Dear friends,

The flight went well last night. I found myself seated besides a muslim, and one who was quite dominant. It was a young fellow dressed in his attire. He made a point of not letting me use the arm rest at all and his elbow would literally go into my ribs. It was clear that he was doing it on purpose. At some point, I thought : that is enough. I pushed back and got some of the arm rest. And then for a couple hours it was a game between the two of us of not letting the other one gain an inch. I flew quite often, and I have never seen anything like that. Then there was the next competition of who would pray his God the longer. I took my Breviary and started to pray. He looked around for his bag and took out his Coran. I continued on, closed my Breviary and pretended to fall asleep. He stoped immediately reading his Coran and started looking at the Lion King. I «woke up» and started praying again, which he could not do because it would have been too obvious.

I will give him victory over the arm rest, because it was his left arm and he could use freely his right arm, whereas I had to use only my left arm. But, as far as praying goes, the jury (that is myself) is unanimous : I won easy. The True God got more prayers than the false god.

As soon as I landed, I realized that I was in a different country. A secular one. Everything was different, very modern and not religious at all. «Hello Sir» was the greeting. Also, you could feel a certain tension immediately. There is a racial tension in South Africa. Father told me that you can barely find a job if you are a young white man. This all has to do with the history of South Africa.

Father was there to meet me. People drive on the left in South Africa, same as Trinidad. It is a headache as it is easy to get into the wrong lane because we are used to driving on the right. Thank God, Father had a good training in Trinidad. Father has rented a place for the few days of my visit. A nice house. Everything fenced with iron gates and electric wires around the property. (I have seen that a lot in Nigeria as well and in Trinidad). Nice place except for this fencing which shows the insecurity of the country. I was happy to find back the hot water. But I was getting used to cold shower and almost enjoyed it the last day in Nigeria.

In the morning, I served Father’s Mass. We went to a sushi restaurant to do the abstinence of meat for the Vigil of the Assumption, even though it is not mandatory anymore. We then went to a grocery store to buy some supplies for the evening. Again, the tension is palpable if you are white. In Nigeria, during the week, outside the airport, I never saw one single white person, but there was no tension at all. I was a Bishop for the Nigerians, not a white person. Here, white people are 7% of the population, but it is very tense. Many have left the country because it was becoming too difficult to live here, or even dangerous if you owned land.

At 7pm, we had Mass with Confirmation. Only a handful of people. Very nice people. Four Confirmations. We drank something together to celebrate the first Vespers of the Assumption and went to bed.

My first impressions of South Africa? Modern, secular, and a bit tense.

Air Canada is going on strike. My flights all the way to Montréal are with Swiss International Airlines. I should be able to get at least to Montréal by plane.

God bless you all!

Mgr Roy