2020 has been a crap year for many people. Maybe not people like Jeff Bezos but for people like Jeff Bagadonuts it has been. Many people have died due to Covid-19. Others have lost their businesses or jobs. I’m sure relationships have been strained if not torn apart.
Just a crap year.
However, maybe we should look at it differently.
We live in the United States. That in itself makes our situation much better than many, not all of course, but many places around the globe.
I was talking to my neighbor this morning and this topic came up – he brought it up. We were talking about Ethiopia.
Why?
Well, for those of you who do not know, my wife is from Ethiopia. She traveled back there 7 weeks and 4 days ago (not that I’m counting…wait…heck yeah I’m counting!). She went back to see her family and specifically her Dad because he is not doing well. In fact her brother didn’t expect my wife to get to their house in time to say good bye to Baba, what we call her Dad…but she did. And, on a good note, he is still with us which makes us smile.
The medical care in Ethiopia, or at least parts of Ethiopia are not what we come to expect here in the states. We believe a poor decision on her Dad’s medical care put him in the position he is now. This is one reason we are building a medical clinic in her hometown. Another reason is an experience I had when I visited Ethiopia for the first time. We were riding a bus to another town – Bahir Dar – about 45 minutes away. Also on the bus was an 8 year old girl who had been bitten by a dog. She was hollering. She was on the bus because there was no ambulance and no hospital in my wife’s town. She was going to the hospital in Bahir Dar. She had received very little first aid. My wife started talking to people on the bus to see how she could help and find out exactly what was going on. The bite had happened days before. The bite was bad and was infected. The general idea on the bus was that she was not going to survive. Something that could have easily been taken care of here was something that put this little girl’s life in danger. When we arrived at the bus stop in Bahir Dar the driver told the girl’s Dad that they had to get off the bus. It was at the end of the line. My wife and I were shocked. She started arguing with the driver. Finally he agreed to take her to the hospital if we paid him. So we did. We don’t know if the girl survived and she’s been on our minds ever since. And it’s one reason why we appreciate what we have here in this country even in the crap year of 2020.
We have plenty more stories like that one unfortunately.
There is a conflict going on in Ethiopia right now. There always seems to be some sort of conflict going on there. This one is a little different in our eyes and it’s probably because she is over there while it is going on. She was hoping to fly out to come back home last week but the Bahir Dar airport she needs to use on the first leg of her journey is closed. Why it is closed is because a rocket, missile, whatever you want to call it was fired and landed/exploded at the airport. Last night 3 more rockets were fired at the airport. All of them missed but Janet heard the rockets fly overhead from her room in her Dad’s house. Now she is about 45 miles from the airport and was in no particular danger but it’s not something you experience in this country – military rockets streaming overhead while you’re supposed to be sleeping safely in your Dad’s house. Later, I was on the phone with her when she heard a gunshot. It ended up being nothing but when rockets are flying everything becomes more heightened.
The airport is closed for at least a few more days. Some have asked, “what about driving to another airport?” Well, the roads aren’t particularly safe either. There have been buses stopped and people killed just because they come from a different ethnic group. It’s a 10 hour ride from where she has to catch the bus – you guessed it, in Bahir Dar – to the capital airport. Can you imagine taking that ride knowing what you know?
It is a tough decision – does she wait it out where she is hoping it doesn’t take much longer or does she risk the drive to the capital in order to get home to the United States?
We haven’t made that decision
See, things aren’t so bad here. I understand that there are many folks – too many actually – in this country living in danger, in poverty, in situations less than ideal and we need to find a way to help these people. It is a tragedy. However, our medical care here is the best in the world (we just need to improve access to it) and we don’t have to worry about rockets being fired and landing in our neighborhoods. We do have to worry about gunshots, sadly, but I would bet most of us don’t worry about it too much (I hate that anyone has to – another thing we need to figure out). Most of us don’t have to worry about our day to day survival. That is different from many others around the world.
We sometimes forget that we have won life’s lottery by being born here in the United States. We sometimes forget how nice it is to live here…even in the crap year of 2020.
Take some time to remember and enjoy
MattMunnell.com 