Today was a day I will keep thinking about for a long
time! Jim and I invited our neighbor and
fellow-English teacher Carolyn Weber to go on an outing and having some
adventures together. She jumped on board and arranged for a taxi driver to take
us around throughout the day. Our
program was as follows: first, go to
Sabahat, in the neighborhood, then go to Desta Mender, about 18 kilometers
outside of Addis, and then go to the top of Entoto, the home of the Emperor
when Addis Ababa was founded. So off we went!
Sabahat is a cloth-manufacturing business, located in a
beautiful woody glade on the side of a neighborhood hill. You couldn’t see how
lovely a place it was until the big iron gates on the street opened for our car
to enter through the concrete walls surrounding the large compound. First we
visited the silk house, saw silk worms fat as could be squiggling around
stuffing themselves with leaves in boxes.
Next we saw empty cocoons, surviving a mature butterfly’s escape. Then
there was a room full of Ashford spinning wheels (made in New Zealand)
surrounded by half-done spinning, but silent because today was Saturday and a
day off for the workers. Then a room of
yarns, some pure white like the silk cocoons, and some bearing bright
dyes. The grounds had warping wheels and
boards around, and we saw a big rack with bright dyed yarns drying outside. The
loom room was closed too, because it wasn’t a work day. Then we entered the shop and saw beautifully hand-woven
scarves, towels, tablecloths, blankets in lovely colors. We spoke to the owner
of the business who told us weaving need not be taught in Ethiopia, there are
many master weavers and it is a skill that has been maintained and used. Jim
had to drag me out, I love seeing handmade fabric so much.
But the coolest thing was that the owner was a Canadian
woman, living in Ethiopia with her husband and kids, and that she was from the
Peace River country in northern Alberta. So she and I chatted about our
Canadian heritage, and she could hardly believe we knew where her hometown was.
Then we headed out of town to Desta Mender. I had mentioned
to the other Carolyn when I arrived that I had recently read Half the Sky
by Nicholas Kristoff and his wife and would really like to see the Fistula
Hospital here in Addis. I guess it is not far from the seminary. But Carolyn suggested that we go out to Desta
Mender, a project of the Hamlin Fistula organization, where girls who have had
repair operations that have not been totally successful go after being
discharged from the hospital itself for counseling and training. They stay a
year to a year and a half before being placed in a job somewhere else. They operate a retreat center and their café
is open to the public only on Saturdays. So it seemed like a good day to go. Wow.
Let me first say, though, that on www.pbs.org
you can order a DVD called The Road to Beautiful that describes the hospital
and its mission (Carolyn lent it to us a couple of weeks ago) so we were
familiar with some of the tragic stories of broken young girls haunted by
family rejection, still born babies and physical difficulties because during
childbirth holes have been torn in their bladders and rectums so they become
incontinent and smelly. The fistula
hospital repairs these in a wonderful nurturing environment. In the DVD these girls are walking around
wearing crocheted afghans of brightly colored crocheted squares.
So we got to this retreat center out of town and the first
thing we saw were girls walking around wearing these same afghans! We knew we
were in the right place. Several of them were making meat pies in the café and
chattering away happily. We were the
only guests today, and we had a wonderful lunch, in a glass enclosed café where
we could watch the exotic birds and Egyptian geese swimming in the pond. The director introduced himself to us and
offered to give us a tour after we had eaten. So for about an hour, he walked
us around the whole place, a peaceful tasteful compound with lovely flowers and
views of the surrounding mountains. He explained that this facility takes in
the 2% of women for whom the surgery is not successful and may give them more
surgery or help them deal with the problem in other ways. They have 68 women
now and are always rotating some in and others out to jobs. He showed us the
classroom where they teach these women jobs skills and hygiene, the therapy
center where they have physical and psycho-social therapy, as well as the
houses where they live, 8 per house, the kitchen where they take turns cooking
for housemates, and the gardens where they grow produce.
Then he took us to the midwifery school, which he called
their preventative strategy, which is currently being expanded. Last year they
had 23 graduates. Now they have 60 students, and anticipate 200 within 5 years.
They are taught by Swiss and Australian doctors and midwives. All students come for four years, only women
from countryside towns and villages can enter the school, and all of them are
on full scholarships. When they graduate, they are committed to return to their
hometown/village for 6 years.
The dream is to develop this site into a retreat center with
guest houses and recreation. They have a farm with cows whose milk is used
mostly by the hospital there, chickens for their eggs, and horses, for
recreation. The director said they teach these girls hospitality. Can you imagine how it is for someone who has
been shunned and rejected and who is ashamed of herself to learn to smile and
serve others? It just brings tears to my eyes to see them.
My friend Andrea told me if I visited the hospital to give
them a donation from her. I said I’d do the same. So I told the director I
wanted to do that, but hadn’t brought enough money today. He was thrilled, and
offered to stop by the seminary tomorrow morning to pick it up. He also asked
me if I would like a small afghan like the ones the girls are so fond of. I
said I would be honored, so he presented one to me. I will cover myself with it
with pride and feeling immense solidarity with these lovely women!
Late in the afternoon we headed up the tall mountain that
overlooks Addis, at the top of which is Emperor Menelik’s palace, an Orthodox
church and a wonderful view of the city.
Eucalyptus trees grow all over Entoto. The most remarkable site on the
road to the top is girls and women walking down the mountain, having spent part
of the day cutting and gathering branches and twigs to tie together, haul down
the mountain and sell for firewood. The
guide we had at the palace said these women have no other way of making money,
do all this work, and sell the bundle for 30 birr, or $1.80. Look at the picture of the size of this
bundle and ask yourself whether you would do it for that amount of pay!
So it was a day for me to appreciate being first a girl and
then a woman in North America, where life is safer, healthier and so much
easier. And to give thanks for the wonderful people who see a need and find a
way to help these girls physically, vocationally and mentally. I thank God for them.
I looked up the award winning film. The title is "A Walk to Beautiful," if it is the same Nova film I found. I hope to get a copy soon! Thanks, Carolyn, for making us aware! Nancy Imm
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