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Santa Cruz, 20th January 2008
I am writing to you for the first time in the New Year to describe our life here and to tell you the latest news. The Sunday today is full of rain. A moment ago I was walking across the streets of Santa Cruz, which looked like rivers, streams and in some places even like lakes and pools. But that's the way it is - tropical rain carries huge amount of water. There is no sewage system in the town and the inflows to canals are often blocked. The situation is even worse on the outskirts of the town in which there is so much water that passing through is impossible. But people got used to it. They wait patiently for the sun. Then the water disappears rapidly.
Bishop Anthony said goodbye to me a moment ago and set off to Concepcion - his residence in the vicariate. He hasn't been at home much lately. He has been travelling almost all the time so he returns home with pleasure. I am sure that there will be a pile of letters on his desk and a lot of errands to run after his short stay in Poland, where he went to accompany the parson of his family parish - priest George Obst - on his last way to the house of God. He stayed there with his family over Christmas and New Year. As he says, the last time he spent Christmas at home was 37 years ago. He returned to Bolivia on the 6th January - on Epiphany. And since then he has been on his way all the time. He has had many important meetings, for example a conference with representatives of monastic families in Cochabamba, different meetings in Santa Cruz, saying goodbye to Sister Monica from Quatro Canadas, who must return to Brazil due to her health problems, retreat in the Sanctuary in Chocis for him and for other diocesan priests (about 16 hours by train), a meeting with the bishops in Santa Cruz... These are only some of our Bishop’'s appointments in the last two weeks.
Yesterday three our Polish “Bolivian” bishops came to me for coffee. They even got a piece of a poppy-seed cake, so we spent the time in a little bit of Christmas climate. Currently, there are three bishops in our Bolivian episcopate. All of them are Polish missionaries. Our bishop Anthony works in the Nuflo de Chávez Apostolic Vicariate. Bishop Stanislaw is an assistant-bishop in the Santa Cruz archdiocese and bishop Bialasik is an ordinary in Oruro - the highest situated diocese in the world. Oruro is famous South America for its carnival.
One third of our Bolivian bishops are... Franciscans! That reflects well on us, I assume.
And if we talk about bishops, the Apostolic Nuncio in Bolivia has been dismissed from his current position. The Italian archbishop Ivo Scapolo, who replaced the Polish archbishop Josef Wesolowski in 2002, was directed to Ruanda in Africa as their new Apostolic Nuncio. So now we are waiting impatiently for a nomination for a new Nuncio.
The New Year has brought us a lot of work. I welcomed it in El Fortin in our vicariate, together with my two fellow-brothers Felek and Stanislaw. Brother Mark and priests Paul and Kazimierz from the neighbouring parishes joined us as well. At midnight we rang the bells which spread over the mission and the whole village the news that the New Year had come. At the church we sang a joyful Te Deum, a few carols and then we gave each other best wishes. We also had some champagne. But the next day we had to start our journey back after dinner if we wanted to get to our homes on time.
In the second week of the new year our St. Anthony convent was filled up to the brim. About 40 Franciscans from different parts of Bolivia came for a traditional monastic retreat. There are three series of such retreat and each of them is in a different place in Bolivia. Bolivia is a vast country and the communication possibilities are limited. So everyone goes to the closest and the most convenient place. Apart from Santa Cruz, a similar situation takes place in Cochabamba and in Tarija. This is an opportunity for us to meet. For many people the journey to Santa Cruz is a real adventure. Sometimes the missions are really distant. To some of them you can only get by boat, for example in the river basin of the river Beni. Some stories are really interesting and can be used as screenplays of adventure films. I often admire these older missionaries who spent their whole lives on working in conditions which many of us couldn't even imagine. I admire their cheerfulness and their still youthful spirit. An 80-year-old Spaniard, P. Jose, has told me recently that the older he was the more he wanted and had to do as he knew that he didn’'t have much time and he had to hurry. Sometimes he could embarrass a much younger person.
The house has only just become quiet again when we had another visit. A more official one this time. Our superior in Bolivia, Fr. Provincial, visits each house every 3 years. This is the so-called “canonical visitation”. There were different meetings, talks, a review of all important registers and documents of the house and of the parish. It lasted 3 days. It was an opportunity to talk about joys, but also about problems which are always present in our lives. Luckily, the visitation is over. I am very pleased because I have a lot of work in the office and it is high time to catch up.
The situation in the country is tense but stable. The president and prefects of different departments met in the presidential palace in La Paz twice this month. It is hard to predict if there will be any agreements or compromises. We can only state the fact that talks are being held. This is a step forward. The country functions in a normal way and the problems with fuel, especially with diesel, have finished. We have no problems with gas anymore and the roads are driveable as well. There are blockades from time to time, but people got used to it. Unfortunately the prices which went up at the end of the year still remain the same.
Another serious problem in our country is the postal service. Only a minimal amount of letters from European countries, including Poland and Germany, gets to the addressees. Some letters and parcels which were sent in November still did not reach their owners. We do what we can; we complain about it almost every day, but... without any document which would confirm the consignment from Europe we cannot do anything. Many people complain that we do not confirm or do not react to their post, but we simply haven't received it yet. As a matter of fact, I have the impression that the post sent from Bolivia has not got through yet. I have no idea where all these letters and parcels have been stuck. We had the same problem last year. Many letters did not reach the addressees. Let's hope that the outstanding correspondence will reach their destination. We have to be patient.
What else can I tell you? Well, South America would not be what it is if it didn't prepare to the carnival. You can hear loud music everywhere, especially at the end of the week. The worst thing is that if people warm up, they do not stop dancing on Ash Wednesday.
That's it for today. I wish all of those who freeze, that is you in Europe, a little bit more sun. And those who are hot, namely us (as we are in the middle of summer) a little bit of refreshment and not so much dampness.
With best wishes,
Tarcisio Josef Lamik, ofm
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