WaitingForTheBodyOfStDomBoscoToArrive

During our last visit to Timor-Leste, the Pope (or "Papa" as he is called by the locals) decided that the body of St. Dom Bosco should be flown around the world to visit local schools that have been named for him. St Bosco was famous for helping needy kids receive an education and the visit was a way of recognizing the efforts of schools named after him. St Michael's, the school where we are working, was selected to be one of the schools participating in the ceremony to welcome the body when it arrived at the airport in Dili. Mr Crisna, the principal,took this honor very seriously and had the students in the various marching groups (band, drum majorettes, etc.) practicing in the streets around the school every day for weeks. Just as a reminder - it is a million degrees there every day and almost all of the uniforms have long trousers, long sleeves, and various layers of very hot clothing. Even the girls with short skirts have to wear pantyhose
On the day of the scheduled arrival Doug and I were invited to be there so that I could cover the arrival in my blog. We arrived late, but fortunately the body was late also. The 50+ kids in hot uniforms, waited along with us for hours in the blazing heat until we were told that St Bosco's plane was delayed for several hours in Indonesia. We took advantage of the delay to go somewhere to get cool, but the kids waited. When we returned we were told about another delay. At some point, with all the delays, we gave up the quest to see the arrival of St Bosco and called it a day. We learned later that the body arrived after 7 pm. The kids (and Mr. Crisna) had been waiting out in the sun for over 10 hours. The body lay in state in Dili for one day before being transported to a small town several hours drive out of Dili. The kids were transported in open air trucks to be with the body during its three day stay there.
Having been raised Lutheran and not Catholic, I wanted to understand the rationale for St Bosco's world wide trip. "It is because Papa wanted it," I was told by a local.