Lane Bunkers, CRS’ country representative in Ethiopia, talks about how programs like Operation Rice Bowl enable Catholics in the U.S. to contribute to much needed development programs in poor countries.

Rainfall patterns in Ethiopia are changing, much as they are all around the world. Previously, farmers could rely on two distinct rainy seasons each year but that’s not the case anymore. We’re also entering our third year of drought conditions which further complicates the growing cycles for these farmers.
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Derek Ho is one of eight seminarians from Mundelein Seminary who recently traveled with CRS Ethiopia as part of the Global Fellows program. Here he shares his thoughts during a day visiting water projects.

Being a Chinese American, no one can be confused that I am a stranger in this country. I am either really lost or I have a distinct purpose for being here. At this time, on this day, in this place, I wish I could say that I knew what my purpose was completely.

Questions about that purpose surface as I wonder what it would be like to live in such poor conditions. What did I do to deserve such riches in my life at home? What is it in my heart that keeps me from thanking God at every moment? What is God showing me or telling me and how should I respond? I only find consolation that God has a divine plan that He wishes to share with me. I know that my purpose in this life is to love, and Pope John Paul II rightly defined love as a “sincere gift of self.” But how?!
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In the late hours of Monday, March 1st, mudslides buried three villages in Uganda’s eastern Bududa district, which has experienced exceptionally heavy rainfall. CRS is currently procuring essential relief items for distribution in affected areas. Yesterday, CRS staff met with local Caritas partners in Bududa parish to better assess the situation. Here is an update from CRS Uganda Head of Programming Cecilia Adalla.

Rains started on Monday at around noon and heavy downpours continued for hours. According to the Bududa parish priest, the two villages of Mabono and Nametsi bore the brunt of the landslides. The priest said that the average population of each village is about 800 people.

We were told that in Nametsi people saw water rushing down the mountains. Many took shelter at the market area as they couldn’t go to their homes due to the force of the water. Around 100 children from the Catholic school in Nametsi also took shelter at the market area. They had already left school and couldn’t go home.
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Teklu Hadgu shows CRS staff how he continues to use irrigation to improve his life. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Today I returned to a water project I last visited 18 months ago. This is an incredible place, where the villagers have worked with CRS to tap a natural spring. The spring is large enough that it provides water year-round to two faucets, one to an animal trough and the other to fields further downhill.

Here is one of Ethiopia’s oases: a slash of verdant vegetation cutting a wide path down the rocky slope. And here is where Teklu Hadgu—the 69-year-old father of eight I wrote about in the fall of 2008and who is featured in this year’s Operation Rice Bowl—works the magic of his green thumb.
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Daniel Stover, one of eight seminarians from Mundelein Seminary traveling with CRS Ethiopia as part of the Global Fellows program, shares his thoughts after visiting the Sidist Kilo Missionaries of Charity Home for the Sick and Dying Destitutes in Addis Ababa.

The Missionaries of Charity love. They love Christ, and they see Him in the faces of those that they serve.

Today I met the Missionaries of Charity for the first time, and their love for everyone they encounter was obvious. When we met Sister Carmen, she greeted us with joy on her face because she saw Christ in us.
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The Missionaries of Charity feed more than 40,000 people in their homes across Ethiopia thanks to food donated by the U.S. and CRS private donations. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Eleven priests and seminarians are visiting Ethiopia as part of the Global Fellows program, with the aim of seeing CRS development projects and then sharing their new understanding with Catholics in the U.S. One of their first visits was to a Missionaries of Charity home for sick and dying destitutes.

In these homes, the sisters welcome and care for those who have nowhere else to turn. It isn’t easy to see the suffering of the residents, with many dying from AIDS, fighting tuberculosis, or living with severe disabilities. Here are some of reflections from the Global Fellows after their visit:

- “You see the face of Christ on these people, especially the workers and sisters.”
- “This place is huge—800 people and they feed them two times a day—more than most people outside the center.”
- “It was amazing to hear Sister Carmen say ‘We don’t turn anyone away.’”
- “The smells.”
- “I remember thinking ‘I don’t want to touch them, I don’t want to get sick.’ And then something compelled me to touch them, and I started blessing each person I saw.”
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Michael Wyrzykowski is one of eight seminarians from Mundelein Seminary traveling with CRS Ethiopia as part of the Global Fellows program. Here he shares his thoughts as the trip begins.

It is Thursday, February 18, 2010, and it is the start of our trip to Ethiopia. As I open my journal to reflect on the events that are about to unfold in the next eight days, I make few distinct notes. We are cruising at 600 miles per hour, at an altitude of 33,000 feet, and few hundred miles south of the most eastern town of Canada named after Saint John. These might seem irrelevant points of information, yet for me they are very concrete, facts proving that yes, indeed, I am going to Africa! This is really happening!

I know that this journey is going to be an experience of a lifetime for many reasons. But if I can sum it up in one sentence I would say: To fall in love with Africa, a love that will remain faithful through all the distractions, various commitments, frustrations, and finally the busyness of our lives here in the United States. To remain true to a love that will authentically express the message of Ethiopia to our people of United States—a charity that advocates and calls others to be generous with their resources, time, and efforts on behalf of the most vulnerable, the poor, the sick, and the abandoned. Perhaps these people to be embraced do not need to be thousands of miles away but can be in our nation, our cities, our neighborhoods, or even next door to our house.
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A luggage airport tag from Global Fellows trip to Ethiopia. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Thomas Pierzchanowski is one of eight seminarians from Mundelein Seminary traveling with CRS Ethiopia as part of the Global Fellows program. Here he shares his thoughts as he flew to Addis Ababa to start the trip on February 18, 2010.

We are still on the airplane traveling from the United States to Ethiopia. Just yesterday and the day before we were in Baltimore attending an orientation at CRS headquarters. Everyone is very excited about our trip.

Our orientation covered many topics, for example, matters of health and safety. It was also a great opportunity to learn more about CRS and its projects. Through these programs, CRS helps not only all the direct beneficiaries but also all of us Catholics in the United States by helping us to live out our faith and call to solidarity with our brothers and sisters overseas.
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By Bernice Yalley

The village of Worla, though not expansive, has decided to create two savings clubs. It would have been difficult to manage a club of 50 people and so they neatly bisected themselves. The first group has called themselves Remember and is now going through the process of electing a chairperson. I am one of the designated vote collectors and so I am standing outside, discretely hidden in the shade of a plantain tree with one of the field agents, Pa Willie. Remember participants file past and drop rocks into either my or Pa Willie’s bowl voting for their candidate of choice. I laugh as an old woman rocks her hips and dances away after placing her stone. In the decision between the two candidates, a woman or a man, the woman won by a landslide. Evidently she is someone the rest of the community recognizes as a strong leader, someone hardworking and well respected. It doesn’t matter that she can neither read nor write. She can lay down the law.
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CRS is helping to distribute essential household items to families affected by the earthquake, including buckets for water storage. Photo courtesy of CADECOM

Throughout December, dozens of earthquakes and tremors rocked northern Malawi, culminating in a 6.0-magnitude quake on December 20, 2009. More than 3,000 families abandoned their homes due to extensive damage or significant cracks that made them uninhabitable.

“We thought the end had come,” said family after family interviewed.

CRS immediately began responding with its local Church partner, the Diocese of Mzuzu. CRS Malawi first expedited a regular food shipment to the affected region, using that visit to assess the situation. Shelter emerged as the primary need. Over the past month, CRS has transported and distributed materials to enable affected families to build temporary shelters—a critical need as the rainy season begins.

CRS is also addressing health and sanitation issues. Project staff are teaching residents about good hygiene, and CRS is digging garbage pits to improve cleanliness in affected villages. The district has also asked CRS to assist with distributions of food, mosquito nets, soap, and water purification tablets.
CRS continues to monitor and respond to the situation as additional needs emerge and funding allows.

-Reported by Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for eastern and southern Africa