This place is beautiful. The people are beautiful, the culture is beautiful and the heart of the country is beautiful. The children are happy and playful and the adults are proud of their land and heritage.
We were invited into the homes of several families. We met a man who suffered a stroke, paralyzed and unable to work, with three teenagers to take care of. He was behind on rent for his home about the size of my walk-in closet, and his family would soon be homeless. We heard many stories like his: parents proud to open their homes to us, share the faces of their children with us and humble enough to share their stories of loss and heartache.
So much beauty to be found. The children and their smiles. The women with their protective, weary arms around their children. The men, some stoic and proud, and others jovially playing a game of cards.
Beauty.
Korah is a land in Ethiopia that was originally designated for lepers. They were pushed out of the city, Addis Ababa, and lived in their own community. Korah is home to the city's dump, also. We were told 10,000 people of Korah live off the dump by eating and feeding their families and digging through to find wares to sell. The government has decided to move the dump elsewhere and many people of Korah are devastated. Their livelihood - a dump - is being ripped from them. Lepers live in Korah still, as well as the poorest of Ethiopia. Many people travel to Addis thinking, "If only I can make it there, I can make a living," and when they cannot they end up in Korah.
Some people who live in Korah are homeless. Those that have shelters have to pay rent for the space they reside in. Someone comes to collect rent and if the tenant cannot pay, they are evicted. Many families cannot make ends meet enough to afford a shelter.
We were invited into the homes of several families. We met a man who suffered a stroke, paralyzed and unable to work, with three teenagers to take care of. He was behind on rent for his home about the size of my walk-in closet, and his family would soon be homeless. We heard many stories like his: parents proud to open their homes to us, share the faces of their children with us and humble enough to share their stories of loss and heartache.
So much beauty to be found. The children and their smiles. The women with their protective, weary arms around their children. The men, some stoic and proud, and others jovially playing a game of cards.
Beauty.
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| The dump, photo taken from our van. |
This is certainly not a sponsored post; I'm not inviting you over for dinner to share on "opportunity" with you. But if you are interested in learning more about Ethiopia or led to offer hope and a future to the beautiful people, here are a few places to start.
YWAM 1:27 Ministry - Partnering with the Ethiopian Church to Preserve Families and Prevent Orphans
Streams of Mercy - transforming the lives of orphans around the world.
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