NO EASY ANSWERS

We are finding that many of the questions we have here in Mekelle have no easy answers. Since my visit to the blind school, I have been trying to assess resources in the community and find out what exists for people in need. There are some good programs, some more organized than others, and we want to make sure that anything we do isn’t a duplication of services (my basic social work education put to use again!). We visited a wonderful organization called Operation Rescue that is sponsoring families who take in orphans by providing clothes, shoes, school uniforms, school fees, one meal a day for the child, tutoring and medical care. It is meeting a wonderful need and we were very impressed. Some of our funds may very well go to partner with this organization in the work they do with local orphans and single mothers. We visited another organization that provides books and pencils and helps with some basic needs for over 1800 orphans in the Tigray Region. They have an orphanage with about 60 kids they have pulled off the streets, but they confess the level of care and type of facility does not offer much improvement for the children except that they are now not sleeping on the street. Friday I visited two more facilities: Mother Theresa’s care center and a Boys Orphanage. Outside the Catholic facility the street was lined with needy people, disabled children and adults, and babies trying desperately to suck some milk from their mother’s empty breasts. I felt ashamed when they opened the door wide for me and ushered me in without a question, when all those others were looking so much more worthy of attention. I was offered a 5 minute tour by a sweet nun who admitted she was one of 3 caring for nearly 300 adults and children. Wow. I felt badly taking even 5 minutes. They are meeting the needs of whomever God brings as long as they have resources and time to care for the needs. They receive all the abandoned babies in town so I got to illicit a smile from a sweet little bundle in the baby room before moving on to the malnourishment room where they try to nurse women and children who have come in from the villages so malnourished they can barely function. They have a TB room for mothers and babies and a toddler room, as well as plenty of disabled residents who suffer from either mental illness or physical or mental handicaps. The nun was filled with joy as she showed me each room and kept making the offer, “you can come, bring your children, hold the babies, pray for them, yes….pray for them…each one.” Our young blind friend Kaleya came by again today and he is always such a joy to be around. He wondered about a ride to a private primary school on the other side of town. I phoned a friend who was headed that direction and she picked him up. In the interim, he shared that he had lost his vision at the age of 2 to Measles. His father just passed away last year, but his mother is still living in the village several hours from here where he grew until he was sent to the blind school at the age of 9. He hasn’t seen his mother in ten years. “Aznallow” (which means “I am sorry”) was all I could say. Later he came by again to say he needed help talking to the Director of the school to make a plea for admission. He wants to improve his education by studying at a private school (at least 3 people now have told me he is VERY BRIGHT) but he needs someone to advocate for him. I spent the afternoon discouraged, feeling that there are too many service gaps in this community, not only for orphans and the disabled, but also in every other realm. Where does God want US to get involved? Our friend here once advised, “there are a hundred good things you could be involved in here, but that doesn’t mean it is what God wants you to be involved in.” Good advice, so we prayed today for more wisdom. There is nobody around here advocating for the blind and I told Steve I can understand how it stays on the backburner here with all the other pressing needs. Then I clarified, “well, I could have understood, until I met Kaleya, and then I see this bright, talented, young man who is so driven to make something of his life and simply needs a bit of advocacy.“ It is difficult. Around 4pm, a young man returned to our home wanting to talk to me. Last week he had left a badly written note in English trying to explain he is an orphan and he needs to study as he is in grade 10 and he needs help. Our guards have both warned us to stop giving out money from our home, no matter how strong the plea, as more and more are coming and just watching our house and hoping for something. The needs are so great, and certainly in our 3 story home we have more money than most of the 180,000 in this city, so we have to draw the line. But it is a very difficult balance to determine when you are to give to a genuine need, and when you are to turn people away. “Okay, I told Sophani, go ahead and let’s talk to him and get it over with…we will tell him to go to Operation Rescue or some NGO for help.” He was a shy boy, well groomed, and just 16 years old. He said he was in grade 10 and trying to study hard, but he has no pencils and no exercise books (these are like composition notebooks and the kids need about 12 for school supplies - about 30 birr total, or 3.50US). His mother died 5 years ago and he left his village 4 years ago to come to Mekelle to try to get an education. He has been attending Sophani’s Church. For the last 3 years, he has lived with a friend who is 2 years older than he, but now that friend has failed his grade 10 exam and must begin to look for work and will no longer be given free rent. School is difficult here, and if you don’t pass the national exam at the end of 8th grade you don’t get to continue. You are tested again after 10th grade, then after 12th. If you don’t pass, you are done with school unless you can afford to pay private tuition to a private high school, which most can’t afford. I wanted this young man to be a punk, a street-smart teenager who was just trying to get money off a foreigner. But…he didn’t seem that way to me. The more we talked to him, the more my heart went out to him. I told him I couldn’t just give him money for rent to live, as he needed a more permanent solution. Every resource I recommended he had already tried and had been turned away for some reason. Most of the orphan organizations target much younger children than a 16 year old. I told him I would contact his pastor and Operation Rescue and try to find a family who could let him live with them or some other resource. Sophani put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and said, in Tigrinya, “Be strong, okay? We will try. ” He whispered something to Sophani and Sophani explained, “he has not to eat lunch.” “Are you hungry now?” I asked. He put his head down, ashamed to answer, but Sophani said, “don’t be shy, go ahead…yes…he says he is very hungry.” I motioned him into our compound and told him to wait while I went through our kitchen putting together a meal package for him with some rolls, bread, injera, wat, and I filled a canister with some chicken noodle soup I had made recently. At the very least, this young man will know I cared about his plight and I can fill his stomach tonight, I thought. Still, it felt like so little compared to his real need. I handed him the food then told him to wait while I ran to both of the little shops on our street trying to buy exercise books for him. I was able to get 4, that was all they had. I gave them to him, saying I would talk to Steve and see what we could find for him. I told him I couldn’t give out money, as we had too many requests, but at least that was a start. He thanked me and went on his way. I came in discouraged, my heart heavy from the neediness in his voice. Sweet Curtis saw me and said, “mom, what’s wrong? Did the cherry pie get ruined in the oven?” “No dear, your homemade cherry pie is just fine.” “Whew”, he said. When I explained the problem was much bigger than a burned cherry pie, he said, indignantly, “Why can’t someone from America just come here and set up some programs to help all these people?” Oh how I wish it were that simple….or maybe it is. I console myself by remembering that every one that God brings across our path is one that He wants us to take notice of and respond accordingly. Sometimes the response is clear, and other times we have to pray and consider it a bit more. I am learning that there is a balanced response, one of mercy and compassion but also one of faith in the God who ultimately cares for each one of our needs. It requires me to stop and consider, rather than responding in some automatic calloused way that either turns my head from every begging woman and handicapped man and yells at the kids who stand outside our home OR gives money to each and every need that I see…almost as if I am a bank, to which every one may come and receive generously. Life here requires responses based on compassion and mercy, but also on God’s wisdom and depending upon His leading. Actually, life EVERYWHERE requires that…but it just seems so much more in front of my face here in Ethiopia. Tonight, I am just thankful that two young men are going to bed knowing someone cares about their plight. I am thankful too that they know the God of the Universe is caring for them as well, and will not leave them as unknowns.
“He will respond to the prayer of the destitute, He will not despise their plea.” Psalms 102:17