Korah 5-30-11

Korah a term in Hebrew that means "cursed".  Oh what a sad place that was.  We had planned to meet with our Korah guide, Yemamu, in the morning but we received a phone call.  He was not able to make it because one of the kids, had been in accident and he had to take them to the hospital.  To find out the child was around 4 years old, and a car had hit a light pole, falling down and electricuting the child beneath it.  Yeah.  Thats how our trip to visit Korah began.  But for you to fully understand Korah, we must start at the beginning...

Korah is a "city" outside Addis Abeba that holds all the trash.  The trash dump "they" call it.  Three generations ago, people were sent to live there.  The "cursed" people.  The people of Korah.  Its occupants included lepers, HIV+, and orphans.  Living there, hidden away from society, with only trash to eat.  The whole concept to me makes my heart ache. After lunch, we headed over to Korah to meet Yemamu.  It had started raining during lunch and we weren't sure how that would affect our trip.  As we made our way over, Yonatan headed out of the van, walking in the rain, trying to find Yemamu.  Soon as we watched through the rain streaked windows, we saw two men walking toward the van.  They introduced themselves as Yemamu and Sisay.  Two men who had been born and raised in the city of Korah.  It was hard to concentrate as we drove into the dump.  Large equipment was moving around this trash.  Where?  I have no idea.  It was covered in people and numerous types of animals.  It lasted for miles upon miles and eventually we stopped.  The rain had stopped but the sky was overcast.  A constant sign of the uneasiness and sadness in my heart.

We got out and climbed the trash pile.  I slipped all the way up.  I noticed a broken plastic toilet seat.  I had no idea why I kept focusing on it.  We asked if we could take pictures.  Yemamu said yes, and he kept talking.  But my mind went blank.  I was watching these three men overlooking the dump.  They seemed to be assessing the work all the large equipment were doing.  Then I saw one of the three reach down and pick up a piece of trash, get excited, and eat it.  I was standing in trash, and in a sense, people watching. I had just watched a man get excited over something he found on the ground.  Like he had won a lottery ticket.  My heart broke.  Feeling ashamed, I turned around.  All of a sudden I saw goats run out of a house with its owners. A family didn't want us there.  We were intruders.  I stopped taking pictures.  At that moment, I felt completely intrusive.  I was so sorry and wished to escape.  We got back into the van and Yemamu took us to his compound.

One of the reasons we went to Korah was to meet with these two men and help them begin a feeding program.  He showed us around this very nice compound and then had us come sit to talk.  He told us about going to school.  In order to go to school there, you must be eating.  Wherein the problem lies for the children of Korah.  The food is the trash.  Digging in the trash for food  = smells.  Many times Yemamu was kicked out of school simply because he was too stinky.  I fought back the tears.  I looked at the ground.  I could tell you at that moment every color of this hut we were in.  He told us of their (Yemamu and Sisay) success stories.  They were picked up and sent to boarding school in Shashemene, just a few miles from the town Yohanna was born in.  And then Yemamu went to Awassa University (where Yohanna IS from) and graduated!

He told us of another story of an orphan.  A mother had placed her infant in a trash dump in the city, and it was brought by trash truck into Korah.  The trash truck dumped it and the baby was still alive.  That child is still living in Korah today.  Korah is full of orphan children.  Yemamu wants to take care of some the children of Korah.  He planned on 75-100 children eating, bathing, sleeping at the feeding program.  That way they can continue with school.  I was excited about his plans!  We gave him donations & money to help him start up.  The  next day we took them both out to lunch and watched a documentary about their lives.  Soon we began to worry that all these plans weren't going to unfold as fast as he said.  But true to his word, yesterday we had word from Ethiopia that while we were celebrating the Independence Day in America, the people of Korah were celebrating at the very first "Hands for the Needy - Ethiopia" feeding program.  Several people from stateside were there also to celebrate!  I was told that one elderly man cried out saying, "We've been forgotten.  Today God remembered us.  We've known hope of spiritual rebirth, today is like our physical rebirth!!!"         

As a side note, many of the people that live there still are lepers, including this man.  He had 5 children and a wife he is supporting.  He was making a type of "Welcome" mat with no fingers.  For my life I have thought of Jesus who healed the leper.  I always thought it was just he touched him and his skin was healed.  Like a sore and then gone.  While I saw pictures of other lepers and met this man, I have discovered that maybe this just wasnt an "easy fix".  That maybe this story of Jesus made it in the Bible because it wasnt so easy.  Yemamu's mom has leprousy and is missing one leg.  This man has no fingers.  I learned something new about Jesus that day.  His miracles are truly miracles.  No easy fixes.  If so anyone could do it.  When Jesus healed that leper in the Bible, it was a miracle.  Who knows in what form of leprosy Jesus' leper had.  Maybe no leg, no fingers?  Who knows, but I can guarantee it wasn't an easy fix and I will forever be changed...

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.  Matthew 8:2-3