Visit to Padre Pio Delegation of Arunachal Pradesh.

We had no internet connection in Arunachal pradesh once we left Guwahati on 5^th night. Br. Francis, the delegate of Arunachal Pradesh accompanied us till Tinsukia by train. In this part of our Motherland it is unpredictable about the trains and their departures and arrival. We were late by 3 hours. Some friars were waiting from morning 4am onwards and we reached around 7am to Tinsukia, a small town in Assam but bordering with arunachal Pradesh.

Br. Kuriakose Were waiting with a hired jeep, which drove us to a new mission place. It is only 60KM but the roads are so bad that it took us four hours to reach to the Mission place. We were warmly greeted and welcomed by the local people who were waiting since long,

We celebrated Mass and then cultural program at a substation called RANGNGLUA. There are about 100 catholic families. The leaders presented a memorandum to construct a school. This is a mission place and the government does not do anything. People are very poor and most of them are landless. They work as tea garden laborers.  The children have to walk pretty long to school. Rainy season one cannot think of walking the distance, as the roads get murkier and dirtier. The children do not attend schools during monsoon because of the heavy rains and landslides.

After the Lunch left for the main place called LANU where the friars live. There are three friars Kuriakos, Vincent and a post novice Stabil. They have about 30 catholic families and rest of them are all Baptist. The Bishop has started a school with 45 students. But the population is smaller than the substation, Here too we celebrated the Eucharist along with the village king and queen. 

The faith of the people is very simple and down to earth. `they expressed their need of having a school and the presence of the friars to look after their spiritual needs. The people are all poor and most of them live from hand to mouth. ``the government has many schemes but due to a widespread evil of corruption nothing reaches to the poor people. The roads are all muddy and no vehicle remains in good condition that runs on these roads. Even here the people requested for the building of a school and boarding for the children. I am praying that some good generous souls will provide for the needs of these poor people. The people have understood the value of education and by all means they want to educate their children.

We left LANU for Dadam about five hours journey. The roads are so bad that our bones began to rattle. The dusty roads soiled our clothes. But we did not complain as the people of the place bear it up every day. Few kilometers of distance need more time to arrive due to the bad roads, I am sure that the people who travel everyday would one day be sick with all kinds of body pains. We reached safe and sound to DADAAM. Br. John Fernandaz, ex provincial of St. Francis Province was waiting for us. He welcomed us to the friary and immediately took us for Lunch to one of the parishioners house. The family was celebrating the baptism of their 5th child. 

In the evening we prayed together out in the open with bonfire. It is very cold here. The temperatures drop to 5 or 6 degrees. We prayed around the fire and then we spoke to friars the purpose of our visit. We spent more than one hour listening and discussing about the hardships and difficulties. 

The some common problems are : lack of water, electricity and medicines. The grocery items and vegetables are to be purchased from the town which is far away. It takes maximum four hours by jeep. The cost of things is very high as everything comes from the plain. The friars spend more money on the fuel as they have to go to villages for Masses and visits. The subsidy granted is not enough. The local sources are not available. People are very poor to contribute anything. 

on Sunday we celebrated Mass in two places in the villages. What a joy to be with simple and poor people. One thing we observed in spite of difficulties and problems people are happy. 

From Dadam to Tinsukia by road the journey was about 7 hours....From Tinsukia we took a train to reach Nagaland.