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.
Here we share the fourth chronicle of their trip, between December 2 and 16, 2024, where they have continued to fulfill the objective of this visit: to approach the reality of Kikwit, Kingungi and Kolokoso, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, knowing and sharing life in an attitude of reverence and listening, exchanging views and visions in the key of synodality and shared leadership. They have also made contact with the process of recreation of the Vedruna Charism in that reality.
Stage 4: Democratic Republic of Congo
Kikwit
On December 2 we took a plane from Lomé to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo: from the air we were able to see the Congo River, which is of great magnitude. We spent a few days there with the Sisters of the Provincial Team until December 5, when we moved eastward to Kikwit. After many hours of road travel, in which we crossed several rivers and observed the landscape, the typical houses of the region and many people walking, we arrived in Kikwit.
The Kikwit community is composed of Sisters Dovick KebaKeba Wombika, Antoinette Maba Ntonde, Micheline Mabansa Lezi, Nahomie Mayele Wosing and Anastasie Miti Luyind, with whom we share beautiful moments. Our community is a house of welcome for the sisters who are passing through, especially those from Kolokoso and Kingungi, who come here to do shopping or other needs that cannot be met in their own realities.
Sisters come to Kikwit to do their university studies, since there are good study possibilities in the city. They also welcome young people for the stage of mutual knowledge (aspirancy). Our sisters are a close presence that accompanies the people of the neighborhood, especially the most impoverished; they also collaborate in the pastoral work of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, where our house is located. On Sunday the 8th we participated in the Eucharist, which was celebrated in the local language, and where we noticed the care taken in the liturgical vestments and offerings: the people have the custom of offering food for the priest and also bring their newborn girls or boys to be presented to the community.
During our stay in Kikwit, we also spent time with neighboring congregations and friends: theDivine Word Priests, the Passionist Sisters of St. Paul of the Cross, where our sisters go to Mass every day, along with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cuneo, and the house of the Sisters of the Adolorata. Behind their property is our land, where our sisters grow corn, cassava and other vegetables. There is a lot of friendship among all of them!
Another important visit was to the house of the Claretian Fathers, where we go once a week to the mass they celebrate in the chapel, which we were able to attend. We also met with the Bishop of the Diocese of Kikwit, Timothée Bodika Mansiya. He spoke of the Church’s efforts to accompany its people and respond to extreme needs, seeking resources for its social projects, and reminded us of Pope Francis who calls for evangelization in the Church to reach the peripheries. For example, in Kikwit the Church is developing cooperative projects to generate work mainly for young people. In the diocese, there are currently 34 congregations of Religious Life: the Bishop recognized and appreciated that our sisters are in the difficult and challenging mission of Kingungi, where it is very difficult for priests to stay, but not for our sisters, they are still there with the people and also in Kikwit our community is on the outskirts of the city. This made us very happy!
In Kiwit, what caught our attention was:
- It is a city with more than 2 million inhabitants (according to what the bishop told us, by calculation of a Jesuit demographer) and it still does not have electricity. The population, institutions or companies have to look for alternative ways to obtain energy. The most popular means are solar panels, whose size varies according to the financial possibilities of each family. Larger places have their own transformers or generators. Paradoxically, the region is crossed by electric energy towers that are sold to Angola; but the people themselves do not have access to this benefit.
- Motorcycles have almost absolute dominance in street traffic: they are the most popular means of transport. And they carry both people and the most varied loads.
- For cooking, people use charcoal. In our house, it is made with an earth oven, which is a method widely used by people to produce and sell charcoal. We are aware of the ecological damage caused by charcoal, but there is no other way out.
- The livelihood of some families consists of making hats or other utensils from a type of bamboo that can be handcrafted. They also use it to make beds and other furniture.
- The sisters grow cassava, corn, peanuts and other vegetables on a large plot of land as a way to save on food. They also raise pigs, ducks and chickens, as in other communities.
Kingungi
On Monday, December 9, we left Kikwit very early in the morning to travel to Kingungi, and it was a real adventure. The access to this community is very precarious, due to the fact that the road is dirt, so it is completely unpredictable, even disappearing at some points. The 145 km drive between Kikwit and Kingungi took us 6 hours, through green fields, plantations and bamboo forests. A group of students from our mixed primary and secondary schools were waiting for us upon our arrival, to give us a warm welcome after a long hours drive.
In Kingungi, our community is engaged in very important work. First of all, the two mixed schools, primary and secondary, where three sisters are directly involved: Philomena Masangila is the director of the primary school, Agnes Lele is the director of the secondary school and Marie Panga is an educator. In the hospital, in the maternity and laboratory areas, four of our sisters work: Ambroisine Mansi in the administrative sector, and Judith Mbangi, Justine Nsintama and Prudence Ebengo as nurses. In addition, there is also a boarding school for 34 girls and adolescents, without which these women would not have access to school. Our community is also dedicated to pastoral accompaniment in the parish and to the care and accompaniment of many people who come to talk to the sisters in the house.
During our visit, we were first at the Vedruna elementary school, where 342 boys and girls study, who came to greet us with joy; and we spent time with Sr. Philomène, the school principal. Then we went to the secondary school, which has 404 students, who also gave us a warm welcome with a nice speech together with Br. Agnes, their director, and their teachers.
On Wednesday 11, we went to see the Kingungi public health hospital, managed by our sisters. There, we were kindly welcomed by the team of workers, and we were able to visit all the facilities together with the sisters nurses: Justine, Prudence and Judith.
The next day, we enjoyed the Eucharist celebrated in the local language, Kikongo, and the time of greetings after the Mass, with much fraternity. Then we visited the boarding school for girls, whose families live far away, and thanks to this accommodation they have the possibility to study. During our time in Kingungi, we also shared with the community of the Josephite Brothers of Kingungi, a Congolese diocesan congregation founded by a Jesuit, which also has a primary and secondary school for boys only; with a group of women of the Legion of Mary; with the pastor of the parish of Kingungi; with many people of the village who come to the sisters’ house; and even with the regional minister of education, who came to ask for votes in his campaign for deputy.
Some aspects we looked at these days were:
- Kingungi is totally isolated in terms of communication, because not even the telephone works. You have to go 30 km from the village to get a telephone signal. Internet is a distant dream. This has serious consequences for the educational and healing mission that our community carries out in this reality.
- School and hospital workers are hired by the government. Those who have a contract receive a derisory salary. Others work without pay waiting for the day of appointment to arrive. You have to be an artist to make any small profit for them!
- The people of the village have a very close relationship with our sisters. When a well-known sister comes, they bring them gifts, they share from their poverty!
- Hunger in the region is visible in the malnutrition of children and adults. A project is being organized specifically for this painful situation.
- Corrupt politics is common, with blatant promises by politicians that are never kept. Little by little a critical conscience is being generated that helps people to see what is really happening, so that they can claim their rights and enhance their dignity as citizens.
- Politicians do not miss opportunities to take advantage for themselves and only keep promises for the people. The people, in the midst of their great needs, believe them, give their vote and then they are forgotten…
- The Eucharists are enlivened by songs with beautiful voices and dancing; therefore, they are quite long, lasting about three hours.
Kolokoso
On Friday, December 13, we got up very early to leave Kingungi and head for Kolokoso. Both that journey and the return to Kinshasa were a real odyssey, where a few kilometers that, in normal conditions would be done in 2 hours, took us more than 10 hours, due to the extremely precarious conditions of the road. When it is rainy season, huge holes are generated that make the passage of cars, trucks, buses, which may have to wait for days until it is possible to pass. For this reason, the main means of transportation are motorcycles, which, in general, carry people and also enormous loads that they drive with a lot of creativity and juggling.
As in the other trips, we met a lot of people along the way, walking on foot for long stretches, because they could not afford to pay for a motorcycle or other transport. Also on the trip, we experienced the real and close solidarity of the people, who offered us their houses to stay in, protecting us from the rain, while we waited for the car to get out of the muddy traffic jam. The sisters told us that this is very natural of the people: they are in solidarity without limits, because today it is one who needs help, and tomorrow another!
In Kolokoso, our community is composed of three sisters, Jeanette Kabeya Nzusi, Rose Mputu Ntumba and Esperance Tseki Kodila; four young aspirants, named Marta, Dorothee, Esperance and Annie; and three young girls from the boarding school . One sister works in the public school of Kolokoso, which is run by the Church, and she also gives pedagogical guidance to Sister Rose and another educator who accompany the 50 children in our pre-school. All the sisters are involved in the pastoral work of the parish, especially in catechesis; and, above all, they accompany 4 aspirants in the formation that we call “mutual knowledge”.
Saturday, December 14, was dedicated to spending time with our sisters and sharing in community. We also spent time with the father, his wife and other relatives of our Br. Thecle, who lives in Peru.
On Sunday, December 15, we attended the Eucharist in the church of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, where we noticed the beautiful paintings on the walls, and once again enjoyed the community sharing after Mass. Then we visited two graves next to the chapel of our house: that of Sr. Angeles Gracia Jimeno, who died in 1986, aged 63, and that of Sr. Florence Bindanda, who died in 1990, aged 37, the first Congolese sister to die.
The aspects that were striking to us in Kolokoso were:
- Hunger is a very present reality in the population, which struggles and resists with bravery so many adversities they encounter.
- The expression “Matondo mingi”, in Kikongo, the predominant language of Kolokoso, means thank you very much!
- The sisters raise more than 30 pedigree pigs to help support the community, as well as many chickens and goats.
- We are restless… because of the 90 kilometers that our junior sisters travel every month to participate in the meeting of the junior sisters of the area – about 5 congregations. There are times when they have to sleep in the woods because the motorcycle that they have hired to transport them, with difficulty, breaks down.
