese Consulate after the existing one was totally destroyed by the 2007 tsunami), the soccer field, the National radio station, the fruit, vegetable and fish market and the port.

There is also Provincial power line, telephone line and Internet connection–what more do you want?

This is in Gizo town… Because, just a kilometer away, the villages adjacent to the “town” are without power, without services, without stores. Just houses and that’s it.

Let’s not even mention the many islands that surround us!

The other major center of the province is Noro, where there is power, telephone and various services because it is home to Solomon Islands’ only major industry, canned tuna. Life here is even simpler than in Honiara. Circulation between the coastal villages and the islands is by small speedboats that act as buses and cabs, a bit like in Venice.

The life and activities of the Salesian Sisters in Gizo

People make a living from fishing, growing vegetable gardens, some sporadic carpentry and construction work; women sell produce at the market; children go to school (very few, because the schools are few and poorly organized), play in groups and love to go swimming; young people wander around, without much chance of finding work and therefore struggle to make plans for their future.

That’s really the place for us Salesian Sisters, isn’t it?

We sisters live inside the compound of the archbishopric. It’s a big compound that includes the Cathedral, the technical school with laboratories, the kindergarten, the Diocesan offices, our house, the house where two families of employees of the Diocese live and a building of mini-apartments for guests and even a mini hall for the oratory!

Our activities take place mainly in the technical school and kindergarten.
It is an interesting combination to see such young children sharing spaces and recreations with such big boys and girls.

Of course, the young people here have a certain sensitivity to the little ones, being used to taking care of many little brothers and sisters in the family…. so there is no bother, in fact sometimes we see the “big brothers” playing with the little ones on the slide or inside Snow White’s playhouse!

The boys and girls of the School

The technical school children come from unsuccessful school experiences and this is their only chance to learn something useful for their future. They struggle to concentrate or stay in class for even an hour (our school hours are forty minutes and the two half-hour intervals, so they can “breathe.” Plus at the last hour of the afternoon we have different activities to allow them to release the tension accumulated during the study day).

In fact, I’ve noticed that they often ask to leave to go to the bathroom during class…but then they go around the courtyard and come back in!

During the two intervals volleyball, basketball, ping pong, and foosball are assaulted…but I always see someone go looking for hiding places, shelters, and holes to squeeze in for a smoke!

Some even slip out of the gate to go to the market, which is around the corner, to buy betelnut (a kind of nut that has the same effect as a mild drug, taking away hunger and reactivating the senses), to which they have all been addicted since they were young.

Sometimes it happens that they come to me, dragging and reciting the melodrama, “Sister, I have a headache, I have a bellyache, I have a toothache, can I go to the clinic to be seen?”, and then I break out the box of aspirin (thanks to some friends I have an industrial quantity) and give it to them saying that at the hospital they would give the same thing…Well, the number of headache cases has also decreased!

If the workers in the diocese need a hand to carry planks or irons or other construction materials, these guys are ready to help and in no time everything is in place to be used.

The girls are very shy, looking like cartoon sheep: they go around in groups and walk all clinging to each other!

“Little” unforeseen events in the mission

I have to say that the start of our activities here was a bit of a tribulation: the opening of the school year was postponed for a week by the Ministry of Education because of a cyclone that prevented navigation and thus teachers and students from reaching the islands where the various schools are located.

As school started, with bad weather still raging, a diocese boat that was sailing to Gizo with a number of students got lost at sea. Dragged by the current, it reached an island in a completely different direction after two days of drifting through waves as high as mountains.

One morning, however, the police warned me not to let the boys out until further notice because an armed gang from Papua New Guinea (whose borders are very close to ours) had stormed the jails (yes, we even have jails in Gizo!) to free a group of their compatriots and go for revenge for I don’t know what tribal issue.

Stories to heal from

Well begun…
In any case, here in Gizo, we feel at home. People welcomed us right away: they all have so many stories to tell, to share, to heal from; in a special way, this youth stole our hearts, we were passionate about them right away, and we hope we can share this small part of our journey as best we can, helping each other and helping them grow to acquire the dignity they are not yet aware of.

When you put your heart into what you do, nothing more is foreign or distant from your life, and you find that it really is possible to live as a family, despite differences in culture and differences in places.

Source and Image:

• Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni