Holy Cow

Ok well be prepared, this is going to be a long post. Yesterday we went to the zoo! The coolest thing ever. PETA would've had a cow but hey its' Africa! They have tons of lions at the zoo. We found out that they have lions with black manes. They're only indigenous to Ethiopia. It was really neat to see them. The zoo also had baboons and it even had an antelope just roaming about. No big deal. After the zoo, we went to the national museum. You must go to the national museum! Lucy is there and basically all of the revolutionary archaeological discoveries are found there as well. They had several things from the 4th and 5th century and even a few things from the 1st and 2nd century. It's just full of rich history. We also went to the leprosy hospital. Extremely interesting. In the Bible, it talks about Jesus healing the lepers and this trip it became totally real. We don't really experience that disease in the United States, but to see it up close in another country that dressed in the traditional garb that you can totally imagine the Israelites dressing in, was really surreal. What also amazed me was the fact that all of the women were embroidering things. This is really surprising because leprosy really affects the nerves in your hands. So the fact that they were hand sowing beautiful things was just jaw dropping. In the hospital, they have a gift shop where they sell gorgeous dresses, table clothes, hand carved crosses, and some other great stuff. I really encourage you to go in there, because the proceeds go back to the people in the hospital. The one things though that I could not believe was that these women had their small children living with them. Leprosy can't be spread through direct contact if you just brush against someones arm that has it. It's spread through a continuation of interacting with it. So basically they were dooming their kids to be lepers as well. Totally shocking quite honestly. We ate lunch at the Hilton with the Thomases! Their compassion child that they support came with her mom and nurse to eat lunch with them and they invited us to come. This seven year old was from the bush (the country) and she was the most darling girl you have ever seen! She had never been to the city before and had never seen an elevator, and she was totally amazed at the view from the balcony. It was really humbling to meet her and interact with her. The most precious girl ever. They told us that usually girls from the bush won't look you in the eye and are not outgoing at all. She was very smiley and outgoing because of compassion. Compassion is a great ministry and you should definitely check it out. Later that night, we ate traditional Ethiopian food. Spicy and the bread they eat with, called angara (don't know how to spell it), is sour unless you eat it with a sauce or something. At the restaurant they played traditional music and they even had some dancers. I have never seen people dance like that in my whole life. Holy cow! They had skills. They pulled me up with them to dance :D I dont' dance, period. It wasn't pretty lol but I had a lot of fun. That was pretty much our day yesterday. Ok so today, we went and saw Samuel this morning! He sobbed and screamed when he saw us at first again. He prefers the women there instead of us so that was really heartbreaking to watch. I know that he just has stranger anxiety with us but still, ugh! He got better towards us though towards the end. They take great care of all the kids.We ate lunch and then we went and saw three government orphanages. They are in really rough shape. Gladney does a lot and because of that they are TONS better than what they used to be but it's still really sad. The second orphanage we went to really upset me. They had like 30 ribs in one room with all these babies and had two caregivers for the whole room. My dad checked them out and several had pneumonia. They also had bronchitis and colds. This one baby had a rash that was just... words can't describe it. My father said that he's never seen anything quite like it before. Here private area was just raw basically. It was just so sad. Basically every kid in there was sick. I got attached to the cutest little boy in the world and I held him for the whole hour that we were there and when I had to leave, I put him down and he wouldn't let go of my jacket and I literally had to pry his fingers off. He started sobbing and he kept calling me momma and as I left he looked at me with the saddest eyes. I just broke down when I got outside. The conditions that these children/ babies live in is just awful and that little boy will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. I wanted so bad to just take him home with me. I would have, but of course, I am not an adult. But even though these children have no parents and live in just crap, they still smile and I have to remember that there are no orphans with God. So after three hours of heartache, we went back to our guest house, took showers, and ate. Africa has changed my life.
- Rebekah Bentley