Hello,
So, it has been quite a while since I’ve written. Before my trip to Burkina Faso; which began over a month ago. I am sorry about that, but I was really trying to figure out how to write about the experience. It may take more than one post, so we’ll see how much I write tonight.
First of all, let me ask you all for prayers for the repose of the soul of my Aunt Gerrie who passed away yesterday. I didn’t know her well, but I loved what I knew of her and I know that she was well liked by many people. So please say a prayer for her.
Well, onto the trip. It was an amazing experience. I have done some international travel in the past, including to poor countries but every experience is unique. As I said before I left, I have supported Catholic Relief Services for a long time, but was very happy to be going to see what they did first hand.
The trip started out with us going to Baltimore. Baltimore is where the headquarters for CRS is at, so we were to have an orientation and meet the others who were going to be traveling with us. In the group were 6 seminarians (counting me) from here at Mundelein Seminary and one of the priests from here, a priest from the Tucson, Arizona Diocese, and a priest from a religious order who is currently assigned out East. There were also two staff members from CRS. One of these is the director of the GlobalFellows program and the other works on Capital Hill in advocacy, a lobbyist.
Our group hit it off right away and we enjoyed each other’s company even during the orientation sessions. The sessions included topics such as CRS structure, general CRS programs, a briefing by the Western Africa coordinator at the headquarters and how to spread the CRS message. We also heard about CRS’ US operations, how they spread the word to Catholics here in the US to get support. This was pretty interesting, but mainly stuff that I was at least somewhat familiar with.
One of the most common programs that people know about CRS is their Operation Rice Bowl. This is a program that they run each Lent in which they give out this little cardboard “rice bowl” with some information on their programs. The bowl is a little piggy bank type thing that people are encouraged to put money in as part of their Lenten almsgiving, but in addition to being a fundraiser it is hoped that it will get people to educate themselves about people in need and how CRS serves them. Hopefully people will say a prayer for those in need whenever they can and be reminded to do this by the presence of the rice bowl. One thing that I found amazing was that while 8.4 million rice bowls are given out each year the collection from them only amounts to $8million. Less than one dollar per rice bowl, I was amazed, and disappointed by that.
After the orientation time we headed out for Burkina Faso, with a connection in Paris, the flights were 7-8 hours each, so it was quite a bit of plane time, but that was alright. We landed there on Thursday the 16th of February at about 5:30 PM local time if I remember right.
One thing that I go through each time that I go to a poverty area happened again as we were flying into Ouagadougou, the capital. This is the earliest it has happened, but it does get earlier each time. I was looking out the window of the airplane and saw what looked like a dusty sports field with people running around on it, they were kids playing soccer. A little bit later I saw another field with kids playing soccer and then a third. It hit me, as it does each time, that of course kids are going to be running around playing games, they should be. Despite the poverty they still find ways to enjoy life, the kids play games and play with toys (maybe something as simple as a water bottle that becomes a toy) and adults sit around talking and joking. I don’t know why this always has to strike home to me again, especially since I’ve seen it so many times, but it does, it isn’t what we think of when we think of places of poverty.
We didn’t do much that first evening, we went to a retreat center where we were going to be spending the night and settled in after dinner. The next day the first thing we were going to do was to go to the CRS Burkina Faso headquarters. We met the senior staff. One thing that did surprise me was how much of the staff were native Burkinabe. I guess that I thought that most aide organizations had a lot of staff from the country they are based out of. The staff of CRS in Burkina Faso consists of about 100 people, only 4 of whom are American, the rest, including the country director, are from Burkina Faso. The staff gave us a briefing on the programs and operation they have. It was incredible listening to them, not so much in what they said, which was describing wonderful programs, but the pride they have in helping people, their people. They see the good that CRS does, some of them have been served by CRS in the past and are happy to be passing on the good works. The love that they have the ability to help, they are also helping to direct what happens in their country.
This is almost two pages long already, so I will end here and hopefully pick up soon with more of the trip experience.
Peace,
Adam
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