Benvenuto a Chaaria in Lingua inglese

Abbiamo tradotto anche in Inglese la lettera di benvenuto a Chaaria per i volontari, sperando di fare cosa gradita soprattutto agli ormai molti lettori di lingua anglofona.

Fr Beppe Gaido 

Welcome to Chaaria Dear volunteer, Thank you for coming here to Chaaria in order to participate in the period of the service. We would like to help you accustom to the new reality and provide you with some indications. We are a religious community of the Brothers working for the sake of the poor. There is also a community of the sisters with us who help us in our charity service. Since about two years, with us works also a lay doctor specialized in geriatrics, Pierantonio. Physical workers, nurses, cooks and guardians are employed by the mission in order to assist the guests in various sectors. The daily activities of the community are concentrated on prayer and work, which entirely fill most of the days. If you wish, you can share with us some moments of the prayer: 6.30 Morning Praise, 7.00 Holy Mass in the nearby parish or in our Chapel, 19.30 Vespers, 21.15 night prayer (the prayer at the end of the day). Every Sunday, as well as on holidays, there is a Mass at 7 a.m. in the parish or at 9 a.m. in the laundry of the hospital. The volunteers usually eat their meals in a separate room. This is in order to provide them with more liberty as well as to allow some time for the Brothers to discuss the everyday issues of the community. However, we have supper together on Sundays and when greeting the volunteers coming back their country after they finish the service in Chaaria. The volunteers are provided with a free access to the Internet every day in the evening, from 8.30 p.m. until 10.30 p.m. When the groups are numerous, we ask you to arrange the use of the network in a way that nobody was deprived of the chance to write and receive their e-mails. We also recommend the moderation when using Skype (?), which occupies almost all the available bundle, making any web-browsing impossible for the other persons connected in the same time to the Internet. As we all share the space in the same house, we ask you to always keep open the channel of communication with the Brothers: 

- Brother Beppe: Director of the Mission and the Hospital 

- Brother Roberto: responsible for the Community and the volunteers 

- Brother Giancarlo: Administrator of the mission Whenever in doubts, feel free to ask them.

Any group of the volunteers who would isolate themselves from the community causes troubles that outweigh the benefits of their work. We propose some indications in order to assure mutual respect: 

1. The hours of the meals for volunteers: 7.30-8.00 breakfast, 13.00 lunch, 19.45 supper. 

2. You will be given a schedule of the work that you’ve assigned to. For example, the internists are going to have a different timetable corresponding to the working hours of the nurses, and the volunteers working in the Buoni Figli Center will follow the daily schedule of the boys. 

3. So as to avoid unexpected unpleasant events in the everyday work, we ask you to respect the schedule of your work. We usually expect the volunteers to work from Monday to Friday (8.00 a.m.- 6 p.m.) and Saturday (until 2 p.m.). 

4. Volunteers working in the hospital, or anybody else interested, may attend weekly lectures on tropical diseases for the staff of the hospital. The content of these lectures (every Thursday, 8.00 a.m., in the out-patient department of the hospital) refers to the local conditions and availability of treatment. 

5. You are going to be shown a room where you can take a snack or hot drink during the day. 

6. At 11 p.m. we ask you to turn the TV off and obey the silence. 

7. If you want to wash your clothes, you can use the laundry of the Brothers, where you’ll find all the necessary devices. The use of the washing machine is moderated and the volunteers’ day for using it is Tuesday. The washing machine is only for personal use. Any uniform you use in the hospital must be washed in the laundry of the hospital (for obvious hygienic reasons). 

8. If you’d like to take a picture or film the patients in the hospital, first talk to the Brothers about it. Do not film nor take pictures of the patients without previously having talked to the Brothers. The people are very sensitive to it and they feel their privacy has been infringed whenever a photo is taken without their consent. On no account can you take pictures in the theatre and labour room. It is not good to interfere in the delicate moments and even unconsciously humiliate a mother who is delivering a baby or any other person concerned. 9. Usually every Sunday our community arranges excursions to other missions/ places we render service to/ characteristic sites near Chaaria. On Saturdays, in the afternoon, the volunteers may also arrange such trips themselves. 

10. We do not organize safaris. If you’re interested in such excursions, we can help you find an agency which organizes them for tourists. The up-to-date price of hiring the car for the trip to one of the national parks is 16000 KSH (around 185 USD, divided by the number of people participating). 

11. You can take a walk outside of the hospital whenever you want, but please inform one of the Brothers whenever you go out. 

12. Do not give money, clothes or other gifts to the patients or other individuals before talking it over with one of the Brothers. If you’d like to give alms to the poor, we will arrange it in a way it goes to the most in need. 

13. The cordial greeting and smile helps you feel a part of the mission. It is better to greet too many times than not to greet at all. The water from the taps of the mission is not yet potable. We ask you to serve yourself with the bottles with boiled water which you can find in the fridge. But remember that every drop of water is precious. Once again we thank you for being here with us in Chaaria. We wish you a fruitful experience in the professional, human and spiritual dimension. 

The community of Chaaria