RC Diocese of Argyll & the Isles

SCIAF Ambassador for Argyll and the Isles Marian Pallister visited parishes from Lochgilphead to Stornoway during Lent – carrying a pineapple in her bag.

Marian began her Lenten pilgrimage in her own parish, re-enacting an interview carried out by a member of SCIAF’s staff and the farmer on this year’s Wee Box, Mr Felix.

Clea Ferguson of SCIAF travelled to Haiti last year to see how the £1.2 million raised by SCIAF’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal was being spent. She also travelled to the north east of Haiti to see on-going work with local farmers. SCIAF has been working with local partners, such as GADRU, in Haiti since 1987.

That’s where she met the Felix family and learned how the GADRU project was helping farmers beset by frequent drought, cyclone and flash floods.

Marian says: ‘In my own parish, St Margaret’s in Lochgilphead, Fr William Maclean agreed to say Clea’s words, asking me as Mr Felix about the benefits GADRU has brought about. We took that to Inveraray, and then when I visited Taynuilt the following week, SCIAF parish contact Andreas Wolff agreed to be Clea.

‘Emboldened by such co-operation, I decided to ask Fr Roddy Johnston if he, too, would play the interviewer to my Mr Felix when I travelled to the Church of Our Holy Redeemer in Stornoway.

‘Clea, a five-foot-not-very-much like me, ended up being played by three men who all stand well over six foot.

‘However, the message was the important thing. It was moving to speak the words of a man whose home had been destroyed by a cyclone but was bouncing back with the help of people in Scotland.

‘The pineapple? That’s one of the crops Mr Felix plants as a wind break to stop soil erosion and guard against cyclone damage. And after Mass in Stornoway, I shared fresh pineapple with the parishioners over coffee.’

At St Columba’s Cathedral in Oban on SCIAF Sunday, Marian reminded people that the Wee Vote, Big Change postcard was as important as Lenten prayers and donations – the card will remind Scotland’s new First Minister to keep promises made about climate change laws, protecting the international aid budget and fair trade.

A volunteer with SCIAF, Marian has seen some of the work the Church’s official aid agency in Scotland carries out in the world’s poorest countries. She says: ‘When Mr Felix said “First of all I thank God, and then I thank the people of Scotland”, I remembered all the other people around the world helped by those here who fill their Wee Boxes and donate in other ways year after year. I’d like to thank the people of Argyll and the Isles for their generosity to SCIAF and their warm welcome to me.’