Between November 2024 and January 2025, Sisters María Teresa Cuervo and María José Meira (Dedé) will travel on behalf of the General Team to the Province of Africa .
Below we share the chronicle of their trip, which will be updated periodically as they are able to send us news.
First stop: Equatorial Guinea
Our trip begins in Equatorial Guinea, visiting the cities of Bata and Añisok.
The beginning was hectic, as on November 3 we had to stay overnight at the Villa Brenda hotel in Malabo, the island capital of the country, due to mechanical problems in the plane that would take us from Malabo to Bata. The airline transferred us to this hotel, which was very nice and comfortable, and had beautiful views of the Equatorial Guinea Gulf Sea.
Gown
The next morning we were able to take the plane to Bata, and through the window we saw the very green fields and the volcano on the island of Malabo. Finally, we arrived at our home in Bata, where we visited the chapel and met the community: our sisters Marie Atumesa Luyinda, Rosette Kazunga Ngemba, Gilberte Kilokila Lumbemba and Adolphine Zunzu Mukala were waiting for us.
On November 5, we visited the Church of St. Francis Xavier Parish, where the sisters develop pastoral activities, especially with young people and catechesis; and we got to know the community house better, visiting spaces such as the quintal. We held another meeting with the community, and ended the day with a night walk by the sea.
Wednesday the 6th was our last day in Bata, and we were at the Kisito Vedruna School, which is very close to the sisters’ house, has 330 students and is subsidized by the state. We noticed the murals dedicated to St. Joaquina that are painted on the walls, and were welcomed by the students singing and dancing, with great joy!
One of the school’s teachers gave us a few words of welcome:
“in the constant search for academic and human excellence, we tend to offer an integral education… special attitudes and moral values that are born from the true inspiration of our mother Saint Joaquina de Vedruna”.
We visited all its spaces: the management room, the secretariat, the classrooms, the garden and the spaces under construction. There we were joined by the Provincial Team of Africa: Sisters Marguerite Mbima, Pascaline Kikula and Marguerite Bwandala.
We closed our visit to Bata with a stroll along the seafront, admiring the sea and the buildings, such as the Bata Tower.
Añisok
The next day we headed to Añisok with the Africa Provincial Team, driving 145 km inland, away from the coast. Out the window, the rainforest landscape caught our attention.
We were welcomed in Añisok by the community and visited all the areas of the house. In the afternoon we celebrated a community meeting, a time to share the life of the community in mission. We also enjoyed the visit of our friend Adum, Imam of the Islamic Community of Añisok, with whom our community and the local Church walk together in mutual help and friendship.
On November 8, we left early to visit the Parish Church of St. Peter the Apostle, where the Sisters carry out pastoral activities: catechesis, youth, liturgy and others. On the way, we passed in front of the bar “Las hermanas incansables”, located near our house, which caught our attention.
Finally, we arrived at the Vedruna School in Añisok. It has 512 students and is subsidized by the state. We toured the entire school: the entrance, the courtyard, the well, the management room… and even the events hall, which is still under construction. Our attention was drawn to the computer room, which all the classrooms have; although they do not have internet access, but the students learn to use the computers and their different programs.
Throughout the school, we found many murals with inspirational phrases. And we look at the commitment made by the group of teachers of the school, in a participatory process:
Comply with and enforce the internal regulations, working as a team, supporting each other and avoiding anything that prevents us from being good teachers.
We went through classrooms of different grades, which have an average of 50 students per classroom, and Mariate had fun teaching music to the children, who participated enthusiastically. We were also fortunate enough to attend a soccer game at the school, and to see how the students celebrated with joy at the end!
We concluded our visit to the school by visiting the courtyard and the Cave of the Virgin, where during the month of May the students spend time praying to Our Lady.
Then we went to the Sanctuary of the Virgin, next to St. Peter the Apostle Church, where it is celebrated one Saturday a month, in dedication to Our Lady. And we were fortunate to be able to listen to the Carmelite Choir of the parish of St. Peter the Apostle. In the parish there are several choirs, and every day a different one takes on the singing of the mass.
At the end of the day we were visited by Sr. Patricia, a missionary from the Mexican Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Christian Doctrine, who have a school in Ayene, near Añisok, and are very friendly with our community. She told how good it is to participate together in the group of Religious Life of the region. They make a good journey together!
On Sunday, November 10, we attended mass at St. Peter’s Parish Church in Añisok, in the Fang language, which is predominant in the city.
During all these days, we have fulfilled the objective we had set ourselves, which was to approach the reality of our Vedruna presence in Equatorial Guinea, with an attitude of listening, openness, dialogue and sharing of life, opening new horizons for the life-in-mission of these two presences in this country.
We are really enjoying the cultural exchange and all that we are learning from our African sisters. Some of the things that have caught our attention have been:
- The large and monumental unfinished buildings that were abandoned. They are part of the scenery of both cities where we have walked.
- Foreigners or migrants are often called “expatriates“. It is difficult, according to what the Sisters have told us, to welcome foreigners. The Sisters are welcomed, because there is a national agreement of cooperation between the government and the Church, and they can occupy service positions.
- When receiving an outside visitor, some church groups usually take up a collection of money to offer visitors to buy something to eat that they like.
- Local gastronomy: we ate porcupine meat, as it is customary to eat wild animal meat. We also tasted the “Envuelto de calabaza” or “anita blanca de calabaza”, a typical dish of the Fang tribe, predominant in the region. And “fufu”, the staple food of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which consists of corn mixed with cassava flour – we even got to see how it was prepared by Gilberte!
- The hairstyles of African women, for their complexity and beauty.
