Dear Friend,
We’re here on our second full day in Ethiopia. I have already been amazed a number of times at how God’s intricate hand works without us even knowing His ways and the miracles He will bring forward.
Yesterday we began the day with breakfast at our hotel which sits right across from the Bole (district) slum where Doctor Wondwossen Desta has his clinic. The hotel and slum offer a hard juxtaposition as one is very rich and nice, while the other smells of urine and feces and garbage as it runs through the little “drains” (through the dirt dug lower than the rest of the rocky, uneven ground).
We wound up walking to the clinic from the hospital. After crossing the very busy roads (with cars that mostly all mini-sizes of American cars), we walked down the sidewalk on the main street a little bit and then turned onto a dirt road that reeked of urine and garbage. Wondwossen held his hand over his nose and mouth and kept telling us to come quickly…it was less smelly after that passage, but it was still smelly until we were inside the walls of the clinic. When we arrived at the clinic, we entered the waiting room and there were a number of women and children waiting there. Wondwossen taught a very short lesson on hygiene and HIV issues, etc. We then took a tour of the clinic that has two patient rooms, a lab, a separate toilet for patients, a new separate HIV counseling room, and two administrative offices. There is also a guard who owns a small garden of cabbage that he sells from the property who has a small bedroom alongside the offices.
We visited with a woman who was holding a small infant – 3 months old – who told us her story and how the clinic had helped her. She had come to the clinic three months into her pregnancy seeking an abortion. She already had three children and did not have any means to take care of a fourth – the fourth baby had been an “accident”/surprise. When she came to the clinic they counseled her and told her an abortion was wrong in the eyes of God and sent her to an organization that counsels women in crisis pregnancies. After tears and turmoil she decided to keep the baby and give it up for adoption when it was born. Now that he is born, she may be able to keep the baby if she is able to obtain the job the pregnancy organization has told her is a possibility. The baby’s name is David. His mother wanted to name him miracle but his older brother insisted on calling him David because his father had read him the message of David since he was little. Her husband does not have a secure job so the financial position places her in a tough position. The mother’s name is Zennovich.
We’re here on our second full day in Ethiopia. I have already been amazed a number of times at how God’s intricate hand works without us even knowing His ways and the miracles He will bring forward.
Yesterday we began the day with breakfast at our hotel which sits right across from the Bole (district) slum where Doctor Wondwossen Desta has his clinic. The hotel and slum offer a hard juxtaposition as one is very rich and nice, while the other smells of urine and feces and garbage as it runs through the little “drains” (through the dirt dug lower than the rest of the rocky, uneven ground).
We wound up walking to the clinic from the hospital. After crossing the very busy roads (with cars that mostly all mini-sizes of American cars), we walked down the sidewalk on the main street a little bit and then turned onto a dirt road that reeked of urine and garbage. Wondwossen held his hand over his nose and mouth and kept telling us to come quickly…it was less smelly after that passage, but it was still smelly until we were inside the walls of the clinic. When we arrived at the clinic, we entered the waiting room and there were a number of women and children waiting there. Wondwossen taught a very short lesson on hygiene and HIV issues, etc. We then took a tour of the clinic that has two patient rooms, a lab, a separate toilet for patients, a new separate HIV counseling room, and two administrative offices. There is also a guard who owns a small garden of cabbage that he sells from the property who has a small bedroom alongside the offices.
We visited with a woman who was holding a small infant – 3 months old – who told us her story and how the clinic had helped her. She had come to the clinic three months into her pregnancy seeking an abortion. She already had three children and did not have any means to take care of a fourth – the fourth baby had been an “accident”/surprise. When she came to the clinic they counseled her and told her an abortion was wrong in the eyes of God and sent her to an organization that counsels women in crisis pregnancies. After tears and turmoil she decided to keep the baby and give it up for adoption when it was born. Now that he is born, she may be able to keep the baby if she is able to obtain the job the pregnancy organization has told her is a possibility. The baby’s name is David. His mother wanted to name him miracle but his older brother insisted on calling him David because his father had read him the message of David since he was little. Her husband does not have a secure job so the financial position places her in a tough position. The mother’s name is Zennovich.
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