Farewell to Sr. Albertina

After six years in Uganda, Sr. Albertina has been entrusted with a new mission in Eswatini. She shares with us how she celebrated her farewell with the communities she served during these years.

On the morning of April 30th, with my Pagirinya refugee brothers and sisters, we celebrated a Thanksgiving Mass for my 6 years of mission in Uganda. This was also the moment to receive the blessings for a new mission that the Institute is entrusting me in Eswatini.

It was a very significant moment. The presence of the people, their faith and simplicity touched me deeply. I told them: “My gratitude, first and especially is to God who gave me the Grace of being here with you, during these 6 years. Really, I was able to share my life, my gifts, my time, my faith, my prayers, my dreams, my hopes...”.

I learned many values ​​from the Ugandan and South Sudanese cultures. I loved and received much more; I received love from children, from adults, and especially from the elderly who live abandoned and in sickness.

I visited, consoled, and gave home-made medicines to cure the pain and loneliness in Pagirinya, Dzaipi, Nyumazi. My eyes saw the signs of the war on the body, soul, and mind of these people loved by God.

I experienced the fruitful grace of God, especially through language difficulties. We needed translation most of the time. I tried to be creative using body language, theater... Love is a powerful form of communication.

During my visits or activities at Cabrini Center, I shared flowers, fruit and vegetable seeds, and I encouraged people to make their spaces more beautiful and joyful: “a common home”, as our beloved Pope Francis said. With this gesture I tried to spread the seed of hope and faith, of kindness, of gentleness, to spread dreams, because it is possible to rebuild together a broken life.

Actually, I feel encouraged by the words of Saint Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith”  (2Tm 4,7).

It is time to leave Uganda and to fly to another Mission. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the mission and God will fertilize the seeds sown in His time.

I will carry all of this people in my heart and mind and they will always be present in my prayers. In my heart there is only gratitude to God and to the Institute for having sent me to Uganda.

Thank you to my MSC community and all my Refugee sisters and brothers.