karens in Bangkok for Pope Francis visit
Twelve hours drive to the capital from our distant mountains. But for nothing in the world we would have missed this appointment with the Pope whose last visit (John Paul II) dates back to ... 35 years! For the karens of the region, most of whom have never even seen the capital, it is a unique event in a man's life. What a surprise first, to discover the modernity of the capital, when our villages lack everything: "I do not understand why we illuminate the roads all night, when we do not even have electricity in our villages" , remarks one of them. Emotion of being reunited with the large crowd of Christians of Thailand (yet so few) gathered in the national stadium: it is the whole church that is present, with the colorful costumes of the different minorities, the various clothes of the different congregations religious, various types of Christians from the South and North, the plain and the mountains. Huge fervor finally, when the pope passes in his white car, smiling
