เข้าใจ / ENTRANCE IN THE HEART
My name is Annalisa, I am 23 and I live in Ardenno. I am a professional educator and I work in a kinder garden, where I follow one 4-year-old autistic child.
The mission is always my inner desire.
Finally, last year I decided to face the path GM (Youth & Mission) with PIME (Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions). This path consists in, during two years formation with PIME fathers and sisters, one weekend a month you face various themes. It helps you to reflect, we have fun, we gather with other people and in the summer after one year, they send you for a part of the world with partner decided from them.
เข้าใจ
August 31, at hour 12.15 Thai: we are on the plane and we are about to leave the land of smiles. It seems to me like I arrived here just yesterday but a month has already passed instead. I arrived here with so many doubts, so many questions, and so much trouble in my life; but now how many gifts, how much effort I have done on myself, how many crises I faced, how many rebirths, how many colors, how many flavors. It is complex to tell how I felt and how I feel now. Surely I’m going back much richer than I started, I am going back with less doubts and with a greater awareness of what I want to do with my life.
The beloved Thailand has been a story of faith and sharing. A faith witnessed by Antonella, Elizabete, Mireille and Teresa, the four Xaverian sisters, who welcomed us with an open heart, indeed, wide open, with great simplicity and tenderness. A faith witnessed by few but convinced Christians. We were also lucky to join the baptism (by immersion in the river of the village) and the confirmation of three girls of my age. The faith witnessed by my mission partner, Francesca, we created a wonderful friendship; we talked a lot about the meaning of mission, life and religion.
The beloved Thailand was a story of faces, meeting, smiles and hugs. There were several visits to villages, where we meet children and adults. We had occasion to play or doing activities with them. They are always ready to give you a smile as soon as they see you. They give thanks for everything, albeit small, that you offer them. They live in simple conditions, in small houses, in a single room, but they are so happy. In this way, they give us so much more than we were able to give them.
The dearest Thailand was been a story of slippers outside of doors, dirty feet, crossed legs, knees and back pain. We tried to enter in their culture, trying to look like those beautiful children, who always have dirty feet, but an innocent heart, limpid eyes. We also try to look like those adults, who always have their hands joined to greet and thank, ready with open heart to welcome you and share something to eat.
The story with the dearest Thailand was been about expectations and surprises, because it was not always so easy. Since we shared our daily life with the sisters, we often did household chores, manual work and various jobs. It was very difficult at the beginning; I even wanted to go back to Italy, because I did not understand why I have to household chores in Thailand since I did not clean even my room in Italy (with rare exceptions). Therefore, with a little patience, and helped by the grace of God the sense comes; (the grace has been a lot, because it was not natural for me to be super serene while ironing, sawing, cleaning floor somewhere else in the world, instead of playing with children). The sense was what I have needed. In fact, now I know that the Lord really doesn’t give us what we want, but what we need: I needed all this to understand that now I have to do something nice in my family and in my community, instead of accumulating experiences outside or seeking I work in a big city, as I intended before traveling to Thailand. Moreover, it is great that the Lord makes me understand something amazing through an experience that completely different from what I had before in my mind.
This is a part of the story about the dearest Thailand. Ah, one last thing, I want to explain why the title: It is written CAPITO in Thai that literally means ENTRANCE IN THE HEART. This word is for me the summary of my experience in Thailand. In a month, there were so many beautiful things, that have entered in my heart and there, will remain forever.
Now it is 12.48 AM and the plane is leaving late; seems like it wanted to give me enough time to say goodbye to this fantastic land. Now it is 12.48 AM and the plane is taking a flight right now, as if it wanted to give me time to think about the first meaning of this mission: surely, there will be many re-readings by the time, but this is the first understanding. Goodbye (สวัสดี) and thank you (ขอบคุณ).
