The road to Ambo is beautiful. There are fewer people walking, but those that I saw were working. They seemed to have more purpose, here. The terrain is more lush, with hay fields and streams. Also, the land is getting more mountainous heading west. It was a beautiful area. We stopped for coffee and met up with Hanna, Tez and Elemu.
After coffee, we had stopped on the street at one of the shops to buy soda and flour. While we waited, many children came up to our windows. We had life savers for them. They mostly seem to just want to look at us, though a few asked for money.
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| This boy ran off and came back only a few minutes later with some new English "Give me a dollar" Nice try, kiddo. |
After we had our supplies we went to the compound where we met with the children. These are older than the Shone children, mostly 12 and up. We greeted them and Pochi shared a message - she didn't want it translated but she said "Jesus" a lot so I got the basics. Someone had prepared two large pans of bread. This is thick and dense with a thick crust. It is cakey and delicious. David sliced it as we all stood watching and waiting.
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| This sweet girl gave us a lovely welcome. |
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| Cheers! |
Kathy had balloons and I had rainbow bands. They played with balloons for a while and Tina and I taught them to make bracelets. They loved it! They crowded around and asked for help. One of the older girls sat next to me and held the bands. She asked if she could have the one I was making. She is a beautiful 16-year-old with a wrap on her head and clear soft skin. She was clearly a leader in this group.
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| These grandmas loved the stuffed animals! |
As we were taking some group pictures, we noticed that there were people slipping in through the gate. There were small children and mothers with babies strapped to their backs. It was immediately obvious that these people were desperately poor. One boy was in a wheel chair, which we were told he received from an American aid organization. He had no legs and only 2 fingers on each hand. He never smiled. He had the saddest face of any child I have ever seen. This was true of most of these children. There seemed to be very little joy in this place and these people. It spoke a lot of their circumstances. It made this town so much different than any other place we have visited.
We had some extra soda, which we shared and we found some clothes and things for them in our bags. Someone observed that if we brought an entire walmart store, there would still not be enough to go around this town. Their needs seemed so vast.
As we left the compound, a boy was standing by our van. He was about 15. I don't know how long he had been standing here, but he had not been inside the gates. His eyes showed such desperation, but we had given everything we had away. He didn't ask for anything, but he looked as if he would cry if we didn't notice him, as if we were his only hope. I wanted so badly to help him, but had nothing left to offer. As we drove away from that boy my heart broke. The look in his eyes will always haunt me. This is why we came, but I could not help everyone today.
We visited two homes after we left the gathering. They were in an alley behind some shops. They were row houses, made of mud and painted the soft green that has become so familiar here, and many people lived there. The alley smelled of urine and we stepped over puddles left by the wandering donkeys as we walked. It was clear that this place was the among the most poor areas in this town. The women in the first home wanted to make us coffee, but we weren't planning to stay long enough so they insisted on buying us soda. I don't know how much they spent on these bottles, but we knew that they were sacrificing in order to give us this treat.
We left there and went to eat. It was not an easy transition to go from this poverty and desperation to a lovely restaurant just a few minutes drive away. Again, the contrasts strike us.
After dinner we headed down a very rough alley to another development: low income housing. These were row houses, too, but not as dirty or as cramped as the last. Pochi wanted to visit her friend who was making us coffee and popcorn. She had a little baby and we loved on him as she boiled water and roasted beans. This was the first healthy baby we saw today. Alem had pictures of children on a shelf in the corner. I recognized them as children adopted around the time our children came home to us. These were her children. As her story unfolded we learned that she was HIV+ and had made a plan for her children when she thought she would not live to be a mother to them. Her story spoke of miracles and Jesus' redemption. She is now married, with this healthy baby boy.
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| This woman was making baskets outside her home. |
By the time we left it was nearly dark. It was a quiet ride home.
Today was my hardest hard day.
*Read more about Alem HERE
*And another HERE
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