Today, January 7th, 2019, is Christmas in Ethiopia.
Recall Abi Jemal,
the young waif that I met in Ethiopia in 2015 who shunned his real name for
that of “Joe” to this tall American. He
assisted me when I was nearly pick-pocketed, and we ended up spending the next
few days meeting, exploring the city, and just talking, for he was reasonable
with his English. So what happened to him, and what does all this have to do
with Christmas?
Brace yourself for a
story both sad and uplifting, for we remained in contact all these years.
Abi Jemal Siraj – Joe - went through some pretty rough times. He took me up on my offer to go to language
school to improve his skills, and then got a job teaching English in far
northern Ethiopia, where he quickly succumbed to the ill effects of bad water,
and had to return to the City to be hospitalized, with a serious kidney ailment
that required a transplant, and a bit more of my help.
He recovered and then opened a small stand selling vegetables, and
a modest improvement to his prosperity had started. He purchased a truck, and a tiny one room apartment
(if you can call it that – more like a hovel to us) and continued with his
teaching and learning English, and selling vegetables. His truck did need some repairs –
can’t haul your vegetables if you have no truck.
I had sent him a care package
of some clothes and a special book in English, to improve his English abilities
– Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, a
magnificent and timeless story of hardship and redemption that he might be able
to relate to.
Enter Gebru Getachew, a director of a micro finance agency in
June, 2018, indicating that Abi had inquired about a loan with an opportunity
to sell milk to a local university and a hotel on a long term contract, which Gebru
arranged. His agency was willing to loan
the required capital to start the business, but Abi needed to demonstrate $3,000
in the Bank, and only had half that, so I lent him the funds, along with some
additional startup capital, and he obtained the contract with the school, and
with his first payment quickly paid off his micro-finance loan. This is the way micro-finance is supposed to
work, and what will emanicipate the economic engine which (can be) Africa.
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| Abi on his milk run |
Life seems good, but bad luck in some quarters is always around
the corner. In this case, it was the
poor story of Sara Mekonnen. In August, 2018, I received the following message
from Gebru:
Dear Mr.Peter!
I sent you this sad news with broken heart. As aware
of, by your support and my little cooperation Abi was doing his business hard.
Every day he was driving 30 km from Addis, collected the college and hotels. To
deliver the milk on time he was rented pick up car run it out. But due to
Saturday is Ethiopian main marketing day and much crowded this morning he
has got accident and killed one lovely girl and he jailed in police station. I
and my wife sad by this. Because as he told me about his life back ground he
doesn't have any family except you future will be darken. What I would like to
inform you for the time being Monday he will face in court. I will attend the
secession and let you know. Please let your prayer reach to Abi.
Mr. Gebru.
Gebru, his family, and Abi had developed a good relationship by
this point, and so attending his hearing was in and of itself an act of mercy,
for without family or anyone to rescue him, Abi would rot in jail for 18 years for want of a
path out. Gebru’s wife, Tigist Tadesse, even went to the jail to bring him
food. The following message came a few
days later:
Dear Mr.Peter. As I expressed by my
previous message Abi was faced in court and the case seen. I was presented and
attended. However happened by the car brake problem but Abi been guilty and
the court gave appointment for tomorrow for the judgment. Again today I
was discussed with one Lowery [lawyer]. What he advised me the only situation to
out from this is make negotiation with the girl family to pay compensation and
close the case. Unless he will be sentenced more than 15 years. This issue made
by mind restless. Because I have also children and thinking as Abi like one of
my son. But since we are poor country what can I do? Any way I will let you
know the judgment. The other point, I went to the college and explained the
problem the director and he assured me as the college will be patient until the
judgment. Finally when Abi returned to the police station he told me to pass
the following message to you. “My father Peter I bow under your knee and ask
you by the name of God to save my life.”
Regards Mr. Gebru!
Gebru arranged for priests to arbitrate with the family and a
settlement was reached in the accidental death of Sara Mekonnen, 15 years old,
on August 11, 2018. Abi was released and
back at work delivering milk. It can be
said that justice is very swift, but not always deemed to be justice in the
eyes of all affected, as we shall soon see.
As I have now gotten to know Gebru’s family through Abi, some time
passed, and then there was another life to save.
A family of six children ages 18 to a 6 month old son, the eldest
daughter, Selamawit, required heart surgery for a dilated cardiac myopathy,
with the only safe place to receive this care in South Africa. An expensive procedure was beyond the reach
of Gebru’s family, and so he turned to me and his distant uncle to help him
bridge the gap. Selamawit received the
treatment and has since recovered. For
this deed, along with a gracious thank you, we received a package of blankets
from Tigist, thanking us profusely for saving her daughter. Selamawit is a beautiful young woman, and is
attending Kunzla University, two years into in a six year program in civil
engineering, and receiving excellent grades.
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| Selamawit - sent with her package |
In the meantime, while Gebru was in South Africa, Abi continued to
pick up his milk from the farmers, and one day in October, 2018, he was shot by
the uncles of Sara Mekonnen, and seriously injured.
Can there really be any more bad luck that can fall upon a person?
A family? A society? I was incredulous
at this news.
Abi was hospitalized with two bullets lodged in his arm, and Tigist
took the best care she could of him while Gebru was in South Africa with
Selamawit. I had corresponded directly with the doctors on his treatment and
progress, and agreed that he was to be hospitalized and have the bullets
removed. There is no public health care
coverage that is in any way meaningful, and the only upside is that the cost of
health care is so much lower than in the United States, but not always the best
of care. Abi recovered after about 12
days in the hospital, under Tigist’s tender care, as a mother to her own son. And he was back to work on his milk runs
again.
Life seemed back on track, on all fronts. I received this note from Selamawit on
November 21st:
Dear.Mr.Peter.
My name is Selamawit Gebru. The daughter of Mr. Gebru.
Inspire of the fact is is too small but I sent you my gift. Just to express my
gratitude. If I am not student or I have more I never retreat to do a lot. From
my gift the pens and basckets made by my hands. Because it is your hands saved
my life. Till I leave this earth you and my father are the same for me. A part
from, I am second year engineering student. I sent you the first year my grade
points. As you see from my grade I am great distiniction student. After few
months I will recieve second year grade point and will send you. Abi told me as
you are engineer and I will be live you after 4 years
Selamawit
What happens next is beyond sad.
I received a message from Selamawit not a few weeks later that I
cannot bear to publish, for she reported that Gebru had fathered another child
out of wedlock, which is a mortal sin in Christian Ethiopia, that a dispute naturally
arose between Tigist and Gebru, and while he came home drunk one day, he
murdered Tigist in front of the children. His family of 6 siblings is now under
Selamawit’s care as the eldest, with no
other family, and she wanting to finish school.
She implored that “if I will not graduate and help my
siblings the only chance they will get is to live on the street and only choice
that's left for me to be a prostitute so I can earn money to take care of my
little sister and brother.”
And she is right, she cannot follow
that path.
After corresponding directly with Kunzla
University and confirming her status, I have conveyed a three year scholarship
to finish school, with the University extending one free year for her under
these extraordinary circumstances. She
has excellent prospects in Ethiopia to support her family, and to work in civil
engineering in a country known as one of the fastest growing, and with
(apparently) new and enlightened national leadership. She has her house, and a neighbor helping to
care for the infant, and a developing skill as a weaver. There is hope, but no potential for work, school and
family all at once, at least for now.
This is a tough situation.
And Abi? My “son” is paying it forward to help
Selamawit and her family. He is
awaiting a large (by Ethiopian standards) payment against his contract to the
university (of which I have seen the promissory note), and he will be on track
– for now – for with this tale of sadness and redemption, one can never know
what lurks around the next corner.
So you may be thinking this is hardly
a story for Christmas. But indeed it
is. Christmas is about giving and
receiving gifts, of thankfulness, of helping others. These years since my first visit to Ethiopia
in 2015 have been revelatory. These
problems have intertwined Abi and Gebru’s family with me. And maybe, in time, with my support as her
adopted father, I can also assist Selamawit achieve her meaningful goals -off
the street - and by extension, her siblings. I asked that she send me a
picture of her family:
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| Selamawit with Henock (16) behind her, Belaynesh (14) Alazar (9) next to Selamawit, and Betetlhem (12) Baby boy not shown. |
Christmas in Ethiopia involves the
slaughter of a goat and celebration.
While it will not be the happiest of Christmases for Selamawit and her
family, there is hope for the future. I
have asked her if she will see her father in prison, and at first, she did not
wish to do so, but in the last few days, did visit him. And the response is sad, for Gebru was the
glue that bound all of Abi, Tigist, Selamawit and her siblings together, and
that glue has failed to hold. He wrote a personal note to me that Selamawit passed along
but a few days ago.
January 4, 2019
Dearest Mr. Peter,
I sent this message from the second hell in small prison
darken room. I am like in concentration
camp. Not only I killed my wife but also
myself and my children. Yes I am
guilty. What I ask you by the name of
God is due to my children don’t have any single family don’t far from
them. I am 20 year prisoner and I
delivered my children to you whether I out from this hell or not. Specially visit Selamawit. Because of she is top most clever student
please support her by your potential. If
her study interupt my kids will decend to grave. I have given them to you on
the earth and you will deliver me in the heaven however your wage is from God.
Faithfully yours
Gebru
I have both given and received. I feel as if my role in this strange tale is
as the bishop in Les Miserables who
let the candlesticks go to enable Jean Valjean to find his place in society. I
could go on.
January 7 is our Christ X-mas. On this
date goat or sheep slaughter chicken, cheese, beverage and other prepared, neighbors
invited and we spent happily. Now that has been history. Yes by the coming our
Christ X-mas my brothers and sisters will expect that. But it can't. Because
our parents already gone. Because I don't have any thing to do like before. So
spend by closed door house.
I sent a small stipend to Abi to
provide for the goat and other essentials. Her brothers and sisters have a gift
in Selamawit and Abi, not the unwrapping kind, and only time will hopefully
reveal how lucky they are to have them at this time. I only hope her
neighbors, her school and her society can help her achieve. We usually do not know or experience this
kind of hardship in our day-to-day existence.
Abi and Selamawit are spending
Christmas together today with the family.
Today, I honor their courage to continue on.
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