Earth Day in the Central African Republic

Today is much like every other day in the Central African Republic (CAR). Life continues its simple rhythm following the annual cycle of seasons. Slowly we are changing from the dry season to the rainy season. Everyone here is a farmer and now is the time I can watch them planting crops. They burn the field, turn over the soil by hand with a homemade hoe, and plant. Then like farmers everywhere, they wait and hope for just the right amount of rain. I know that the dusty dirt roads will soon be replaced with mud, but no one knows when.

 

Family life continues inside and around the traditional mud brick houses in the village. The daily meal is cooked over an open fire. Women and children fetch water every day and carry it home on their heads. Most people get water from springs, which at this time of the year are barely more than mud holes. In a few places where there is a relatively clear trickle of water and then there is a line of people waiting with their buckets. It takes a long time to fill a 5 gallon container from a small trickle one cup at a time. Parents send their children to wait in line. Most children do not go to school. Three out of four girls are kept at home to help with the chores, such as fetching water.

 

Water-borne diseases are common. Those who can afford it, go to the hospital where seeing the nurse costs about 25 cents and prescriptions for diarrhea, worms, or malaria are filled for only a dollar or two.   Unfortunately not everyone can afford even these modest fees.

 

PASE (the water management project that I work with) teaches hygiene and sanitation to villagers. We improve water sources and repair wells. We do simple, sustainable projects to improve the lives of people that live in this part of the CAR.

 

People often ask me, what they can do to help. One of the things I tell them is to be informed. Read. Mail is slow here and I have not yet received my April 2010 issue of National Geographic. But many people have e-mailed me that it is a special issue devoted entirely to water. It talks about accessibility, purity, and the impact of climate change. I have heard that it talks of the work of my colleagues in Water Aid (a British NGO) that are working in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

 

We do not celebrate Earth Day here, but I would like to ask you to celebrate Earth Day by informing yourself about the many water issues that the world is facing. Please think about those less fortunate than yourself. Think about the futures of the children that never go to school because they spend the day fetching water.

 

For those who wish to support the work of the ELCA in the CAR, please contact Rev. Twila Schock, Director for ELCA Global Mission Support at Twila.Schock@elca.org

 

Photo is of the April 2010 Cover of National Geographic.

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  Their daughter Christa is attending seventh grade in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Nigerian Lutherans Help Their Central African Sisters

Recently the Central African Republic has seen a positive development in relations between francophone and anglophone church bodies. Specifically, the women of the Yola Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria have come to the aid of their sisters in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic. Twenty-eight Nigerian women and one male pastor braved a three day drive on bad roads across two international borders to join their Central African sisters at a national women's conference. 

 

The conference, the biennial synod of Femmes Pour Christ Centrafricaines (Women for Christ of the Central African Republic), was held in Bohong, a town in northwestern Central African Republic.  This area has seen much violence and unrest in past years, but is now starting to recover as peace has been restored to the region. 

 

The women of the Yola Diocese helped provide music for the conference.  Their singing and dancing, accompanied by percussion instruments which they left as gifts, enlivened the synod's proceedings. 

 

In addition to the musical instruments, the Nigerians brought gifts of five sewing machines, jewelry-making materials, fabric, shoes, and kitchen utensils to give to their Central African counterparts.  They also offered classes in jewelry-making and in preparing a local non-alcoholic beverage. The Nigerian church women sell these items to raise funds for their church work and to help sustain their families. All travel expenses were paid for by the Nigerian women themselves. 

 

The conference proceedings were translated from Sango (the Central African trade language) into Hausa (a Nigerian trade language), by Josephine Oumarou, the newly elected vice-president of Women for Christ. Madame Simone Baigo-Dari, out-going president, receives our congratulations for having organized this successful meeting, and for inviting the women of the Yola Diocese, whom she met at an international conference held in 2008 in Cameroon. 

 

In a world full of so much ethnic violence and hatred, the women of the Yola Lutheran Diocese of Nigeria have demonstrated that unselfish love and concern for one's neighbors can still be found - and that you don't have to have a lot yourself in order to help others. 

 

Photo shows Nigerian Women's Choir singing, accompanied by traditional percussion instruments.

Deborah and Joe Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Their daughter Christa is attending seventh grade in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

 

 

20th Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (EELRCA)

This past week (April 8-11) we spent an exciting few days at Bossabina 2, a small village in the north-western Central African Republic near the border with Cameroon and Chad.  Together with our friends and colleagues we celebrated the 20^th biennial Synod (national conference) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (EELRCA).   Over two hundred delegates met to worship, study the Bible, and elect their new church leaders for the coming four years.  Twelve new pastors were ordained, all of them having completed two years of pastoral internship after graduating from the Theological School in Baboua in 2008.

 

The synod re-elected Rev. André Goliké to a second four-year term as president of the church (a position equivalent to bishop in many churches).  Rev. Jean Gbami of Bohong was elected as Vice-President.  Mr. Jean Marc Abbo was selected as treasurer.  Mr. Abbo is director of PASE, the church's development program for providing potable water and hygiene education, the organization with which Joe works as technical advisor.  A new administrative committee was also elected, with one representative from each of the church's seven regions. 

 

Representatives from two of EELRCA's partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Germany (ELM) were present at the synod.  As two of the ELCA representatives, we were privileged to be guests of the EELRCA church in Bossabina.  We enjoyed great hospitality, including hot water for our "bucket shower," (heated over an open fire), and lots of manioc, rice, meat with peanut or okra sauce, and, for breakfast, omelets made with fresh local eggs. 

 

Photo is of a traditional Gbaya dancer celebrating the end of the Synod.

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  Their daughter Christa is attending seventh grade in Yaoundé, Cameroon.