ethiopia

today's post isn't light and fluffy, as most of my entries usually are.  nope, it's more like heavy and heart wrenching and depressing.  but still, necessary.  excited to read on??  :) i thought so....

i think we all remember the famine of the 80's that hit Ethiopia hard.  i was just around ten years of age at the time when journalists and photographers and aid workers brought the world to Africa, or Africa to the world, and i have vivid memories of images that impacted my life at the time and to this very day.  i believe it was my first visual and mental picture in real time, showing children fighting for their very lives in a place that appeared like hell on earth.  i was struck as a child~ deeply~ that here i was in North America, eating my fill and then some, every single day, while so many like me were losing their fight as hunger and disease literally sucked the life from them, as the world watched with horror.

it completely blew my mind, and i believe shaped my core in ways that tied intricately to my God-given passions.  no mistaking it.  until then, i'd been living a mostly idyllic existence (think hopscotch, kick-the-can, skipping, pigtails and lots of Mom's homemade buttertarts) aware of worldwide hunger, but never actually seeing the pictures, the faces, the excruciating agony.  it was the start of an uneasiness, a necessary and healthy uneasiness, i believe, that i could no longer partake in the abundance of my lavish life with an ignorance to the suffering that was now forever etched in my mind.  a quick Google Image search today of Ethiopia 1984 brings it all back....you too remember it well, i'm sure.  if not, check it out and brace yourself~ the images are so very sad.

 in more recent months, i'd been hearing little bits here and there about another drought hitting the Horn of Africa.  this article printed in the Washington Post yesterday, however, lays out the seriousness of the crisis in harsh detail.  i don't for a second understand the "why" of this complicated issue.  it is hard to fathom that such an event is even possible again, even with a rain failure.  i don't even pretend to get this, and even a quick skim of the comments attached to the article show there is much confusion and differing opinions as to why this beautiful nation finds itself in such utter turmoil once again.  it is obviously multifaceted.  no simple fix exists.  still, i wrestle with the paradox of our two worlds.  as i'm sometimes guilty of letting the water run while i brush my teeth, Ethiopian women dig holes on barren land in hopes of reaching the water table, only to retrieve a small amount of murky water to give to their children.  Lord have mercy.  

kind of makes my head spin...whatever can we do, you might be asking?  i'd say check out Compassion Canada, World Vision, or Samaritan's Purse if you wish to get on board and do something.  it would be a great starting point.  even contact them directly and ask what is being done specifically in the hardest hit regions through the projects and workers already there in Ethiopia.    also, i think it's yet another reminder to live lives of gratitude, every single day.  i can often be guilty of wishing for more.  shame on me.  it's pathetic really.  we are so rich, so comfortable, spoiled to excess in comparison.  also, if ever you have the chance to go to this African land, this vast and magnificent place (of which i've only seen a teeny fraction of but still fell completely in love with) i'd say do it!  without hesitation.  it is life-changing and the desire to be involved then becomes that much more persistent.  which is good, i think.  also, pray for this beautiful country.  obviously, Ethiopia is incredibly near and dear to our family~  it's AJ's birthplace after all...imagine mothers and fathers there staring at their kids just as we do ours, sensing the incredible potential that lies within their fragile bodies, brimming with the same hopes and dreams we have for our children.  it is universal.  anything we muster here feels so small, but maybe if we all do something there will be relief for even a few.