On the final day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, this entry was written by Gary Meyerl during a flight leaving Ghana for the United States

FOJ 2008 delegation pose with Thomas, Jonathan, Williams and Baba at the grounds of the Jesuit Retreat Center in Cape Coast, Ghana.

As we leave Ghana and begin to make our long journey back home – a journey marred with anticipation and anxiety, excitement and trepidation, sorrow and joy – I cannot help but recognize that our Frontiers of Justice delegation is not the same group of people who arrived in Baltimore on June 25, 2008. Like the soil used by countless farmers in Burkina Faso and Ghana, our hearts, minds and lives have been turned and tilled unearthing in each of us a new way of seeing the world and transforming the way that we hear, see and experience the Gospel message lived out in the ordinary and extraordinary. Like Peter, James and John (Luke 9: 26 - 38), we have had a transformative mountaintop experience and are now faced with the prospect of beginning our descent down the mountain and returning home to our families, friends and communities.

Seeing the world through the eyes of our brothers and sisters in Burkina Faso and Ghana, we are called to share our renewed vision with those who have the eyes to see. Listening to the world with a heartened sense of compassion and understanding, we are called to share what we have experienced with those who have the ears to hear. Through our Frontiers of Justice journey in Burkina Faso and Ghana, we have encountered:

• A world in which the stranger is always welcome and two worlds can become one.
• A world in which the visitor is cherished, highly anticipated and the visit is rarely forgotten.
• A world in which the words "You are Welcome" are genuinely offered as a greeting and a rich symbol of hospitality.
• A world which invests in the human person as an integral and authentic part of human development.
• A world in which natural resources are cultivated and shared in promotion of the common good.
• A world in which nothing – and I mean nothing – goes to waste.
• A world in which the Catholic Church works in partnership with CRS to bring hope to people without hope and food to people without food.
• A world where school administrators like Fr. Francis and Mrs. Gamma have learned to do more with less, accomplishing much with limited resources.
• A world in which we are called to share our poverty and our wealth with one another.
• A world formed by the loving hands and heart of our Creator, to be cared for, cultivated and shared with all members of our one human family.
• A Eucharistic world where, by sharing our brokenness, we can cross the borders that separate us and live in solidarity as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Tanya Davis, a high school teacher from Sacramento, wrote this reflection after spending more than two weeks visiting Ghana and Burkina Faso through CRS and NCEA’s Frontiers of Justice program.

"You are welcome!" What does this mean? In American culture we usually shorten the phrase to "You’re welcome." The vast majority of time when I reply "You’re welcome," I say it because that is just what you say as a response to someone after a thank you; I don’t give it much thought I just say it.

However, I think I can speak for all of us in the Frontiers of Justice 2008 delegation when I say that ,"You are welcome!" took on a whole new meaning while in Ghana. Whenever we encountered new people their very first greeting was always "You are welcome!" with the warmest smiles. At first that seemed out of context and a bit strange, yet we quickly grew accustomed to it and we truly knew that, yes we were welcome!

We were indeed welcome in Ghana. Sometimes, we witnessed the "You are welcome!" visually. We were constantly greeted by the children alongside the road or working in the fields with a huge grin and an exuberant hand waving hello. We were welcomed with a round of applause at mass. We were welcomed in schools and homes. We were welcomed in the most remote villages.

We were welcomed by the CRS staff especially Thomas Awiapo who coordinated our Ghana visit and the excellent CRS drivers Baba, Williams and Jonathan who did not fail to greet us "You are welcome!" each morning as we set off on another day of travel.

At the sites we visited (schools, orphanages, HIV centers, diocesan offices) we were greeted with a personal handshake. This handshake was full of life, love and warmth. The phrase "You are welcome!" was repeated time after time, from person to person. Yes, we were strangers in a new land but we instantly felt we were part of one human family.

Finally, we were welcomed by the people CRS serves—the most vulnerable and under served in society. Even from those that have little, they welcomed us as if we were long lost family. At the end of our visit we were given guinea fowl eggs, peanuts and even live chickens. Yes, we were welcomed by the most inspiring, hardworking, hope-filled people we’ve ever met even if they struggle to live day by day.

Now the phrase "You are welcome!" is no longer foreign or unfamiliar. It is one that is enduring, real and an invitation to take part in a family that extends past our own families, nations, ethnicities and religions. "You are welcome!" truly embodies the CRS mission of global solidarity.

On the ninth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited a large diocese in the northern region of Ghana. This entry was written by Sinead Naughton.

Don’t be fooled by the red, dusty road leading into the diocese of Damongo, they are paving roads of a very different kind there, roads of hope and solidarity! Damongo is a large diocese in the northern region of Ghana. It is a poor area, often affected by long droughts or the ravages of flooding, but it is making impressive strides in two important areas, girls’ education and peace building and conflict resolution.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the eighth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, a member of the group reflects on their experiences. This entry was written by Jodi Dean.

Sometimes, after hearing the struggles of people facing extreme poverty, you begin losing sight of hope. Your eyes become fixed on the dehumanizing images and your mind can only focus on the stories of grief and hardship. After one week of traveling where we visited a malnutrition center, microfinance projects, HIV/AIDS education and clinic, and a few centers that have taken in abandoned or shunned women and children, I have found small miracles of hope. These miracles of hope are seen in the local CRS staff members and their partnerships with other community and church leaders who have empowered people, especially women, and as a result they are able to live better. Whether it has been a woman telling me she now can feed her children and send them to schools, or another woman who has been ostracized because the accusation of witchcraft now finds refugee in a center where she meets 400 other woman with the same story, or woman in a rural area having access to food and ARV drugs, all of these woman have been miracles of hope. What I have learned from these women is if we choose to live, then we must choose to hope. It takes risk and a leap of faith to hope. To hope in our God and to hope in each other. How does one pay gratitude for this lesson?

Before and throughout this whole trip, I have been challenged by the question of how we live in solidarity with one another. Yesterday, the 10 of us had mass outside on a hill overlooking beautiful trees and in the distance we heard the drums of a celebration in the village. Fr. Roger spoke about how there are about 40 wells because of a partnership with parishes in Michigan. These communities have safe and clean drinking water, because of help from others, perhaps another miracle of hope. As we shared together the Eucharistic prayer, it was then that I forgot where I came from. I forgot I was white. I forgot I was a woman. I forgot I was American. I forgot I was a teacher.

All I knew was that I was a child of God. It was a moment that moved me deeply. A moment that made me realize it is our dignity as children of God that unifies us even when the world around us divides us. While the reality of the world creates gaps, my love and concern for our human family grows closer. This is one reason why I was lead to be here. To learn, to question, and to empower our youth to work towards justice. How does one live solidarity? And is it possible? I do not know the answer. As the poet Rilke says, “Live the questions. And one distant day you will live into your answer.

Sinead Naughton, a member of our delegation and a CRS fair trade ambassador learns how to weave a basket.

On the seventh day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited Trade Aid, a fair trade association of basket weavers in Ghana. After spending three wonderful days in Navrongo meeting Catholic education officials and visiting high schools including the St. John’s Integrated Technical High School, one of three secondary schools for the deaf in Ghana where the deaf students gave a sign name to each member of our delegations we moved on to Bolgatanga where we visited Trade Aid, a fair trade association of basket weavers that works in partnership with A Greater Gift.

Here is Sinead Naughton’s reflection on the visit with the basket weavers of trade aid.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the sixth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited the Notre Dame Minor Seminary/High School in Navrongo, Ghana. This entry was written by Gary Meyerl. Read the rest of this entry »

On the sixth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited the Notre Dame Minor Seminary/High School in Navrongo, Ghana. This entry was written by Morgan Daniels. Read the rest of this entry »

On the fourth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited the Recuperation and Nutritional Education Center that assisted malnourished children and their mothers. This entry was written by Neal Deles.

CRS provides food to this center to enable mothers to improve the health of their babies. Out of over 400 babies who come to the center, they would lose 6 babies. On the day of our visit, a young mother was wailing as she had just lost her baby the night before. She had apparently come to the center too late and by the time they arrived her baby was severely malnourished and eventually died.

Jodi Dean wrote this prayer after a visit to the center:

A Prayer for our Wailing Woman

Wailing.

Soil of brokenness.

Red earth marks the separation between the fight to live

and the death we breathe.

Wailing.

Awareness caged.

Knowledge imprisoned.

Keys robbed.

Wailing.

Tears of solidarity.

Blood of womanhood, 

A rapid flow,

a whirlwind dance to pierce the heart.

Wailing.

A flower blooms.

Soft hope.

Despair overpowered by its sweetness.

A fragrance of justice in the red earth.

Wailing.

It was tough to walk around the center and to see the smiling babies while this mother grieved the loss of her child. While on one hand the center has saved so many babies throughout the years, we also witnessed the reality that malnourishment continues to be an issue in Burkina Faso.Another death closed our visit to Burkina Faso. The evening of our arrival, an old woman had died, at the Delwende Center for old women, who had been shunned from their villages after being accused of witchcraft. She had been given a refuge at the center and a community to mourn her death. There were no wailing women but there was comfort in knowing that she dies in the company of women who had since become her family. On this visit, we could not comfort this grieving mother.

In three days we had witnessed life and death in Burkina Faso. We also witnessed the tremendous impact of the work of CRS in partnership with the local Catholic Church to serve the women and girls who had been pushed to the margins. We saw firsthand the power of food and education in helping people to continue to live in dignity; we witnessed the hope in eyes of the school children who now have a school in their village; we saw babies nursed back to health and faced the stark reality that not everyone can be saved; and in the case of the woman at Delwende, we saw what it meant to grow old and to die with dignity.

On the fourth day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group visited Manni, in one of the poorest regions of Burkina Faso. This entry was written by Neal Deles.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the third day of the Frontiers of Justice visit, the group traveled over two hours from Kaya to Manni to visit a CRS-supported microfinance program with women in one of the poorest regions of Burkina Faso. This entry was written by Jeff Goldsmith.

Read the rest of this entry »