Brain Wrapping

We continue to soak up the moments here and whether my face is pressed up against the van window, taking it all in or lying in bed at night unable to sleep (jet lag!!!), I desperately want to understand this culture that is so different from my own.  So I try to imagine what it is like to live in a little straw hut with my entire family or what life is like for the construction workers or taxi drivers or wood carriers or beggers or mothers... Every story we have heard is an amazing one and I believe that every life story here would make for a NY Times Bestseller.  Their lives/ stories hardly seem fathomable yet alone reality.  Several hours south of Addis Ababa, driving through rural villages in our 4 wheel drive vehicle showed us a different side of African life.  Life that is untouched by western influence and generations that will never see the city or even outskirts of a town.  Again, the rush of pity and awe filled my soul.  These people are wearing rags and spend their days getting water and food while kids played unfettered in nature.  They know nothing of Pinterest, chauffeuring to kids activities, and clean eating. There are obviously many issues that the village people are faced with, and we were impressed by an organization that is attempting to make clean water, medical help, and education accessible for many of these villages.  A school with 700 children now has running CLEAN water in their compound because of funds raised through my in-laws' efforts.  Their smiles and exuberance when the water was turned on testified to the need of this simple commodity we take for granted everyday.  We saw many water kiosks where people were lined up with their big yellow jugs, some on a cart pulled by a donkey.  Others, rigging the jugs to their backs or on top of their heads.  We visited a medical clinic with a motor cycle/  side-car, "ambulance,"  that is dispersed when women go into labor.  A woman was lying curled up on a metal table in labor, and another one arrived on foot, her baby wrapped to her front.  She was concerned about her child's high fever.  The clinic was so simple-- concrete slab rooms, but it fills a great need for people who otherwise live life without ever having medical care or attention at all.  Here, where farming is the sole occupation and it only is possible 2 months of the year ("rainy season"), community development is difficult.  Family planning is not even a remote concept.  It is difficult to wrap our brains around how we can help and what we can do with these towering and systemic problems that exist for most Ethiopian people.  But we cannot do nothing.  We saw the difference a simple well makes and we experienced the impact of our "visiting" these precious children and their teachers.  We felt the gratitude of knowing that people "care" and of not being forgotten.  Their smiles, laughter, singing, and eyes are etched on my mind.  And most of all, they need to know that there is a God who loves them, who knows every detail about them, who died for them, and who will never leave them.  That is the only true Hope we ALL have in this life that isn't about our circumstances or where we live at all.  But about Him.  While the issues and needs seem large and many here, we have more in common than appears on the surface.  We are made in the same image, our hearts have the same need, and we were made for the same thing: to love God and others.  So, we will continue to walk each step this week asking the question, "How can we love God and others right NOW?"  It is an honor to get to be the ones doing that here, and our Guide is the one who created and holds the world, so we are in good hands.