Women at Risk - Nazaret, Ethiopia

Ambo cont.

We spent Wednesday with the Street Boys once again. On Wednesday’s we
hang out with them in the morning teaching them English, having a
Bible lesson and playing sports. These kids are incredibly athletic.
After the morning we feed them lunch. On the days we hang out with
them we also feed them dinner. This is very important to the ministry
because by having the kids hang out with us all day they are not able
to work. For these kids they work each day so they can eat. They
have no rent, no bills to pay just to eat. When they cannot work a
day they cannot eat that night. So it is very important that when we
hang out with them all day we feed them as well.

It has been amazing to see how God has broken down some barriers while
we have been here. Remember me saying how the Street Boys are viewed
as “toxic”. We had to seek special permission to have the street boys
on the church/school property. The elders of the church reluctantly
agreed. However, we were told to not allow any of the compassion
children and the street boys to mix with each other. We were also
told that the church was off limits for the boys to enter. The first
couple of days that we were with the street boys there were elders
sitting around the compound watching what we were doing and making
sure the street boys weren’t crossing their boundaries. It was
amazing to see God break down these walls. By the third time of
hanging out with the boys one elder began playing volleyball with us
and the boys. This was absolutely unheard of before. By the forth
day there were more elders joining in. The elders even gave us
permission to have our “Christmas in July” celebration in the church
with the boys. God is breaking down walls in amazing ways and is
doing it fast. It was awesome to be able to see some of the fruits of
our labor so quickly.
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Thursday we hung out with the street boy for what was my last time
with them. When we arrived we saw one of the boys laying on the
ground with tears coming from his eyes. I had remembered this boy
limping the day before but he never brought any attention to it. The
boy is very quiet and would rarely talk. When he did talk he was
always looking down at the ground even to other Ethiopians. After
some time we were able to find out from him that he stepped on a nail
the previous day. This boy in particular like many of the street boys
has no shoes. Therefore, stepping on a nail can be a big problem.
His foot had been wrapped but he was in a lot of pain. My biggest
concern was that this boy needed a tetanus shot. So, I went and got
permission to take this boy to a clinic. Once we were told that the
clinic would cost 10 birr …. $1 there was obviously no question in our
minds. A teammate of mine (Eric), myself, a translator (Samson) and
another street boy piled in the bus to find the clinic. The boys
pants were ripped up the side of his leg and filled with holes. They
were literally hanging on by a thread. He was dirty, smelly, had no
shoes and his feet were covered in mud. We found a clinic and were
quickly told that the doctors was not there and they had no tetanus
shots. We loaded the bus once again and were off to find another
clinic. We walked off the main road to the clinic. The boy was in so
much pain he couldn’t walk so Eric picked him up and carried him. The
boy was probably 15-17 years old. As we approached the clinic we saw
tons of people in lines everywhere. There seemed to be no rhyme or
reason to the process. One thing was certain we were definitely the
sight to see. There was not one person there that did not have their
eyes fixed on us. Anywhere we go in town we are always being starred
at and talked about. We are definitely the only white people that
hang out in the town. The stares were magnified at the clinic because
we were two white people at the clinic and we were carrying a
Ethiopian boy in our arms…. A Ethiopian Street boy at that. We were
told to find join a line and it would probably be all day to see the
doctor. It was very frustrating because while we were told that it
would be all day we were sitting on a bench outside while 7-10 nurses
stood and starred at us. I was concerned that we would sit there for
hours and they would not have what we needed. We finally got a nurse
to talk with us and he said we need to go to the pharmacy to see if
they even had the shot available. Silly me, I thought the Doctor
would give the shot at the clinic. So we were off to the pharmacy.
Finally after our trek all around town the pharmacy had the shot we
needed. We told them what happened and what we needed so they agreed
to go ahead and give him the shot with out a prescription. I asked
for them to also give us something for the pain and to wrap the wound.
When I looked at the box of pain killers they had given us it said it
was for muscle and joint pain. I refused it and asked them to give us
something different. Instead they gave us aspirin. It was so
frustrating. I had to remember that the most important thing was for
him to get the shot. The total bill was 23 birr …. $2.30.…
unbelievable. Yet this is normally not an option for most of the
people. I was thankful that we were there when it happened so that we
could take him to the clinic. However, I was frustrated with the
process, the lack of quality care, the stares and the politics. I had
to remember that even the small amount of care that we were able to
get for the boy would have been impossible if we hadn’t taken him. It
is a sobering reminder of the reality of these boys lives on a daily
basis.