Introduction
The stagiaires' meeting took place in Mongu in the Western Province in Zambia. The stagiaires of SAP and Zambia met together and in total, we were thirteen plus the two animators and the Vice Provincial of Zambia for a short while. However, it was sad that Gilbert Rukundo, stagiaire in Malawi, could not join us due to visa problems.

The meeting started on Tuesday 17th February 2009 by a short recollection. The input was given by Fr Peter Mateso and it was about discipleship. Being a disciple is first being with Jesus, being his companion despite the fact that sometimes we are sent like lambs among wolves.

The following days, we continued with the sharing of our experiences. In between, we had an input of Sister Christina about sexuality, which was explained in the wider perspective of relations, source of energy, emotion and our incompleteness. "It is the single most powerful vehicle there is to lead us to selfless joy. A healthy sexuality is the root of all love, creativity, joy and commitment. Unhealthy sexuality causes selfishness, unhappiness, pain and misery as does nothing else."

We had another input by Sister Maimbolwa on some points about the local customs in view of the guided visit to the King's palace. In fact, our meeting ended by an outing to some culturally important places, the visit to the bishop and a barbecue at Namushakende community.

The life of stagiaires.

In very open and cordial atmosphere, we got down to business as regard issues that touch our life the most: our joys, challenges and frustrations. The sharing of each one of us was listened to with attention, love, admiration and reverence. The sharing was done in all confidentiality. However, we feel that there are some general points that could be shared.

This fellow was disappointed and even angry about his appointment to a place where he had never dreamt of working. For the first time, he thought of 'Going home'. After sometime, he said: "wait a minute! About whom is this appointment?" Then he went to pray, and afterwards, with all joy, he went to this place and now wished the stage were three years instead of two.

We therefore recognize that when Christ is the center of our vocation journey, we have an eternal "spring" that gives us life, the energy, the inspiration, determination and courage to say YES even when we are unsure about the future. We agreed that recollection, retreat and other means are important for our spiritual growth and we encouraged each other to take interest in organizing these spiritual activities and we encourage the communities to take interest in the spiritual life of their stagiaires by providing the means.

We recognized the positive impact that the culture of people has on our lives. We agreed Stage is an important moment for learning new cultural values and reliving in more conscious way our own cultural values. We were mutually encouraged taking personal and conscious interest in the culture of the people among whom we live.

We appreciated the communities which have accepted us to make a practical experience of missionary life. We recognized the roles of the members in making these communities better. We believe that we, stagiaires, should be able to influence our communities positively and we should not hesitate to take initiatives. We also encourage the communities to provide means and enabling environment for the stagiaires to make their impact. We are not limited to the community we live but are also involved in the wider Christian community within which we carry out our apostolate. We shared the joys and good moments of these encounters. For us, they are moments of growth and inspiration. However, we recognized the times we made mistakes that have brought us pain and disappointment. We have encountered non-cooperation from the people with whom we work, and we have been frustrated when our initiatives were stalled and nothing seemed to be working. In such situation, the support and encouragement are helpful and we encourage this disposition in our confreres. Without doubt, community meetings and sharing play a central role to make our communities better. We agreed that it is an important platform on which members make others part of their daily life. Especially for us stagiaires, it is the moment to make ourselves heard. It is important that the stagiaires participate in the organization and animation of these meetings, in case it takes long to hold one, they should not hesitate to ask for a meeting to be held. We think that Stage starts with language course; therefore it is not good to take stagiaires as visitors in the hosting communities during the language course; but rather help them integrate the community life.

Evaluation of stagiaires could be moment of joy and fulfillment for us, yet it could be also moment of anxiety and disappointment. We really believe that the role of the confreres to evaluate stagiaires is a Christian responsibility and we appreciate their effort and commitment in doing it dispassionately. We recognize the difficulties that confreres face in communicating to the stagiaires his weak points; however, we felt it is an issue of justice and fairness to disclose to the stagiaire what they really think of him.

Recommendation

With all our joys and pain, we would like to suggest some points we think important.

- The visit by the stagiaires' coordinator should be regular and coordinative and to have some sort of influence on the communities and the ability to confront the community on the issues raised by the stagiaire or any member of the community.
- The reminder that the continuous evaluation of stage should be taken seriously and not only the midyear and the final evaluation.
- The processing of official documents (visa and travelling papers) should be considered central and someone should be in charge. There should be coordination among the persons in charge of the travels, country of origin, current residence and the country of new appointment.
- We feel that stagiaires should be consulted in deciding the meeting places, time, duration and issues to be discussed.
- To improve communication between the provincial superiors, organizers of the meeting and the stagiaires.
- From the sharing, we had the impression that stagiaires are expected to work with the Youth. We think this should not be the case. The stagiaire might not have great interest or skill in the youth apostolate. We think it is better to discuss it with him.
- The renewal of the Declaration of Intent: some find it meaningful during stage, while others suggest to have it in the first year of Theology.
- It could be better for stagiaires to have their driving course/licence done during the language course.

Conclusion

We thank our provinces to mobilize time and means in order for us to have this meeting. We see these efforts as a positive step to the Mega province. We have learnt many lessons from this meeting and expressed ourselves freely. Coming together helps us to know and encourage each other. Special thanks to our two animators Frs Romaric and Peter and to the centre which accommodated us.

Ignatius Tang & Mbilizi Ghislain
2/23/2009