Ethiopia: Building up the Church to help improve the lives of the people

Monday 16 July 2012

By Eva-Maria Kolmann
Kairos Catholic Journal

TODAY is a big day. The whole village of Poul has joined together to greet Bishop Angelo Moreschi of Gambella. As if weightless, five elderly men and five elderly women leap into the air, performing a half-turn as they do so. They move effortlessly to the rhythm of the drums. It is unusual for the elderly people to dance; normally the dancing is done by the young people while their elders watch. Fr. Desaleng Doelaso explains: “According to tradition, the older people dance to welcome a tribal chieftain. They greet him outside the village and accompany him inside with dancing. Today, the Bishop has come. He is worthy of the same reverence as the tribal chieftains in former times.”

Afterwards, a great procession of men, women and countless children accompanies him to the building site where the community hall – financed by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) – is taking shape. In future, the faithful will gather here for Holy Mass, prayer, catechism, educational programmes and other activities. Traditionally, buildings in this region are made of timber and clay. Such buildings are cheap, but they only last for a few years before collapsing from the effects of rain, floods or termites. To prevent this from happening again, a more solid building is being constructed.

The villagers are proud of this. Previously there was nothing here except trees and tiny huts. The village is almost literally at the end of the world. The “road” is almost impassable in many places, even in the dry season. When the Baro River overflows its banks in the rainy season, the village is completely cut off from the outside world for four months. The inhabitants cannot even reach the neighbouring villages. “In this period, the parish priest can only come here by motorboat,” Bishop Moreschi explains.

Until the community hall is ready, the people must continue to sit on the ground under the trees when the priest comes. Today they are addressed by no lesser person than the Bishop himself. Many of the villagers are only now preparing for baptism. Bishop Moreschi speaks the Lord’s Prayer with them and tells them about God. At the back, women breast-feed their babies. The village elders sit at the front. They all want to learn more about the Gospels.

A little girl, about one year old, is sitting on her mother’s lap and nibbling a biscuit which the Bishop had previously caused to be distributed. She has noticeable blotches on her face and looks sick. These symptoms are caused by parasites – and no wonder, because the people bathe in the river and use the river’s water for everything. It is easy to imagine how many diseases are transmitted in this way. Whereas in Europe the greatest possible purity of baby food is a major subject of debate, the babies here swallow the water from the river together with everything it contains. But the people have no other choice. Everything happens in the river.

Poul is bitterly poor. Many of the children are visibly undernourished. The soil in the Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella is actually fertile. But it lacks an irrigation system, for example, that would allow the fields to be cultivated in the dry season. An additional fact is that, when foreign investors buy the land, the local population does not benefit from it.

Again and again, women are to be seen beside the road carrying sacks of flour on their heads. They cannot nourish their children on flour alone – but at least it is a beginning. The women are coming from the corn mill, erected by the Catholic Church. Previously there had been nothing. In the long run, the Church will build even more things here to improve the lives of the people. “When the Church comes, everything is fertile,” say many people in the Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella. The priests can be depended on. They come, even when it is difficult. In the rainy season they even come by motorboat.

Used with permission of ACN News.