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Santa Cruz, 4th November 2007
Two months have passed since I last bashed out over the keyboard to commemorate the events which had passed and to share my memories with you. Time passes quickly, sometimes too quickly to keep up with news, correspondence and contacts with family and friends. However, this does not mean that I have forgotten about it. You simply cannot forget such celebrations like name days or birthdays but when the days finally come – it is too late to write, sometimes I only manage to ring up. Many times, when I want to ring, it turns out that in Europe there is middle of the night. But I try to remember and connect with you through my prayers.
During these days everybody visited cemeteries. All Souls' Day is here a special day during which everybody visits their relatives' graves. Cemeteries are full of people and flower traders have their "best" days during the whole year. In Santa Cruz graves are usually situated in walls. There is only a small plate and place for a small bunch of flowers and candles. Families spend time together. They often bring food and drink and spend this day close to their deceased. But it happens only on this day. During the rest of the year the cemetery is deserted; you can rarely see somebody visiting graves. The cemeteries which are outside towns quickly overgrow, sometimes they become unnoticeable. Only during funerals people return there.
Our Franciscan fellow-brothers are buried at the central cemetery in Santa Cruz. Few months ago we accompanied there our Fr. Rudolph. We miss him here in our convent. He is resting in peace, waiting for resurrection.
While visiting the cemetery my thoughts were at the graves of my parents, relatives, friends and fellow-brothers. So many people have passed away. Everybody knows this feeling. That is why I would like to thank those who look after the graves of my family and friends.
The last two months were for us the time of many important meetings - visits connected with the partnership between the Trier and Hildesheim dioceses and the Bolivian Church. Together with Bishop Anthony I took part in several official and unofficial meetings. The visit of the new bishop from Hildesheim here in Bolivia was very important. He also visited our missionary vicariate.
The September unofficial meetings between the Bolivian provincial, the econom of the province, the representatives of local provinces and the bishop from our vicariate were also significant. I also took part in these meetings which concerned important and more and more difficult economical issues. There is less and less financial aid and we are not able to support ourselves and function without this help. I hope that we will benefit from these meetings.
The end of September and almost the whole October were the time of many visits, here in the vicariate but also in Bolivia. Apart from the earlier mentioned visit of the bishop from Hildesheim and his delegation, we had many other people from Europe staying. The Klimek family and a group of teenagers from Datteln stayed at Br. Felix. The contact between teenagers from El Fortin and teenagers from Datteln becomes better and better.
The relatives, fellow-brothers (Fr. Dymitrius and Fr. Zbigniew) as well as the benefactors from Katowice-Panewniki were Fr. Bernard Falkus's guests. They came to celebrate the consecration of the new St. Francis church in Ascencion. It took place on 3rd October. Fr. Bernard has been very involved in building this church. He has been looking for resources and benefactors. Ascencion has grown recently and that is why there is need for a new church. Today in a place where several years ago a fire consumed hundreds of houses, thanks to commitment of parishioners, Caritas and many other institutions, a new district and then a new church came into existence.
Fr. Prof Bonaventura Smolka MD, PhD, the fellow-brother from our St. Jadwiga Province in Wrocław, has stayed with us for almost the whole October. During his stay he visited the apostolic vicariate, our fellow-brothers here as well as in Cochabamba. He met the rector of our seminary in Santa Cruz and talked to some of our bishops. He also had long conversations at the Catholic University in Cochabamba. As he said later, he was very happy that he could be here with us. Bishop Anthony and I went to Sucre, to a place where one of our missionaries, Fr. Gregory Rudoll died and where he is now buried. He died of bees bites. When you are so far away from home, you experience the visit on the grave of a close friend in a special way. Fr. Bonaventura spent the last few days of his visit in Santa Cruz. He also conducted a concentration day for the Elizabeth Sisters, who has been working here in Santa Cruz for a year. Together with Br. Felix we said goodbye to him on Tuesday, 30th October. I'm sure he got safely back to Wrocław.
And finally the last visit. It was a group of my relatives (my brother and my sister), acquaintances, friends and two priests from the Society of Christ, together 8 people. They came to Bolivia for almost three weeks. During this time I tried to show them how diverse this country is. We spent the whole week on travelling through our vicariate. We started from Ascencion de Guarayos, where they could take part in confirmation of more than 200 girls and boys, experience the lack of water and... other "adventures". The tour around the beautiful Jesuitical places in San Javier and Concepcion where we were received very hospitably by Bishop Anthony, Br. Mark, priest Mariusz will surely remain in their memory. Even the a little bit "exotic" journey to the San Antonio de Lomerio parish was compensated by the huge hospitality of the Brazilian Sisters working there. A longer stay at "campo", i.e. in El Fortin at our fellow-brothers Felix and Stanisław, was a very good idea. Short visits and warm welcomes that we received in San Ramon at priest Kazimierz, in San Julian at priest Paul, and in Puerto Rico at the Sisters of the Sacred Heart cannot be forgotten. After all, San Ramon was the place where my guests tried the local delicacies. In San Julian however there was so much polish hospitality that they will remember it for a long time.
A short break in Santa Cruz after all the hardships in our vicariate made all of us feel good, the more so because some of us started to feel the temperatures and the jetlag. Some of us had also problems with stomachs. But the one-day-long trip to Samaipata – the place of the worship of the Inca Dynasty was for all of us a great experience. For my guests it was the "foretaste" of the mountains. Although some escarpments and small precipices caused concerns, the real mountains were to start the next day. During the trip to Cochabamba. When we were climbing a steep stretch of road to the figure of Christ predominating over the city... to some of us the blood pressure raised and the panting started as well. No wonder... it is almost 2800 metres above sea level. We spent 2 days on visiting the city, especially "Cancii" – a market square where you can buy everything and... lose everything if you don't take care of your possessions. Luckily in the end everybody happy and pleased after three hours of trading and bargaining over price, with many bags got on the local bus... The faces of the tradesmen were also pleased... which does not surprise me at all. 9 white people doing shopping... it was the business of the day, or even of the week. When we were in Cochabamba we had to visit our old convent in Tarat. The return to “"pace”" made the trip even more interesting for me. As usual, we were very hospitably received there by Fr. Eric and Br. Lorenzo – our Slovak man.
The next day at dawn we parted with the hospitable abode of Hospicio and Fr. Cesar and we went to the airport to go higher... to La Paz. Good that we hadn't listened to news because we would probably have been a little bit frightened. Only later we found out that a day earlier Venezuelan armed forces had tried to militarize the international airport in Santa Cruz. But when about 20 thousand civilians moved towards the airport... the armed forces left it. Luckily we were unaware of this and we calmly checked-in at the airport and safely landed in La Paz.
La Paz... phew! Everything was good and fine, but the height...!!! The airport is situated about 4000 metres above sea level and the city is a little bit lower. Here you can feel the lack of air, headache, the lack of appetite. However, the first day was not so bad. We could tour around the city and even eat something for dinner. The journey to Copacabana on the Titicaca Lake, with the beautiful panorama on the Andes, always makes a great impression on tourist. Only some of us were suffering because they couldn't look at the escarpments and precipices we were going past.
In the afternoon we crossed the river to the Island of the Sun. The three-hour-long walk made all of us tired and breathless. In the evening we were looking forward to going to bed. Hmm, even the strongest were really exhausted!!! Luckily in the morning all of us were in good form so that we could get to the sanctuary of the Holy Mother. After the Mass all the pilgrims got covered with the mantle of Our Lady and after a special prayer they were thoroughly sparkled with the holy water. Priest Teodor sparkled so intensely that even the Bolivians liked it. After a three-hour-long journey back to La Paz (by bus) all of us were dead tired.
Our last day in La Paz, since it was Sunday, started with a Holy Mass in the St. Francis church in the centre of the city. Than we got on a bus again and went to Altiplano and to Tiwanak – archaeological places where many remains of Indian cultures were discovered. After 3 hours of "wandering" across the ruins we went for dinner. The majority of us tried a steak made of a... llama. You wouldn't find it in the lowland part of Bolivia. Llamas live in the mountains and their fleece is used for warm sweaters. My guests bought such sweaters as well. During the late dinner there was... a small surprise. A hailstorm! In only half an hour everything became white... like in a real winter, but no wonder – we were at 4000 metres above sea level. I have not seen ice and winter for about four years!!! However, after more than 2 hours, when we were reaching the airport in La Paz only the high summits of the Andes were sparkling in the sunlight and in snow.
My guests spent the last days of their visit in Santa Cruz. They were resting, shopping and finally they had to pack their cases. The visit at Bishop Stanisław was the end of their stay in Bolivia.
The passenger check-in took the local staff about 75 minutes(!), but finally my family and close friend got on board the Santa Cruz – Madrid plane and, as far as I know, returned safely to their homes. In this letter I would like to thank you once again for your visit, time spent with me, patience, presents and all the goodies we are lacking. I hope that I managed to show you the most important places in Bolivia.
One more thing... the main mascot of the whole group was a small kitten, which has really settled in our convent. During your stay he was stroked and fed by almost all of us. Now I think that it would be a good idea to pack him in a box and sent him on "emigration". I am joking, of course... The kitten is joyful and he is asking when the guests will come back again. Hard luck!
In the end I would like to write something about the situation in Bolivia. We have constant tensions here. We are wondering what will the new constitution be like. We have more and more problems with diesel... The prices go up very drastically. Food is getting more and more expensive. It reminds me of old times when there were no products and the prices were constantly going up. The same problem... the same system.
With kindest regards,
Tarsicio, OFM
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