and Share Their Experience
Salesian Lay Missioners Michael
Gotta and Patrick Sabol were commissioned in August 2013 to serve at the
Salesian secondary school, parish, and youth center in Gumbo, a suburb of Juba, capital of South Sudan. They’re both
alumni of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.
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| December 2014: Mike Gotta, Tom Kelly (finishing a year and a half as SLM), Pat Sabol, and another volunteer named Robin |
They arrived in Gumbo on August 30,
2013, with two other SLMs, Ariel Zarate and Theresa Kiblinger, who were to go
on to the mission at Maridi. They
remained until mid-July 2014 but had to be evacuated for a month to Kenya at
the height of South Sudan’s civil war in January 2014. (The Salesians remained, but both they and the SLM directors back here thought it prudent for the young volunteers to get out of harm's way when the war seemed likely to come to Juba.)
Both Pat and Mike (no, this is not the
start of a joke!) assisted with an SLM discernment weekend in New Rochelle on
April 11-12 (preceding post), driving up from Washington and Philadelphia. They enjoyed their
reunion with SLM batch-mate Manny Mendez (Bolivia, and now at Holy Rosary in
Port Chester), Adam Rudin, and Fr. Mark Hyde. The warmth of their reunion made a big
impression on the seven SLM candidates.
I had a few minutes (too few) to get
them aside for a little interview. No direct quotes here, but the substance of
their answers.
What were your responsibilities in Juba?
Mainly we taught in the secondary
school, which enrolls youths and young adults of both sexes between the ages of 14 and 30. That
spread comes from the unavailability of schooling in much of the country, and
its interruption by years of war. So when some teens or adults get a chance to
start or return to school, they come. There’s no GED program!
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| Some of the students and the staff early in the school year |
When the school year started, we had
about 65 pupils, but when the fighting broke out in December, refugees flowed into the city and the Salesians welcomed everyone in
our compound—which not all places did. Consequently, our school enrollment went
up to 180.
We also had administrative duties; in fact, just two weeks
into the school year the principal, Fr. Patrick, died very unexpectedly. Fr.
David was named principal but was so busy with his other responsibilities that
a lot of the administrative work was delegated to us. One of our particular duties
was to interview prospective students. Entrance criteria weren’t very strict,
but the kids did have to know English because that’s the language of
instruction.
What was your most rewarding experience?
Mike: Learning to love the people. They
came from many different places and brought a great cultural diversity, which
we got to experience. And we shared some of our own culture with them. This
displayed the universality of the Catholic Church.
Pat: Seeing the relationships of the
people there, the struggles they went through, and walking alongside them in
their daily lives and seeing them grow.
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| Celebration of Baptism at the SDB parish |
What was the most difficult or most challenging part of your
mission?
Pat: Seeing the suffering, particularly
when the fighting began again. We had so many IDPs (internally displaced
persons) in our compound. When we arrived, they were still experiencing the joy
of their newly won independence [after about 20 years of vicious civil war
against the Sudanese government]—and then in December it all fell apart.
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| Part of an encampment for IDPs near the Salesian compound |
Mike: Seeing the hardness of heart of
the leaders (who instigated the war), and of some of the people too. Some
members of the two main tribes, the Dinka and the Nuer, display great hatred for the other tribe, based on very
deep hurts caused by injuries inflicted upon them or their families. It’s
deeper than any racism or anything we can fathom as Westerners.
What’s been challenging about readjusting to life at home?
Pat: It’s been a big change to shift
from living in a Salesian community to living on my own; from working with the
Salesians in ministry to working a secular job in the Philadelphia area. My
life is no longer so church-focused. I have to find different ways to bring my
faith into my daily life.
Mike: I have to make an internal
attempt to live more selflessly in my daily life, as I saw and was so much
encouraged to do on mission. I have to try to understand the struggles others
are facing here. I have to try to be intentional about what I do and why I do
it. Living and working in the mission was much less distracting because there
was so much less materialism around us.
Photos from Pat's blog.
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