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“SILENCE IS NOT AN ANSWER”

Oil 16” x 20”

Artist: Dale Cook

Photographer: Marian Lucas-Jefferies

The day I snapped this Photo

By Rev Marian Lucas-Jefferies

    It was such a normal day in the lives of the people who are in the picture. My first few days I felt as though I might as well have landed on the moon. Would I ever adjust? That particular day, several days into our travels in the north of Ethiopia, I realized that it was now a normal day for me as well.

    Everywhere we went in our new Toyota Land Cruisers, we passed people walking. People walking on roads, in fields and there, high up on a secondary road in the mountains. All too often there was "nothing" in sight and I couldn't help but wonder where are they going? OR where are they coming from?

     As I think back to that day, I can almost smell the air that cool, clear morning. Fresh, but dusty. A cool wind blowing that high up. And there was the endless stream of people, coming and going.

     Barren land, but not isolated.

     People everywhere. Determined, perseverant people. Families, individuals, people on their own personal life journey.   

    It was so quiet on the mountain that day. They didn't talk. They simply kept on walking. I could feel the silence. Was that the silence of profound poverty?

    The land feels so old. Dust and rocks, and rocks and dust.  Everything was so dry and dusty. I learned in Ethiopia that people in developing countries leave the good land for us, where coffee and tea, sugar cane and bananas are grown. That is the problem. The good land is taken up to grow products for export.   The people are left with the rocks. Fair? No. We owe them so much.

     So many pictures, but no names. Just like the women in the Bible who had such a profound impact on Jesus, some who spoke, using words, some who grabbed his attention by their quiet presence. How might the silent people in this picture affect us?

“EMPTY ARMS”

Oil 16” x 20”

Artist: Dale Cook

Photographer: Heather Plett

Empty Arms: by Heather Plett 

When Rina Fokir gazes at the pumpkin plant flourishing in her small garden plot, she remembers her 4 year old daughter Momin.  The day before Cyclone Sidr hit the village, Momin put the pumpkin seeds in the ground.  The next day, she was washed away, never to be seen again.  In the middle of her grief, Rina is trying to rebuild her life.  Her family now lives in a tiny ramshackle shack built from the scraps that washed up on the shore.  The concrete foundation of her house still stands as a reminder of the hope that they will someday have a real home to move into once again.  Canadian Foodgrains Bank has been supporting the rebuilding efforts in Rina’s village.

“FARMLAND”

Oil 16” x 20”

Artist: Dale Cook

Photographer: Rev Marian Lucas-Jefferies

Farmland by Rev Marian Lucas-Jefferies

The landscape in Ethiopia shocked me. I had no idea that the country has some of the most breath taking scenery in the world. But, it is difficult to grow food on the side of a mountain. And soil erosion in a landscape like that, of course, is a huge problem. The air was clear and soft that day high up on that mountain. The view was magnificent. We were impressed with the garden, the results of an irrigation project. We learned that Eucalyptus trees are fast growing and planted to hold the soil in a country that had been de-forested. Thought for the day: How can you feed yourself when all the good, flat land is used to grow coffee, tea, sugar and bananas for people in developed countries?

“NEVER ALONE”

Oil 18” x 24”

Artist: Dale Cook

Photographer: Rev Marian Lucas-Jefferies

Never alone: by Rev Marian Lucas-Jefferies

It was our first day on the road. We left Addis Ababa that morning, headed north to Bar Dar on what Sam jokingly referred to as the "Ethiopian turnpike", mostly a dirt road, but one of the main highways in the country. The distance we drove that day was comparable to the distance between my home and Halifax, but there, it took fourteen hours to drive a distance that takes four hours in Canada. By the end of that day, I decided never to complain about Canadian highways ever again (and have kept that promise). Travel can be very difficult in developing countries. So, in a world where it is drilled into us that competition is good, the question remains: How can you compete in a global economy when you can't get the goods to market because the roads are impassible and you have to walk everywhere you go? This man and that day epitomized the flaws in that thinking.  

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