Benedicto is one of them, 21 years old, from Tanzania.
Q. Benedicto, what make you to feel that this is HOME both for the boys and for you and your companion prenovices?
The first warm and joyful welcome has been an invitation to feel very much at home since the first day, and the following months reinforced this feeling, especially because here we are living together full time, every day, which is not often possible in our families.
The liveliness and cheerfulness of the boys is another clear sign of their being really at home here with Don Bosco. Another sign of belonging to this home is the great care they take of what is entrusted to them, like sport or music equipment, as if they were personal belongings.
Q. As prenovices you are very much involved in the mission of this community. Which kind of help do you render?
We have several moments in the days and week in which we are with the boys, assisting them at meals or in the evening, and helping in sport and music, where we too are trained, and in our turn become their helper, through coaching. Similarly, we help and lead them in the various chores and manual work that keep the house running, like it is done in every home.
But it is not less important the help we prenovices receive from the boys. To be with them helps us to improve our skills in different areas. Some are not only very skilful, but also very good at heart and exemplary in many ways. I see Jesus in the Boys. In the way they participate to prayer moments I can feel how sincere is their prayer; it is another important good example and help for my growth.
Q. If you are to express a desire for all of you living together in this home, Boys and Prenovices…
For the Boys my wish and prayer is that they will continue also in future to cultivate those values that they see and already practice here, and that they will remember this home and, if chanced to do so, come back to support in future this house of theirs. Among the Catholics I hope that some will even opt to choose Salesian life as their vocation: having gone through many difficulties and hardships and the rehabilitation here experienced, they will be in the best position as Salesian to help other children suffering in the same way as they did.
For us prenovices my wish and prayer is that we will be all Salesians, with the same family spirit and cooperation we are experiencing now with confreres, lay teachers and volunteers, young people and children.
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While thanking Benedicto the mind goes to the many other prenovices living similar experiences in the Region Africa and Madagascar, which is now the leading among the 7 Salesian Regions as number of novices: 155 in the year 2019/20 (followed by South Asia – 126).
If the trend of growth or decrease in each Salesian Region during the last 10 years will continue without major variations for the next 10, in 2029 we are going to have in Africa and Madagascar 186 novices, which will be - within the same projection - more than the double of the novices in South Asia and much more of the novices of the other 5 regions summed up together.
Africa has a huge potential which is in turn a gigantic formative responsibility, helping young people to become Salesian indeed AT HOME with the neediest boys and youth, and fully AT HOME with the heart of Don Bosco.
