Her tears of gratitude overflowed from the bed she had not
moved from in 2 months. She was joined
by her 10 year old son, Namaste, and her aging mother. Together, we cried.
Gladys and I met Namaste on a walk to clear our heads after
delivering a day of energetic and challenging training for nine Ethiopian
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Trainers.
We have been exploring the town of Shashemene, one half an hour walk at
a time, right before the sun disappears.
Today we chose a new direction and walked towards the busy part of town. As we walked we introduced ourselves to a
young boy carrying a small pot and lid carefully wrapped in a plastic bag.
Between our small amount of Amharic and his small amount of
English we found out some information from Namaste, such as his age, his grade
and that he was going to buy food for his mother. He told us that his dad died. He told us he is sad and that his mother is
sad. We were drawn to this little boy
with his quiet voice and his calm presence.
We stayed with him rather than continue our walk. We all patiently waited at the restaurant for
the food to fill the pot.
As we walked back the way we came he grabbed hold of Gladys’
hand tightly and kept saying ‘house, mother’. So we followed him through a
small gate along a tiny uneven pathway past his neighbors’ houses. All the neighbors came to meet us and he
introduced us to his mother, who did not rise from her bed.
One neighbor spoke English and told us that Namaste's mother had
fallen sick, there was something wrong with her leg and she had not moved from
the bed in 2 months. She had been at the
hospital, but they ran out of money and she returned home. He asked us to pray.
As a most eloquent Christian woman from Zambia, Gladys bowed
her head and led us all in prayer for the healing of this woman. We prayed
together in this tiny dark room holding a bed, a bench and fireplace. Emotion whelmed all of us and our eyes became
moist.
Namaste walked the 45 steps back to our hotel with us. We said goodnight and then went in to have
our supper. Our supper was plentiful to
say the least and we were left with half a dozen buns and a pile of roast lamb
- ‘enough to feed a family’ were our exact words. So we decided to do just that. We wrapped up the food and walked the 45
steps back to Namaste’s home.
The gift was met with overwhelming thanks and gratitude for
a seemingly small act of kindness. We sat in the second-hand glow of next door’s
light bulb - mother, son, grandmother, Gladys and I. Together
we cried.
