Ethiopia in Crisis Once More

After having spent almost 3 weeks in Ethiopia last August, hearing about their current, momentous plight is disenchanting, to say the least. While I was traipsing through Lalibela with Tracey Neale and Erma Millard Charles (www.veronicasstory.org), photographing and filming the lush green landscapes and the smiling children, I knew I was standing in the very same valley where the famine had taken over 1 million Ethiopians' lives in the early 1980s. During that famine, I was 9 or 10 years old. I sang "We Are the World" and "Do They Know It's Christmastime At All?" Ethiopia was the butt of many food jokes (see When Harry Met Sally).

But last August, I was filled with a simultaneous sense of relief and concern that far out-shot my childhood point of view. Sure, jokes were funny, and those songs were catchy tunes. But there was something more solid--stoic; real--about where I was standing.


Lalibela, August, 2007

Though the rainy season was generous while we were there, the prosperity was fleeting, at best. To have that thought was to bolster my own ego; I assumed it would be years--if not decades--before these people would be on the brink of starvation again. I assumed that they had figured out sustainable farming (though, deep down, I knew that not to be true). To think that those boys I met less than one year ago are aching for food right now breaks my heart.


Young Men Ask for a New Soccer Ball, Lalibela, Ethiopia, August, 2007

Please take a moment to think about what you can do for these people in Ethiopia. Donate some time, money, food? Perhaps someone reading this will be inspired to go to Ethiopia and help them change their paradigms about food and farming. Something drastic needs to happen, and another famine should not be the catalyst--but it is.


When the Land Produced Crops, August, 2007

I have attached a link to a slide show featured on my Alma mater's web site: Ethiopia Photo Blog