Celebrating Christmas

This year, the feast of Christmas was marked by a solemn celebration in the church, in which our children received a plastic bag with assorted biscuits. After that, we went to visit one of our members in hospital, a liberian called Moises, who, yesterday, got his legs burnt by gasoline. We prayed for him and gave him a little sum of money collected during the mass.

He was very surprised and grateful for our gift, which he did not expected. We took the chance to visit other patients in the same ward, some of whom we recognized as our neighbors or relatives.We were horrified to discover that the hospital  in which Moises is being treated (Hospital militar principal) is brand new but ... without electricity.

Visit to Mrs. Olympia

Following a consolidated tradition, our community decided - on the eve of Christmas day - to pay a visit to Mrs. Olympia, whom our readers know very well by now. She is the "mother" of seventeen orphans whom she rescued from sickness, starvation and maybe death.
As soon as we arrived we were greeted by cheers of joy. We quickly realized that the house is in very poor conditions and even partially fallen down. Actually her older boys (aged 19 and 18) were working at a new house in the courtyard, while we were there.We offered a bag of rice and an envelope with money.
Once more, we were surprised by the courage and strength of this simple woman, who accepted to be the mother of such a multitude of children.

Take courage, Mrs. Olympia, with your example you give honor to the people of Guinea-Bissau.

The story of Mrs. Olympia

Sometimes you discover wonderful people near you, in your area. They are doing marvelous things without making noise, simply trying to put in practice the Gospel in everyday life. One of these people is Olympia.
She lives in my parish and I regularly meet her at mass, on Sundays. But I didn’t know about her private life until this year. Here is her story.
She grew up in an orphanage for girls, run by the Franciscan Sisters, at Bor, a little village on the outskirts of Bissau. She studied to become a teacher. At the end of her studies, she started immediately teaching (in primary school) and is still doing so. In the meantime, she got married to an army officer, who would later become general and be appointed Chief of the Army Staff in Guinea-Bissau. His name was Verissimo Correia Seabra. He was killed in 2004, during a rebellion within the army. They had a girl, who is presently living in France and is already married with three children.
She was deeply shocked by the death of her husband, whom she loved a lot, but refused to give up. She had already started receiving motherless children in her home and stubbornly continued to do so. They were giving her the force to believe in life and in God’s love.
She is presently living with fifteen children, all of them orphans, coming from different families and backgrounds. She saved them from starvation, sickness and, probably, death. The oldest one is 20, the youngest is 3. They are all attending school, except for the little ones (who are five), because she hasn’t got the money to pay kindergarten for them.

Mrs. Olympia in her courtyard

Teaching her kids to sing