"Dear friend and dear friend that this summer we've visited,
this letter reaches you is definitely a bit' late.
Not only because of the time Gighessa be a bit 'slower, not only because
to send the mail should go to Shashemane,
not only because as you lower your car
is always someone to give a lift,
not only because the way we have not yet managed to fix it, but because
you should read this letter before you leave.
was a kind of early warning. Now
now it's done, it's too late, but at least
will help you understand what happened to you and you'll
in the coming days and months to come.
You started or did you leave for Ethiopia.
Not you alone or by itself.
With you started a whole new world.
All friends and the friends that you have entrusted something
and are proud to be a bit 'share in your journey.
fellow workers who have agreed to tailor their holiday to your journey.
All those who have given you any advice or recommendation.
But not only these.
Even those who were against, you have discouraged
who were anxious about your departure,
they are also parties with you.
Even those who tell you that it is time that blacks make do at home.
Even those who would naively build walls between people and another.
Even these have come with you, because basically you're
result of all this, for good and evil
for acceptance or opposition
if you come and if you are coming is also thanks to them and then together with them.
Here you have encountered a different world. So many things
the know already, I had heard so many stories and seen so many photos.
Did you know that poverty exists, but here you have met those who have nothing,
not only for tomorrow but for today.
Did you know that there is leprosy, but had never shaken hands with a leper.
Did you know that there are many languages, but were never so long
among people that do not understand anything when they talk.
Did you know that there is ingested, but I had never heard the flavor.
Did you know that here it is difficult to wash, but you never smelled the sick.
Sometimes you're not stuck and you have closed your eyes, but when you have them reopened
everything was still there.
It is not a dream, is a world.
is not in the past, is a six-hour flight from home.
All of this did you meet, and it is a strange thing happened.
Perhaps without intending it, without thinking, or maybe by choice
You left this world enters into you.
He did not ask "permission", it has done so much noise.
It 'seemed like a natural thing, not a forced entry.
But when it happened you noticed.
That night when you went to sleep and you hear the howling of hyenas,
you seemed like a normal thing.
When the child with her hands dirty's got you by the shirt, you
not bothered as before.
That world was no longer outside,
through the things you've heard, tasted, seen and touched
that world came through you.
Forever.
Now you're back and you're back home.
Or so you thought.
you home again, but not by him or herself.
That world that you found it came with you.
not left the airport.
not enough on the first night back in your bed or the early evening with friends.
That world is left in you and will stay there.
Not surprising, you say, but it is not so simple.
From now on, even that is your world.
So, out with friends no longer have the same flavor.
So when the news repeats the same things, you ask yourself: "What's Next?"
So, when you cross a brother of color on the street,
I listen and wonder: "What language do you speak? from which the world will be? "
So when you close the door on the evening, you can not leave out all the rest of the world.
In a word, you've become a bit 'foreigner even when you're home.
There's a world that runs out, where you find yourself way down.
Within you there is always another, which reminds you that not all
dinner is served before bedtime
that not everyone will greet the
same way that not everyone will get up tomorrow morning.
you been a stranger in Ethiopia
And from now on you will live a little 'even a stranger in your home.
does not happen that at all.
Some people collect travel to countries far away
But in reality, never moves from his home. It is not enough
the plane ticket is not enough to enter another world
should be willing to let a new world
becomes part of you.
And so you find yourself always be a bit 'foreign.
If any consolation, you're in good company.
not only because many other people, by choice or necessity, living abroad.
You are in the company of one who
to be close to us and help us understand our true condition, he became a stranger.
in Jerusalem was called the "Galileo", in Samaria, "the Jew."
because they kicked him out of Nazareth did not behave as a good citizen.
Gerasenes I have prayed to return from where it came from. A
Pilate made it clear that his kingdom was not of this world.
bore within itself the nostalgia of another world, another way of life.
why it was able to relativize the safety of the Pharisees,
the tranquility of the rich, the despair of the vanquished.
He revealed that they were strangers is our truest
condition that he never heard of everything at home is not a mental illness
But the truth of our destiny in this lifetime
that never run out of where we are today or tomorrow.
I hope that what you have lived in Ethiopia from foreign
And what a stranger at home you are living today
help you recognize that you
unquenchable thirst for life that only in Jesus Christ, the true Stranger, finds its true home.
nice trip on the roads of the world
that from today onwards you will be a little 'less alien. "
this letter reaches you is definitely a bit' late.
Not only because of the time Gighessa be a bit 'slower, not only because
to send the mail should go to Shashemane,
not only because as you lower your car
is always someone to give a lift,
not only because the way we have not yet managed to fix it, but because
you should read this letter before you leave.
was a kind of early warning. Now
now it's done, it's too late, but at least
will help you understand what happened to you and you'll
in the coming days and months to come.
You started or did you leave for Ethiopia.
Not you alone or by itself.
With you started a whole new world.
All friends and the friends that you have entrusted something
and are proud to be a bit 'share in your journey.
fellow workers who have agreed to tailor their holiday to your journey.
All those who have given you any advice or recommendation.
But not only these.
Even those who were against, you have discouraged
who were anxious about your departure,
they are also parties with you.
Even those who tell you that it is time that blacks make do at home.
Even those who would naively build walls between people and another.
Even these have come with you, because basically you're
result of all this, for good and evil
for acceptance or opposition
if you come and if you are coming is also thanks to them and then together with them.
Here you have encountered a different world. So many things
the know already, I had heard so many stories and seen so many photos.
Did you know that poverty exists, but here you have met those who have nothing,
not only for tomorrow but for today.
Did you know that there is leprosy, but had never shaken hands with a leper.
Did you know that there are many languages, but were never so long
among people that do not understand anything when they talk.
Did you know that there is ingested, but I had never heard the flavor.
Did you know that here it is difficult to wash, but you never smelled the sick.
Sometimes you're not stuck and you have closed your eyes, but when you have them reopened
everything was still there.
It is not a dream, is a world.
is not in the past, is a six-hour flight from home.
All of this did you meet, and it is a strange thing happened.
Perhaps without intending it, without thinking, or maybe by choice
You left this world enters into you.
He did not ask "permission", it has done so much noise.
It 'seemed like a natural thing, not a forced entry.
But when it happened you noticed.
That night when you went to sleep and you hear the howling of hyenas,
you seemed like a normal thing.
When the child with her hands dirty's got you by the shirt, you
not bothered as before.
That world was no longer outside,
through the things you've heard, tasted, seen and touched
that world came through you.
Forever.
Now you're back and you're back home.
Or so you thought.
you home again, but not by him or herself.
That world that you found it came with you.
not left the airport.
not enough on the first night back in your bed or the early evening with friends.
That world is left in you and will stay there.
Not surprising, you say, but it is not so simple.
From now on, even that is your world.
So, out with friends no longer have the same flavor.
So when the news repeats the same things, you ask yourself: "What's Next?"
So, when you cross a brother of color on the street,
I listen and wonder: "What language do you speak? from which the world will be? "
So when you close the door on the evening, you can not leave out all the rest of the world.
In a word, you've become a bit 'foreigner even when you're home.
There's a world that runs out, where you find yourself way down.
Within you there is always another, which reminds you that not all
dinner is served before bedtime
that not everyone will greet the
same way that not everyone will get up tomorrow morning.
you been a stranger in Ethiopia
And from now on you will live a little 'even a stranger in your home.
does not happen that at all.
Some people collect travel to countries far away
But in reality, never moves from his home. It is not enough
the plane ticket is not enough to enter another world
should be willing to let a new world
becomes part of you.
And so you find yourself always be a bit 'foreign.
If any consolation, you're in good company.
not only because many other people, by choice or necessity, living abroad.
You are in the company of one who
to be close to us and help us understand our true condition, he became a stranger.
in Jerusalem was called the "Galileo", in Samaria, "the Jew."
because they kicked him out of Nazareth did not behave as a good citizen.
Gerasenes I have prayed to return from where it came from. A
Pilate made it clear that his kingdom was not of this world.
bore within itself the nostalgia of another world, another way of life.
why it was able to relativize the safety of the Pharisees,
the tranquility of the rich, the despair of the vanquished.
He revealed that they were strangers is our truest
condition that he never heard of everything at home is not a mental illness
But the truth of our destiny in this lifetime
that never run out of where we are today or tomorrow.
I hope that what you have lived in Ethiopia from foreign
And what a stranger at home you are living today
help you recognize that you
unquenchable thirst for life that only in Jesus Christ, the true Stranger, finds its true home.
nice trip on the roads of the world
that from today onwards you will be a little 'less alien. "
Don Matteo
