Second Day in Ethiopia
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
4
12
Trip End
Oct 29, 2007
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Thursday, October 4, 2007
A most instructive visit to an orphanage in Wolisso
About 120 km from Addia, that sounds easy -
You forget about Ethiopian potholes and smoke belching trucks, busses.
Almost three hours, but the roadside activity and scenery made it worth it.
We left bustling Addis, but we did not leave the people.
Maybe not as many as roadside China, but still throngs.
Children herding goats to market, donkeys loaded with salable wood.
Fertile, green fields, plowed by single donkeys pulling wood branch plows.
Over three million children orphaned by malaria or AIDS.
Grandmothers overwhelmed or they have become victims also.
NGO's such as Emmanuel Orphans Development are trying, perhaps a cow would help.
She provides milk for kids, maybe a heifer for sale or eventually meat.
But wait, is there another way?
Should NGO's be forced to find better solutions?
Would second cousins or distant aunts be better as homes?
Orphanages have problems, our task: find for Rotary the best overall plan.
Could wells and small bridges really help
More people, more effectively, more permanently?
We need to compare and balance possibilities.
Tomorrow we are off to another corner of Ethiopia, the task continues.
