P.O. Box 37774
10101 Lusaka, Zambia
tel: 260-1-290410
e-mail: phenriot@zamnet.zm
fax: 260-1-290759
01 December 2003
Dear Friends:
“Absence makes the heart grow
fonder.” As I send this year’s Christmas greetings and New
Year’s blessings, I hope that the “absence” of my periodic
letters for the past few years has made you “fonder” of hearing from
me now! Sorry I have fallen off the pattern of some regular communication
– but if you have not heard from me it doesn’t mean that you have
not been in my thoughts and prayers!
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been
here in Zambia fifteen years now. It’s been a busy and
blessed time, thank God! I often describe Zambia as “a very rich
country with very poor people.” Very rich country with resources of
agriculture, minerals, water, wonderful human beings, peace (we are the envy of
our neighbours!). But very poor people, facing economic hardships and
social decline that really violates human dignity. Some of that is because
of Zambia’s fault – bad leadership, for example. But so much
of it is because Zambia is a small country caught in the web of a globalisation
that in structures and attitudes pays very little respect for Africans.
My privilege has been to be a priest serving in a
very vital church and to work with a team of twelve young Zambians, well-trained
and dedicated, at the JCTR, in the task of “promoting faith and
justice.” What that abstract
expression means in the concrete can be seen in a random sample of what might
occupy me during a not-untypical week:
Sunday : After the two-hour ciNyanja
liturgy (plenty of singing, dancing, drumming, talking) in my outstation, I
accompany leaders of a small Christian community to visit and pray with a dying
community member. Looking like he will only last a few more days (last wasting
of AIDS), he nevertheless joins in a song after receiving Communion – and
we exclaim Amen
Monday : I have the chance to present
a sharp critique of macro-economic policies and HIPC debt measures to a team of
IMF officials visiting from Washington. Part of our NGO contingent walk
out in frustration with the reluctance of the visitors to acknowledge the
failures of policies imposed from outside (e.g., privatisation) that don’t
take into consideration the social impact< on the people of
Zambia. I stay to the end to “dialogue” – always in the
hope that our analysis and recommendations might be heard by those who such
power over the lives of Zambians and others….
Tuesday : The JCTR monthly
“Basic Needs Basket” goes out to the government, civil society,
international community and the media this morning. I talk with Muweme,
who prepares this picture of how people are “surviving,” as he is
answering phone calls from some trade unions who want to use the Basket in their
next round of negotiations. In the afternoon, I will have to look again at
the salaries we pay our workers in my Jesuit community – they too know
what the Basket says this month!
Wednesday : Roland, a Jesuit colleague who
trains local peasant farmers in techniques of sustainable agriculture, joins me
as we work all day on the statement he will present at the up-coming Vatican
seminar on GMO food. We were invited to offer an “alternative”
view to the one pushed by the USA government and large seed corporations, since
we have supported the Zambian government’s refusal to allow GMOs into the
country on health, environmental and economic reasons – especially because
of its negative impact on poor farmers. We hope our statement will get a
hearing. (It did – plenty of lively discussion and media
coverage!)
Thursday : I meet up with Charity,
Jack and George, our Jubilee-Zambia team, as they plan a trip to Mongu, 500
kilometres away in the Western Province, to work with one of our local
provincial debt cancellation teams. JCTR considers it important to get our
programmes out of the capital city of Lusaka into the outlaying sectors of our
country – but for the moment, I’m glad I’m not going on that
long and grueling trip!
Friday : Our cooperating partners
(donors) are expecting the quarterly narrative and financial reports soon, so I
spend time polishing up the reports. We really are grateful for their generous
help. Then I look at the syllabus for the course in the Church’s Social
Teaching (“Our best kept secret!”) that I’ll again be offering
at the local seminary next year.
Saturday : Weekly cleaning of my room
(well, almost every “weekly”!) makes me feel a bit more
orderly. And then I catch up on some odds and ends, while planning for my
annual retreat in two weeks time – always a much needed and much
appreciated event.
So that’s a picture of what a week might
look like for me – a mix of pastoral work, educational efforts, research
papers, advocacy, cooperation with team members, personal time, etc. (Our
web site tells more: www.jctr.org.zm)
To be honest, it isn’t always that neat – the urgent
too often crowds out the important, at any one moment or on any one
level!
But it has indeed been a blessed fifteen years in
Zambia. God willing, I look forward to another good fifteen years –
and many more!
I suppose it has also been easier for me to be outside the USA at this
time. I’m sure it is very difficult for relatives and friends who are
in the States these days – a crazy war, fear of terrorism, a shaky
economy, a shamed church…. Who was it who said: “These
are the best of times, these are the worst of times”? But these are the
times when faith, hope and love must become real and not simply pious
exclamations – in the USA or in Africa.
Please know my promise of prayers for you and my asking of prayers
from you! Peace!
Pete Henriot, SJ
P.S. If you would like to assist my pastoral and
educational work, a cheque made out to the Oregon Province Jesuits will
help me help some parishioners with books, students with school fees, refugees
with housing, AIDS patients with medicine, etc. Send to Jesuit Treasurer,
P.O.Box 86010, Portland, OR 97206. Thank you!