An old Catechist
As for me, I do not have a great devotion for cemeteries, but would go to his tomb each time I returned to Ipusukilo. In 1950, I arrived in Ipusukilo, Northern Rhodesia, Zambia. As a good White Sister, the first thing to do was to learn the Bemba language. My teacher, (at that time there were no language courses), was Sister Séraphine, one of the four Sisters of the first caravan of Sisters to arrive in Northern Rhodesia. In the afternoon, I went to Lubilo village to practice speaking with Gabrieli Kawimbe. Holding the hand of a patient, or of a dying person: this act makes all the difference. Old Gabrieli had understood this.Gabrieli was an elderly man. I found him still seated on his deck-chair made of animal skins and reciting his rosary. He had been one of the first catechists of Bishop (Moto-Moto) Dupont, the Bishop King of…