Nkosi Sikelel' Afrika (God Bless Africa)

DAY 2 and 3

I'm torn about posting because there is no way to include all of the things we have seen in the past 2 days. I don't feel I am going to give it justice in the few moments I have on the hotel's computer to include everything, so I will try to hit the highlights.

Sunday morning we gather together at Beza church. We got there at 8:30 which is when we thought it would begin but one of the pastors told us it was a special day and they were combining their early and late services. So a little delay until 10:00 and we all joined the congregation inside. The service was in both English, for the "international" congregation and Amharic for the local folks. The singing put gospel choirs in the states to shame. Singing and dancing and a very fun time for all of us. The church was celebrating the Feast of the Tabernacle and so the invited leaders from local churches to join as a show of unity. First a Messianic Jewish Rabbi spoke and gave a lesson about the Ethiopian Jews and how they had been persecuted. Then a priest from the traditional Christian Orthodox church told had the forefathers kept the faith in the country. The pastor then did his own lesson about how God has been so faithful. That seems like a lot....it was. 3 hours worth. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad we went.

After church we ate a beautiful resturaunt overlooking the city. It was a gorgeous view and a nice time to relax. Our next stop was one we were so thankful we got to be a part of. We met with the leaders of an organization called Drawn from Water. I can't enter the link from here, but google Drawn from Water. They discovered a tribe in Northern Ethiopia who believes certain things curse a child and if they do not kill that child another child in the village will die and because of the curse. So, the elders of the village make a decision and they may drown the child (hence the name) or they could just leave a child in the forest to die. One of the things that they believe is a sign of the curse is if the child's top front teeth come in before their bottom front teeth. Can you imagine - you make a decision to kill a child because their top teeth come in first. So, these lovely families are now trying to build relationships with the elders and prevent further deaths. While they do that they actually go out and rescue these children and bring them back to the home they have established. Unlike the majority of the orphans who were left alone due to HIV/AIDS - these children have parents but the village decided they should be removed. It's amazing the love these folks give the children and we had a wonderful time blowing up balloons and painting faces, passing out lollipops and silly bands and bringing new shoes for the kids going to school. After 2 lovely days of calm laid back time with some of the most beautiful children in the world, we had to prepare for the unexpected.

Monday was the first day we went out with the dentist. We have 17 from all over the United States and they are INCREDIBLE. They are tremendously talented and I cannot believe they have given up 10 days at their practice to do this. We got up early and headed about 45 minutes outside of town to a smaller area where there is a government run clinic. There are no paved roads and along the way our drivers negotiated through a maze of people, goats, potholes and large rocks. As we pulled up the facilities were what you would imagine a clinic in the middle of Africa being. Corregated tin roofs and cinderblock buildings in and L shape. 15 rooms with no electricity or running water. We knew going in there was no way to gage how many people would show up. When we arrived the crowd was massive. I would guess 300 -400 people most of whom live in the forest behind the clinic. As all of the dental people arranged their stations we tried to entertain the small children. We started with face paints and baloons and the small group of children turned into a mob. Just the chance to get a Disney sticker or a paper plate was worth pushing to the front of the line. As the crowd grew we realized we needed to focus on helping out the dental folks and not trying to do crafts or other activities. Each room was assinged a different task. 2 orthodontist did initial triage and determined what services the patient needed. From there they might go to cleaning or restorative to get a filling. Anesthesia was another area where they prepped for the last room which only did extractions. I was on the end at the "pharmacy" helping the local clinic pharmacist pass out tylenol and amoxicillin. As 1:00 rolled into 3:00 and then 4:00 the line of people never ended. One of our drivers went into a little coffee shop and said the "American dentist" were the talk of the town. As people heard the news they made their way to the clinic. Finally, after hours of seeing patients and facing the reality that everyone was not going to get served the decision was made to close down. It was very difficult to see face the reality that we could only do so much. The dentist were very hard on themselves. They wanted everyone to walk away with some kind of care. Then we all stood back to see what had been done. Close to 400 men, women and children had been seen by a dentist. Hundreds of extractions and filings and treatment for infection. It was an amazing day and much what I imagine the scene was like when Jesus fed the 5,000. Just a mass of humanity wanting to be loved. We did what we could and we thank God for giving us the strength to do it.

Our day at the clinic was a harsh reality that Day 4 we were going to a leper colony and no one truly knew what would happen there. We had no idea what to expect and what we didn know was that the conditions were much worse than what we had seen. Stay tuned for the day at Korah.