(ANS – Piranha) – In the course of his Extraordinary Visit to the Province of Brazil-Manaus, Fr Natale Vitali, Regional Councillor for the Southern Cone of America, visited the Salesians working in missionary areas of Amazonia. Here are some extracts from his report in which he speaks of his impressions.

We left Santa Isabel at 5:30 on the morning of 2 September. The boat to bring us to the Sagrada Familia Salesian Mission of Marauiá is about 10 metres long and 1.1 metres wide. It has two motors. There are always two in case one breaks down. One motor would not start, as always happens in these situations. They all turned to me with a look that said, “We cannot go”. But I said, “Let’s go with one, and pray that Providence will take care of us.” Later I came to realize how foolish I was!

After five hours we reached Piranha and the first Salesian community house, a typical “xapono” cabin. About 200 Yanomami live there. All the students were waiting on the beach to welcome “the Superior from Rome”. I reached the school, shaking hands with about fifty Yanomami who fought among themselves for the privilege.

The school was a clean cabin, with wooden desks. They gave speeches, recited poems and gave thanks for the work of the Salesians. They have three Yanomami teachers, three boys who are finishing secondary school. I listened and I wept within me.

The Yanomami were a people greatly feared for their bellicose tendencies, dreaded by the white people and the “Caboclos” (mixed race, indigenous and white). Only the Salesians have worked with them and remain with them.

Then we reached the "xapono". This is a circle with cabins all round it. Each family has its own house of straw. The only things they have in the house are the hammocks in which they sleep, and a fire in the centre, even though the temperature is 40°. They are hunters and they take whatever nature provides, but they do not work.

They are happy people and now they are also welcoming. They have a prodigious memory. If you promise them something they will not forget. They will remind you of it 20 years later! I was told not to promise anything, because otherwise I would be in debt.

We Salesians, who have been living with them and sharing with them for fifty years, have not yet begun explicit evangelization. I hope that we will be able to begin next year.

Published 10/09/2013