Monday, July 12
Any new parent could relate to the tug that Brian and Keri deGuzman felt early yesterday morning as they kissed their babies goodbye and left them in the care of a local nanny.
It had been less than 24 hours since these beautiful children came into their lives. Leaving them so soon was painful. And yet there were other children whose needs must be considered.
So we left, at just about 8am, for what we thought was a four- or five-hour field trip to visit a village school 150 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa. (We did not return until almost 6pm.)
The invitation came from Mesganu Arga, director general for political affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia. Mesganu was pivotal in helping Christian World Foundation secure a site for the Acacia Village project in Addis Ababa, which will open in a few months as a children’s home for orphans and eventually will expand to include a medical facility for women and children, a life-skills school, a family guest house, administrative offices and a chapel.
Mesganu is a sophisticated, highly educated member of Ethiopian society with roots so humble that his accomplishments, impressive even on the surface, are completely astonishing when you know a bit of the back story.
He attended elementary school sitting with a group of 80 to 100 classmates on the ground under a tree. (He showed us the scar on the bark where a nail held the chalkboard.) Eventually that outdoor classroom was replaced by a small, mud-and-straw-walled building with a dirt floor that was damp and muddy during the rainy season. (Even then, many of the students had to sit on the floor because there were not enough desks.)
The room—I stood in it—had just a few tiny windows near the ceiling and was so dark I could barely get an image to register on my video camera. Colds and disease spread easily in such cramped, claustrophobic conditions. Yet the community kept sending its children there to learn.
Those who excelled went on to high school. Mesganu was one of them. He walked 13 kilometers twice a day—barefooted—so he could attend classes. The walk alone took him four hours a day. When he returned home in the afternoon, he had to help his father with the family farm.
Mesganu eventually graduated and enrolled in Addis Ababa University. Now a young, married, soon-to-be father in a position of importance and influence, he has made it a personal mission to improve conditions at the Sherbera Ber Primary School he attended as a boy.
“Education is a privilege,” Mesganu fervently believes. “I got that chance and it changed my life. Now I can work to change the lives of others.”
Brian and Keri were expecting to tour the school, which recently expanded to include several more modern classrooms with windows, electricity and cement floors; boys and girls outdoor latrines and an as-yet-unfurnished multipurpose room.
They weren’t expecting an audience with two dozen of the village elders, including Mesganu’s father.
As we approached the property, we saw them lined up awaiting our arrival, seated at long benches and desks some of the young boys had carried out from a classroom.
“Would you like to have the questions first or tour the school?” Mesganu asked the deGuzmans.
“Whatever you think…” Keri said.
“Okay then. First we tour the school.”
The deGuzmans have personally undertaken a goal to build an endowment for Acacia Village that will provide a sustainable source of operating revenue. Each day, as I get to know them better, I find out about additional charitable efforts they have undertaken—or fundraisers they have initiated—to improve the quality of life for children in Ethiopia. Clearly this school would be next on their list.
Though I knew they were exhausted and aching to be with their babies, I watched this couple walk the rural campus with their host, completely focused on absorbing the magnitude of both the progress and the need. Everywhere we walked, we were surrounded by curious children, smiling shyly and wondering, no doubt, why these ferengi were getting the red-carpet treatment.
Later, as the deGuzmans assumed places in a press-conference-like atmosphere under the trees, I listened as village elders explained (through Mesganu’s translation) how fervently they seek education and a better life for their children.
Each speaker began with a lengthy speech thanking the deGuzmans for taking time to visit their school. Needs were outlined but no specific requests were made. Finally, it became clear that the deGuzmans were expected to respond.
Though jetlagged and emotionally consumed by the momentous changes in their own lives in the past 24 hours, both Brian and Keri stepped up to offer affirmation for the progressive attitudes and accomplishments they’d seen within this close-knit, hard-working tribal community.
“We will not forget you,” Keri said. “How could we? Every day, when we see our beautiful four children who come from your country, we will remember.”
Thanks, Karen, for this report. The photos are great.
I travel to Nicaragua for a program that supports the education of girls and women. Such trips always put my own life into better perspective.
Meaningful, beautiful and eye opening! Another example of the many people in our world who have less while those of us lucky enough to have enough and more than enough continue to use too much of the world’s resources. Excellent reporting! gc
Hi Karen: What interesting adventures! Education is the essential building block for bettering people’s lives — thanks for giving us a glimpse of this hopeful effort in Ethiopia.