Ethiopia's Good Shepherd

An Ethiopian Christmas Card

Sister Mary James is a Good Shepherd Nun whom I have known for more than 40-years. We worked together at St Germaine's in Peekskill and then at Madonna Heights in Huntington, Long Island. She is a Social Worker without a peer. I have never met or known a more compassionate or more saintly soul. While most of us only hear or read about people who give their lives in humanitarian service, I have had the transcendent good fortune to actually know and be with such a person. During these latter years, it has been the poverty stricken people of Ethiopia who are now being sheltered under her benevolent umbrella.

Dear Everyone,

I returned here from Ethiopia on November 14. I need medical checkups and a little R & R. My return flight will be on December 28. In the meantime, it will be an unexpected joy, to celebrate Christmas with the sisters at Madonna Heights and my family.

For those of you who have visited Addis Ababa in the past, quite a few changes have been made in the name of modernization. There are several new buildings on the main road from the airport to the Prime Minister's palace. Some are as high as 12 stories. These are financed mainly by foreign investors. The first floors are reserved for shops and the upper floors for businesses. We certainly hope it will stimulate the economy. But it is hard to predict what will happen.

Many poor families have been moved out of their homes to the outskirts of the city. Housing there is better than what they had before, but if they have a job in the city, most of their wages are now spent on transport back and forth. Maybe this is how "suburbia" has to develop, but in the meantime, the poor keep getting poorer.

Much of the push to dress up the city is to keep the office of the African Union here in Addis Ababa. The president of Libya, I don't know how to spell his name, is determined to move the A.U. to his country. So when the African presidents, come here for meetings, the beggars and street children are swept off to the forests, so no one will know about our problems!

I wish all of you a very happy Christmas and a New Year filled with peace, joy and blessings! With my love and prayers always -

Sister Mary James