Thanks Tax-Chick. It does sound difficult. That nomadic situation does sound like what would be the cause for it, rains not always developing where needed.
I’m interested in economics and cultures ... Thomas Sowell fan from my junior high years ;-). Nomadism is a feature of geographical regions where rainfall or running water is unreliable. It also correlates with endemic small-scale warfare, which discourages permanent agricultural settlement. One could compare Ethiopia, pre-WW2, with the pre-Columbian American Southwest.
I have a friend who is a Catholic priest in Ethiopia. He’s from a farming family, but now he works in a big city. They have issues, such as youth secularization and immigration, that overlap in interesting ways with what our Church faces in North Carolina.
The situation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, though, is almost like dropping space aliens on earth. Yes, they are Jews, but their observance is different from that of every other known Jewish group. They have this in common with Ethiopian and Eritrean Roman Catholics! “Whoa, never seen THIS!” They tend to huddle, but it’s important for their survival that they be encouraged - even forced - to move outside their ethnic group and into the 21st century. Yes, they could be supported simply by handouts, but that kills souls and cultures.