Experiencing the Lord and the La Salettes in Madagascar

We are La Salette Associates and have work closely with the Fathers and Brothers at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Enfield, New Hampshire for the last 39 years. We want to share with you our experiences visiting the missions in Madagascar.

Our Experience

Bp. Donald Pelletier, M.S., retired bishop of Morondava, Madagascar (center) with Sharon and John MarkowitzBefore going on our first trip to Madagascar some nine years ago, we conjured up all sorts of images of missionaries in foreign lands. Our minds, molded by old missionary movies and slides, formed images of priests wearing long robes, sandals, and straw hats, walking on dirt paths, paddling small boats up rivers to remote villages, and bringing the word of Jesus Christ to the natives.

As we soon found out, these images were not too far from the reality we witnessed and experienced. These missionaries are still wearing straw hats and sandals, walking or driving on very bumpy dirt roads, and paddling or riding in small boats to remote villages in the bush.

Through Bishop Donald Pelletier, M.S., and the missionary priests and sisters that we encountered, a clearer picture of who they are and what they are doing has emerged for us. And, yes, it didn't take us long to understand the gratification that comes from giving so much of oneself to the smiling and grateful Malagasy people.

Jesus told us,

• “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you” (Luke 6:38).
• He also said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age... and eternal life in the age to come.” (Mark 10:29-30).

We brought with us two large suitcases with medical supplies to give to the health clinics and a new wheelchair, but what we got in return is immeasurable.

The poverty witnessed on our trip was overwhelming, the simplicity was unimaginable, the singing was angelic, and the smiles were ever so moving!

Our Travels throughout the “Red Island” of Madagascar

Baobab (upside-down) trees and the red dirt of the Central Highlands, giving Madagascar the title, “The Great Red Island”Our travels to Madagascar to visit the missions with retired Bishop Donald Pelletier turned out to be a National Geographic Adventure of epic proportions. Our purpose of course was to observe more closely what effect the La Salette Missionaries have had on the third world country of Madagascar and its people. We also wanted to relate our findings to the work that the La Salette Missionaries continue to do today in other countries around the world.

The Missionaries of La Salette have missions on the mainland of Africa, in Asia, and also in Latin America. On this trip to Madagascar, which is seven times the area of all New England States, I often could not separate my feelings of being immersed in a country with such overwhelming poverty and need and still be to be able to ascertain what progress has actually been made.

Attending a retreat just prior to our departure, a statement was made that became my mantra as I took it all in –“the need for help will always be far greater than the available resources.”

So, despair not! Look and find the good works of God accomplished through the hands of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette as seen in the smiling faces of the Malagasy people. Helped by the La Salettes, we could see the hand of God and the message of Mary touching the hearts and souls of these wonderful kind and generous people.

Where evangelization slowly began, churches were built, schools emerged, then health clinics—all giving dignity of life to a people embroiled in a country of extreme social justice disparity.

The lack of the basics of life

Two happy Malagasy childrenThanks to Bishop Donald's tour-guide and travel agency skills, he planned for us to experience in a small way some of the discomforts of missionary life—no running water, washing our clothes in buckets with cold water, no electricity. Yet but in some locations, solar heating was available—when it worked.

Toilets with no seats and a bucket to flush with; beds with old dry slats that would break and mosquito nets for protection from the bugs. Luckily we did have at least cold water showers. And the roads—my goodness—surely as rough as the ones leading to "Hell!" and some with water up to the floorboards. We even travelled on a makeshift ferry over crocodile-infested waters. But, honestly, in comparison with the early missionaries, we lived luxuriously!

Inspiration and challenges were everywhere

As we traveled through the poor and primitive countryside, and stopped at the various La Salette missions, it was so inspiring to see the priests and sisters spreading the word and love of Jesus Christ, helping the people build churches with their bare hands and few supplies, organizing schools and training teachers, and gathering medical supplies and healthcare workers to care for the people.

We visited schools where 200-900 children attended sitting on rows of benches. Some classrooms had desks and a chalk board, but most had very few supplies. You can teach children to read and write but if they have no books or paper and pencil, they cannot easily practice what they learn.

We visited health clinics that had no running water or electricity, and very little medicine and supplies. No electricity could mean something as simple as being unable to give a nebulizer treatment to children having difficulty breathing or no oxygen available. Without running water, it has to be collected and boiled on a wood stove in order to sterilize instruments used to sew up a laceration or to clean a wound—all things we take for granted.

Without proper sanitation and medication they cannot treat even the simplest diseases. Without antibiotics it makes it hard to keep infection from spreading and taking the lives of young children and the elderly. We were overwhelmed with the needs we saw!

Working to live another day

A gathering of familiesThe missionaries have found that what the people want most is to work, they want to be able to support themselves and their families. There is an old saying, “Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a person to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime.”

The people work hard and we can assure you that the poor are not lazy! They are up and out walking at 5AM in the morning! We witnessed over 500 attending a 6:30 AM at liturgy, and people walking barefoot with loads on their heads shortly after the rooster sounded its regular 4:30AM alarm.

Because of the social injustices imposed on the poor, many of the menial jobs fall to the downtrodden—working at a quarry, men and women breaking rocks under a blazing sun or carrying three cobblestone-sized rocks on their head and one on a shoulder up a very steep incline hundreds of yards out of the quarry.

Barefoot men and boys pulling and pushing heavy wagons and carts up and down hills with wheels of wood, rubber, metal or any other material that is available. You regularly see women with children on their backs or chest, carrying loads on their heads.

Padre Pedro, a missionary priest of the St. Vincent De Paul order in Antananarivo, a city of three million residents, espouses "the only way out of poverty is to work". His weekly 8:30AM Sunday Masses are attended regularly by 8,000 worshipers, most coming from the 18,000 homes he has had them build in the section of Antananarivo called Camqsua.
Fr. Joe Shea, M.S. with some school children Padre Pedro has provided them a way out of the capitol city's trash bins, dumpsters, and garbage heaps. The Pope will visit Padre Pedro during his early September visit to Madagascar. Yes, the only way out of poverty is to work!