For the last 6 months, we have learnt many things about
Ethiopia…a little language, a lot of food, a few cultural norms and a few
paradigms of thought that need a little shifting. There are challenges here as in any society,
but it has made me think…if I were born in Ethiopia instead of New Zealand, if
my parents had migrated here, rather than the land of the long white
cloud, how different my life would be…This is a little of what it would or
could look like –
My name (even though I’m married) would be Michelle Fred
Constantine (Ethiopians take their Father’s name as a second name and
Grandfathers name as their third name)
I would be born in 1970 on the 1st of June (Ethiopia’s
Calendar is 8 years and 8 days behind the Gregorian Calendar we use.)
I would have been born into a time of civil unrest as the
Derge took over power here, abolishing the emperor rule of Haile Selassie.
If born in Northern Ethiopia, at the age of six, I would
have been affected by the drought and famine that wiped out one million people
and could have possibly been one of those who died.
If born in a rural area, I would have been well trained to
look after the household chores, like fetching water that could be half a day’s
walk away, harvesting teff or making injera.
I could possibly even have to take my younger sibling on my back while
making these long trips or doing these daily chores – left responsible for
daily taking care of one or more babies in the home, learning to feed, clothe
and bathe them while other girls in the city were able to attend school.
If I were born in a rural area and I didn’t seem to be of
much use to my parents, or in fact, my parents had died of HIV or other
diseases, I would be given away to someone in a city where I would work as a
house slave from as young as 3 or 4 years old – never getting an opportunity to
go to school and even sometimes being expected to marry the one who I was given
away to –even if he was 20 years my senior.
If I were born in Southern Ethiopia and my bottom teeth grew
out before my top teeth, I would be classified as “mingi” or cursed, and be
forced to die by starvation or having dirt thrown down my mouth and left
outside to suffocate.
If I were born in Eritrea, I would most likely have suffered
the horrific violence of war as my tribe fought to become an independent state,
living in fear and hatred to others who considered themselves to be like me.
If I were born in Ethiopia, the likelihood of me surviving
my first five years would have been one in five. If I did survive those first five years, the
likelihood that I would have been severely underweight would have been one in
three and if I had made it to my school years, the likelihood that I attended
school would have been one in three.
If I were born in Ethiopia, I still would most likely have
been a teenage mother. If a man asked me
to marry him at a young age, I would have no other choice but to say no. In some areas, I would be made to walk
everywhere while my husband enjoyed the luxury of riding on a horse. I could possibly have to share him with other
wives and made to bare many children – even though I couldn’t afford to feed
them. My husband, having caught HIV off one of his
concubines, would have left me to care for these children alone and disabled me
from being able to work because I had the children to care for-leaving me with
only two choices- either to live off the little that we have in our garden or
to move to Addis Ababa and beg.
If I were born in Ethiopia and had my five children and
volunteered as I do, there would be no government support for our family or
even the NGO that we work for. I would
have to live in a small mud hut with a tin roof and barely be able to pay the
rent for that apartment. My children
would attend classes for half a day and would share their classroom with up to
70 children. They would know little
English and struggle to transition into High School where they would have to
learn in English which would be totally foreign to them since the government
regulates Primary school learning in Amharic.
Though these stories are unthinkable to people like me who
are brought up in New Zealand – which was recently researched as the least
corrupt run country in the world- they are all scenarios of different people’s
lives who I have met in Ethiopia. These
realities exist. Though they are not the
reality of me and my family, they are the harsh realities that people have to
face every day.
We can hear these stories or look at these people and think
that they are not relevant to us, or we can look at what God says about them-
Mat 5:42 Give to the
one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Isa 1:17 Learn to do
good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead
the widow's cause.
Jas_1:27 Religion
that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans
and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
So what will you do with the advantage given to you by your
birth place? What will you do with the
blessings that have come into your life because of reasons that you had nothing
to do with? Will you do something to help those, who for the very same reason
will not be able to experience blessings?
Luk 6:38 Give, and it
will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be
measured back to you."
