Growing up together
Today is 4 February 2014. It is a normal day at Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust (AYCT). People are busy in their respective sections. Working! A few people, if there is any knows how special this day is to all the workers of AYCT, people around Balaka and Malawi as a whole. It is today, thirty seven (37) years ago that Fr. Mario Pacifici left Italy for Malawi, a country he has lived since then.
Fr. Mario in those days
This day is not celebrated (may be in future) officially not because there is nothing to write about but may be like fish in water, we can’t appreciate what this day, 37 years ago meant for the community of Balaka. In his email letter to confreres and friends, Fr. Mario shows that even himself forgets about this day despite all the sacrifices he has made for both his family in Italy and AYCT which he himself calls “family”. In his letter he writes:
“Today. 4th February 2014, I suddenly remembered that the 4th February 1977 I was leaving Italy for Africa for the first time!”
Such is the simplicity of him. The man who through the help of others built the biggest and most beautiful church in Malawi, St. Louis Montfort Parish in Balaka. One of the biggest four in Africa! Through him, many have gone to school and are living a dignified life.
Through Alleluya band, which he helped to form and he continues to support till now, he formed Andiamo Youth Cooperative Trust which through its four pillars, has changed the lives of many and continues to inspire many.
When Fr. Mario was leaving Fiumicino Airport in Rome there was a song playing. In the song the singer was saying:
“Abraham don’t leave, don’t leave your land, what do you wish to find?”
Let the singer, if he is still alive, come to Balaka and see what this Montfortian priest has done to the land he was going. Yes he did not find what we have in Malawi now. In the same email, Fr. Mario says he found “the land of Africa with its joys and sorrows and Malawi, the warm heart of Africa”.
37 years is a long time! As he writes:
“In the long walk through the years, I have met alive and vibrant communities of faith, full of life and will. Lights and shadows marked the steps, sometimes quick steps, other times slow steps, with the will to announce the joy of Gospel.
It has been a long journey
A lot has surely happened in all these years. Mistakes have been made, as he writes in his email. What he has achieved was not he alone. He thanks the Balaka Community and many Italian communities, a number of volunteers “who donated their energies, time and also the life for the mission.” Interestingly, he says to all of us:
“All together we raise the voice and persevere and shout with our actions and words that life is the greatest and most beautiful gift that everybody, with the Jesus Heart, have the right to live a dignified life”
Fr. Mario on the first graduation of Andiamo Secondary School
As we celebrate these fruitful 37 years of gifts by the providence and shared with many little and adults, near and far away people, we must realize that the 37 years of building could be destroyed with only one storm. We must be jealousy of what we have and care for what many long for but they can’t get. It is clear that Balaka still needs friends from both Malawi and Italy. Those we lost on the way for some reasons should come back and remain in the mission. We invite those willing to join this noble mission that was born in 1977 on 4 February to do so because this mission is not like any other. This mission is for “dignified life”.
By Patrick Bwanali