What can I say about the so rich experience that I lived at Karna between 2009 and 2014?
As a backdrop we have a community life that is full and varied ; we are sisters of different nationalities, with a complementarity of ages, characters, having lived diverse experiences, etc … Without forgetting the richness of life shared with the postulants who come from different countries.
I give management courses to the postulants and I help them learn information technology. It is enriching to live with these young women who want to respond to the call of the Lord and who are seeking to discover if it is the way for them.
My involvement in the school takes the form of a discreet help to the teachers. As I was a teacher by profession I am very much at ease with the children who have a great need of support, especially to read and write in French.
I am engaged in a team that accompanies people who are HIV positive. It has been a long apprenticeship of listening and giving attention to each person with their different needs. An attentive presence is worth more than words, especially ready-made answers … I receive more from these people than I give.
In the village of Karna, we visit people who are friends, who are ill or elderly, we accompany families who are mourning. These are beautiful moments of sharing, of solidarity and of friendship. We have helped in the rebuilding of the wells of the “Toupouris” (a tribe in the extreme North of Cameroon) and that of the school. We are also a pastoral presence in some of the surrounding villages, especially at Demsa where we have supported the people in the construction of a well.
Each year, our provincial assembly at the end of the year is a special event where all of the Daughters of Jesus in Africa come together, whether it is from Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ivory Coast or Cameroon, along with one or several sister of the General Council. What a richness of sharing in the expression of what each one lives in her different milieu.
I think that all of my experience here at Karna has been impregnated with the charism of the Daughters of Jesus. Back here in my native country, I continue my mission in a different way, while still remaining attentive to what happens in Cameroon and in the neighbouring countries, especially those where the Daughters of Jesus are present.
I give heartfelt thanks to the Lord who called me to live such a beautiful experience.
Ursule Beaulieu, dj of the vice-province of Rimouski, Canada
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