July 28

The Tree of Life can be found in Ethiopia. On my way to Arba Minch, in the south of the country, they grace the landscape as lakes do in Minnesota. Many have handmade barrels hanging from their branches filled with the local honey wine, Tej. Others are home to several small monkeys eating and playing.

I was told that the landscape would be flat, even boring perhaps but it was far from it. I was silent the entire ride unless asked if I was okay. That’s just how I am, when I’m exploring or learning I’m quiet and I didn’t want to say a word. I was taking everything in. The hilly, mountainous, fertile, sometimes flood and green landscape was amazing. Hills in Wolita resemble those of Chianti, Italy except the olive tress, they’ve been replaced by banana trees, sorghum, maze, and teff. One forgets that millions are starving in this country when seeing the plush forests, but it never escapes my mind that tomorrow the floods could continue and continue for another month of rainy season with the potential to destroy the crops millions have ploughed, planted and harvested by hand. Tomorrow is another day, today it is beautiful.

After starting my day at 7 am we finally arrive in Arba Minch (literally translated as forty-sources, as there is an area of the forest that has 40 springs in just 50 yards) at about 9 pm. Though one could assume it was a day of laziness I had a great 5 hour ab workout. The SUV twisted and turned and hit pot hole after pot hole on the last length of “road” which was more or less created by the Italians 100 years before when they tried to colonize the country. Nonetheless, I had arrived at my destination Tsehay Assefa’s Orphanage, home to 53 children who Tsehay has provided a home for along with tens of others who have been internationally adopted. She has managed to create a home for children for over 15 years, created when she was just 30 and after having been reunified with her two sons who were raised in a military orphanage for 9 years. Children travel from as far as 5 or more hours, some being brought by what is left of their birth relatives – begging Tsehay to take them in as they have no other place to go.

Tsehay provides the only home for orphaned and abandoned children in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, Peoples Region – home to more than 15 million impoverished people, early child marriage and female genital mutilation resulting in the death of young mothers, AIDS, and the number one killer, malaria – 99 percent preventable and almost always treatable.

I had arrived. I arrived anxious to see the children with the women who has managed to safe 100s of children’s lives. They bombarded the vehicle and opened its doors and climbed in to hug me and I was even presented with homemade bouquets of flowers. Kisses, kisses, and more kisses and handshakes awaited me outside the vehicle. The little hands coming from near my feet wiggled as they tried to get closer, there were 16 in all, 8 little toddlers. It felt like I had just reached heaven but I knew the reality was that these children had seen the death of their family – much closer to despair and aggravation of the situation in which they were powerless.