Venezuela - "The oratory has prepared us for emigration": Yasury's experience, a young woman from SYM

05 September 2017

(ANS - Los Teques) - There is talk of a Venezuelan exodus  to other countries to look for a future difficult to achieve in Venezuela, most being young people, unfortunately. Salesian centers, courtyards, schools and parishes do not escape this fate. There are many who have left, in fact, and it has become almost normal to ask about someone, the answer already taken for granted: "She's gone." Yasury Romero tells of her experience as a young woman from the Los Teques MJS.

What memories do you have of your old oratory?

I am in Spain and the temperature in Madrid reaches 40 degrees. I could say that the mission days in La Guajira - northwest Venezuela - have prepared me for this stifling heat. I have asked myself many times: "How many snacks do we serve in the oratory? In the missions, how much did we do without knowing?" The oratory has surely prepared us to emigrate.

How are you living this new life?
I am open to learning about other cultures, to giving value to austerity, to the smallest items, as if in on a mission; it is not easy, however, but it is familiar; only  we do not distribute the programming for Holy Week; instead, we send out our CVs to look for a job. Thanks to the Lord for what I have learned in the oratory. We are experiencing the emigrant Don Bosco who starts from I Becchi to realize his dreams and learn to be "bricklayer, carpenter, cobbler, blacksmith."

Do you feel something unites you with the Salesians?

In each city we go and contact a member of the SYM, we are sure we have a friend there. We have discovered via our own experience that where there's a Church, there is no place in the world for being alone. We sought the closest church and were welcomed, in the midst of diversity, simply because "these people are very bright." Our Salesian Family opens its doors for us, makes us enter and makes us feel part of the family.

What do you take when you go to other places?
A smile is our trench and cheerfulness our methodology, both indispensable, both our cloak and shield, though occasionally we bathe them with tears before the Tabernacle, which has become our magic portal in any place we go, which unites us with our beloved Venezuela. In talking with immigrant oratorians we always end the same way: "It is Mary Help of Christians who has done everything!"

 

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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