In the tradition of the Oromo tribe in Ethiopia horses are adorned for the great celebrations of life: a wedding, a birth, a funeral… And now, the farmers of Abo Kaso wanted to celebrate by adorning their horses that they´ve got water thanks to the drilling of a well, as a sign of how important water is for life!

Last Friday, June 14, a hundred people waited on the main stone road for the vehicle of the members of the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle who live in Muketuri. From there several kilometers across the field to the place of the well a score of peasants on horseback surrounded the car and singing they started their typical dances that are done on the horse back. All of them with the coloured saddle with the motive of the Lion of Judah, a sign of Ethiopian culture.

These were sublime minutes! A vast landscape of the Ethiopian plateau, 3,000 meters above sea level, people hardened by poverty and cold, today, wrapped up in celebration: having a water tap has changed the lives of 68 families, more than 500 people!

When arriving at the place of the well the construction of a 4 meters high structure of reinforced concrete is glimpsed. A deposit of 10.000 liters is going to be placed there from where the gardens will be irrigated with a system of drip irrigation… When approaching to the place a group of women dancing and singing to the rhythm of their clapping hands receive us, next to the deposit they are already taking water from every morning and afternoon; an event that this community celebrates like a milestone…

The Community of Abo Kaso has waited for 4 years, since they made the petition to the MCSPA to get water. Many of the children in Muketuri’s malnourished children’s care programme come from this village, which until now only disposed of water from small streams and puddles, a murky, scarce water that forced women and girls to walk miles to fill their 25-litre jerrycans.

Now, they have a well with a flow of 4 litres per second, for domestic use and to plant gardens in the dry season and add vegetables to their diet.

As part of the programme, they have received training in home gardening, composting, crop rotation, nutrition and hygiene.

It was a great experience to celebrate with these men, women and children the importance of water, an event comparable to the celebrations of the mystery of life, birth, death … and now, to have water!

At the celebration, for which they put up an overhang, benches, and cooked a sheep, the speeches followed a prayer of thanks from the local elders and poems from several young people.

The MCSPA missionaries thanked God for the occasion, and proposed a prayer for the common dream of a more just world, as God wants it, and for which people leave their homes and families and share their lives with people so far away.

The applause followed the request to cooperate all from our possibilities so that the children of this community could have a dignified future.

Lourdes Larruy, MCSPA.

20 farmers from the villages of Arkiso and Gore Ketema visit the agricultural project at Jebene, Ethiopia.

On 30th May – the feast day of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to Elizabeth – a group of farmers from the villages of Arkiso and Jebene from the Ethiopian plateau visited Jebene, where the MCSPA is present since 2014.

With great expectations, the farmers trekked to St. Joseph’s Mother and Child Centre in Muketuri where two vehicles were waiting to ferry them to Jebene, 20 km from Muketuri on a gravel and dirt road. In Jebene, the MCSPA started in 2014 excavating hand-dug wells and organizing agricultural courses to start family vegetable gardens. This was following the request of the women and men after seeing the vegetable garden of the Mother and Child Centre at Muketuri. They demonstrated their interest by producing in the dry season. From then, 70 men and women have undertaken the course, and in 2016 a well was drilled and a drip-irrigation system was set up in a 1,000 sq. m. plot. The Emalaikat Foundation, Arcadi Motion Picutres, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Foundation Harena participated in this project.

The secret to this community’s proper functioning is due to the presence of an extraordinary man: Tibabew (a word which means “wisdom”) who is the owner of the land where the project is being carried out. Tibabew is a man recognized by all as a “good man”. In 2018, he offered more land to enable more farmers to use the drip-irrigation system to produce onions, zucchini, cabbage, spinach, carrots, beetroot etc. during the whole year. This is a big change in a society where only some cereals are produced in the rainy season. Now they have 3 harvests in a year which the families share for the own consumption and they have also started to sell vegetables in the local markets nearby.

Furthermore, in 2018 a feeding programme for children under 7 years and pregnant women was started; this was to ensure growth through an appropriate nutrition.

Tibebew was proud to explain how they shared the vegetables produced and how he goes to the vegetable garden every morning to collect vegetables for the feeding programme.

It was an encounter full of optimism and hope, but it was also a challenge for the visitors. All were happy to see the fruits of their effort and they shared their fight to improve their situation and that of their children, very much like Mary and Elizabeth in the Gospel!

The women of Jebene prepared food for all: they slaughtered a sheep and shared the bread that the visitors brought from their villages. At the coffee ceremony, the leaders form each place gave thanks for the encounter.

The met each other, they shared experiences … they visited each other.
Many expressed their wish to repeat this experience and in the future the farmers would visit the different communities.

If it has been possible at Jebene, it will also be possible in Arkiso and in Gore Ketema! And, we hope in many more villages!!

Lourdes Larruy. MCSPA

Bishop Dominic Kimengich visited Kenya Security Personnel in Todonyang and Lobur area. He encouraged them to continue ensuring peace around these areas and the Kenyan border at large.

After the 6th Peace conference that was held in Lodwar a few days ago, Bishop Dominic visited some of the border areas along the Lake Deanery, encouraging Christians to remember that peace starts with disarming our hearts and minds first in order to be able to do away with guns.

The Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) is also trying to build peace in these areas with the different development work carried out for the people along the border areas through dams that provide water for both communities, a health post to provide health and curb malnutrition through the Mother and Child Centres that they run, and all the pastoral activities to constanly speak about peace. Let us go out and be people who bring peace wherever we go.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossian 3:15.

Lillian Omari – MCSPA