some stories i haven't had time to post...

Today I was thinking of some stories that I haven't had time to post, and I think it's about time I shared them with you.

 

Let me start with what has, by far, been the most amazing story about this trip. I wanted to post this sooner, but Frew asked me not to because he was afraid people would me mad with him or worried for me or something like that (Frew tends to worry a lot, especially about me...he always thinks i'll be robbed, or something like that...).

I'm not sure how many of you remember, but last year when the team from LWCC was here they had a bus accident on the way to Sendafa. Those in the bus said it was a miracle, they said that it felt like the bus had already tipped over and should have fallen but it felt like something (or someone) pushed it back upright. They nearly rolled over a cliff and after that almost ran into some trees. Miraculously nobody was hurt, not even a scratch or a bruise.

Well, we had a similar experience on Tuesday. The week prior we were having some car trouble, the steering wheel and the gear shifter were both shaking when we hit about 65 km/h (40 mph). So we took the car to Frew's mechanic and spent the whole day there. They rotated the tires, worked on the axle and all seemed fine. In fact, there weren't really any problems for about a week. Then came Tuesday. We were on the way to Sendafa and were in sight of the sign that says "Welcome to Sendafa". All of the sudden it felt like we were dragging something. There was a loud noise and it sounded like there may have been a large rock wedged underneath the car. Frew immediately stopped the car and we got out. We found that the rear drivers side tire had completely fallen off. All of the lug nuts were gone and the tire was wedged under the wheel well. The dragging sound that we heard was the brake dragging along the road. What was amazing is that nobody panicked. Actually, I remember that my reaction was "oh, the tire fell off. guess we should jack up the car and put it back on". It didn't even cross my mind the severity of the situation. Frew's jack wasn't working, so him and I walked into Sendafa to a tire repair shop next to the Central Hotel. We rode back to the car on a horse cart and the guy from the shop jacked up the car and put the tire back on. When he saw the car and where we had lost the tire he said "there must have been someone very religious in this car because you all should have died". That's when I realized it could have turned out much worse.

When we looked at the road it was only about 10 feet from where we started skidding on the brake and where the car stopped. It was a completely flat part of the road without any potholes (which is very, very, very rare on the road to Sendafa). Actually, the road to Sendafa is under quite a bit of construction. There are detours off the road onto a dirt road every once in a while. We had just passed one of these, maybe 100 feet, when the tire fell off. If it had happened at almost any other part of the road the situation would have been much worse. It was a miracle that none of us were hurt. We found out the next day that there had been a bus accident on the outskirts of Addis Ababa where the bus lost a wheel. 18 people died. We were incredibly lucky. Or was it a miracle?

The best part about this story is that we didn't even let it stop us from doing the work we were supposed to do that day. We hired a horse cart to bring all of the iodized salt and multivitamins into Sendafa and we carried them around the village and handed them out to the kids in our program while the car was being fixed.

The car is now back in top notch condition. We put brand new tires on yesterday. We had them tighten them as tight as possible. We checked it again this morning. And again before we left Sendafa. All was fine. Even the shaking in the steering wheel and gear shifter is fixed. So, what could have been bad has turned out to be something quite good.

 

The rest of what I want to share isn't as drastic and often does not have as good of an ending as that story. But, I'll share it nonetheless.

 

Two days back I was with Frew, Eshete and Birhanu at the mechanics. After that was done we were on our way back home and we drove on the street where Frew started Yenoh Merkeb (Noah's Ark, it's the organization that the Sendafa project is a part of). The other part of Yenoh Merkeb is to help prostitutes in Addis Ababa - they send the women through business school and help them get set up in a business other than prostitution. The stories of these women are incredibly sad and prostitution is quite rampant in Ethiopia, especially Addis Ababa. I remember one night I was with Frew and we were coming home late from the Semien Hotel (which is where the LWCC teams stay when they are here). We paused at a stop sign and about 4 or 5 prostitutes started running to our car looking for work. Many times these prostitutes will do a trick for 50 Ethiopian cents, or maybe one birr. This is about 5 or 10 US cents.

This street that Frew showed me where they started Yenoh Merkeb is one of the worst parts in Addis. It is right next to a military camp and the soldiers in these camps always support a lot of prostitution. Frew told me that most of the women on that street were prostitutes, and there were so many women. They each have a tiny little house, probably not much larger than the bed and they have a curtain on the front. When the curtain is closed, it means that they are with someone. When it is open, they are available and are often sitting outside simply waiting for customers. They do this the whole day. It was quite a long street and I saw more of these small houses than I cared to. It was so sad.

 

In other news we visited Maeza today, the little girl in Sendafa who is HIV positive and who is quite sick right now. I went with Frew and we gave her some powdered milk to help give her some strength. He also said she is very anemic and so we gave her some liquid vitamins that included iron. She seemed to be a little bit better today, she was able to get out of bed for a minute or two. But she is so thin compared to when I saw her last year, it really just breaks your heart to look at her.

 

I think I should end with something a bit happier than these stories. I cooked some of the famous Butera pasta sauce for dinner last night. I started cooking it on Wednesday evening. Yesterday I added the meatballs and potatoes and let it cook for most of the day. We had it with penne pasta, parmigiano reggiano and ricotta cheeses and a side salad. Everyone loved it. We were all joking that Frew sat at the table for a record amount of time (normally he rushes through dinner and then goes and relaxes on the couch). Ruth said it was the best meal she ever had (though I don't quite believe that). I was really happy to be able to give something to them, because this family is always giving so much to me.

 

That's all for now. I'll try to update another time or two before I leave. Though I'm only here another 4 days and I want to spend as much time as possible with the people here.

 

Ciao, tebareku (God bless you)