God's Guide

{March 20, 2011}

After two hours of this, we were ready to let Nebretu get back to his day and started to give signals that we would be leaving and thanked him and his staff for their care of orphans and their time with us.  Surely he had other plans to attend to.  He asked if we wanted help getting a taxi, but I wanted to walk back so Eric and I could “decompress” all we had just seen.   Unexpectedly, he walked with us, the whole way back!

Among other sights we are quite unaccustomed to such as grown men peeing in the street, we passed two dead dogs in the street on our return walk.  One of them had his throat slit and the other swarmed with flies.  Seeing them ahead of us, Nebritu motioned for us to cross to the other side and keep going.  I was queasy and getting sunburned but didn’t care.  I was walking in the place where Kate would have grown, perhaps as a street kid and beggar herself.  Just like all those we were passing now.  It’s hard to go there; it’s unthinkable because she’s now a Baesel – her life is already removed from this place.  Her room in Texas is ready.  Her own room delicately decorated in chocolate brown and pink, filled with toys and books and a rocking chair to be sung to and rocked, her own changing table and a closet full of clothes and shoes….and a life full of opportunities.

We were able to ask more questions, not just about Kate, but about orphans in general and the culture and politics.  Eric’s interviewing skills took over; we reveled in every moment, in every question and answer.  He took us to a neighboring hotel and had us sit down in their outside cafe.  We ordered sodas and he had hot tea.  We weren’t sure where this was going.  He seemed to be quite content being with us and hanging out so we were happy to have his time and just kept rolling with it.  After the drinks were done, we started wrapping up again.  It was about 11:00 AM.  He asked what we were going to see while we were in Bahir Dar.  We weren’t sure, maybe the monasteries, or the falls.  He said he knew a guy with a boat and wondered if we were interested in his help to make arrangements.  Sure!  He started snapping his fingers with the local staff and everything was coordinated in a matter of minutes, for half the price our hotel would charge for the same tour! Of course, the boat had about half the horsepower, but that’s part of the fun, right?!?  He asked if he could come along.  Well, sure!

We spent the next 4 or 5 hours together boating on Lake Tana and visiting a very ancient monastery, bargaining for trinkets and wild coffee beans from the island’s villagers.  I refused to pee in the bush as they suggested I do while on the island so they let me go in the not-yet- finished outhouse on the back of a new museum currently under construction.  I was grateful for the concrete hole in the ground (yes, literally) that was covered for my privacy and had a locked door (twisted piece of metal like a twisty tie to to keep the door closed).  God had provided the guide we desperately needed in this place, and such a guide as this who could open the window into Kate’s would-be universe.  So thankful.



Nebretu walked us back to the hotel and invited us to the orphanage again on Monday morning.  We could meet his wife who also works there and they would show us newborn pictures of Kate.  Ohmigosh – another rare, so rare, opportunity.  I was sunburned and tired, but so filled in my heart.

We saw more familiar faces at dinner.  A couple from our agency had also made the trip to Bahir Dar and we were able to join up for dinner and some shared experience camaraderie as well…and more anti-bug lung smoke.  Okay by me!