Watengo

We woke up like any other day. We have traveled so much in Ethiopia, that road trips almost feel normal and typical. The 100's of donkeys, carts and people on the two lane highway from Soddo to Addis Ababa almost felt ordinary. But perhaps it is when we take down our guard, and forget to stay vigilant in prayer that the enemy attacks.

We were taking our friends to the airport this quiet Thursday morning. We ate breakfast before we got on the road. We stopped to get a hand of those cute apple bananas for our friends in Addis from a young boy on the side of the road. We made it about 45 minutes out of town, when it happened. We were out of any official town between Shone and Halaba. We were headed downhill on a beautiful stretch of road with some small ravines on either side of the road. There was no person or animal on the road, except Watango. Watango is a 75 year old muslim man with significant vision impairment. He was walking along the side of the road for his 10 kilometer trek home. As we traveled down the road, we gave a polite, "I'm here" honk. Watango went from walking, to running and darted across the road. We braked HARD, honked LOUD and swerved to miss him, but unfortunately our side view mirror, and maybe our tire hit him. He fell to the ground. We skidded to a stop just at the edge of the steep bank next to the roadside. Literally our tires stopped a few centimeters away from the side of the road.

The car came to a stop. Adam and I ran out of the car to his side to see if he was alright. No one was around. Adam went back to get some gloves and our first aid kit. He is wearing dirty, well worn clothing that has been repaired and repaired at least 4 times. I noticed some blood from behind his leg. He had a degloving injury about 9cm long. I quickly put some pressure on his leg, bandaged him with gauze and wrapped it with an ACE bandage. Otherwise he was stable. He was having some pleuritic chest pain, especially on his right side, but her heart rate was stable and as far as I could tell he was mentating well (he doesn't speak either English or Amharic). The first person to come to our side was a local Ethiopian Catholic priest. Then lots and lots of people came to see what was going on. We had about 60 spectators. No one tried to harm us, or harass us. (Locals have been known to throw rocks are try to harm the driver after roadside traffic accidents).

The crowd watches peacfully as the police start their investigation

We called our hospital to arrange for transport for Watango to our hospital and our friends to continue on to Addis without us. We went back to the Shone police station to give our report and start the paper trail. With the help of one of our hospital administrators, we were able to convince the police Sargent to allow us to escort Watango to our hospital. We drove as a family with an Ethiopian police man and his loaded machine gun the 45 minutes back to Soddo, as we traveled behind our hospital's ambulance.

Watango was evaluated in our hospital with all we could do... FAST scan, CT scan, blood work, xray. Praise the Lord, he had a cartilagenous rib injury and a posterior tibial degloving injury... no broken bones or bleeding in his head! I can not describe the relief.

I stayed at home with the kids, cried a bit, but mostly tried to hold it together, while Adam gave his report to the police. Adam then had to take the car and the police officers back to Shone to complete some paperwork. He came home, without our car late that night... but he came home. It is very common for the driver to have to stay in jail at least one night after a roadside accident. The driver is always financially responsible, and additionally, everyone is considered guilty until proven innocent. But, with our administrator and favor from the police, Adam was able to come home.

That night we had one of our local general surgeons escort us back to the hospital to talk to Watango and his family. As we walked in, we both feared anger, hatred and a very hostile environment, we were met with love, and blessings. We explained who we were, and that we would help to take care of all his medical bills and that we were praying for his full recovery. In return, Watango's brother spoke repetitive words of blessings over our family. He told us he prayed that we would never have an accident like this again. He reported that he could tell that we loved his brother very much, as we were taking such good care of him at the hospital, and we stopped by the side of the road to care for his wounds. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I was expecting shame and anger and instead received love and mercy. In this advent season, it is so reminiscent of the total undeserving grace and mercy we receive from our Lord daily.

We arranged for Watango and his family to get food and to make sure he got all the medications he needed. He is very poor and there is no way we would be able to afford the medications and care from the hospital without our help.

Watango is still here 5 days later. They are trying to determine if he needs skin graft on his leg. We go to visit him and his family daily.

The words of love and encouragement that we have received from our friends and family are that this horrible event, this tragic occurrence, did not happen without a reason. One of our young friends reminded us that God was not sleeping when this happened. Adam's mom and other have encouraged us that God is going to work good out of this situation. And we have both felt the strong desire to abundantly bless this man and his family. We desire to show him the healing and abundant love of Christ though this entire process.

Tomorrow he goes to have his eyes evaluated by our optometrist to see if he is a candidate for cataract surgery. Wouldn't it be amazing to offer him the gift of sight. We pray that through this time he would be able to physically see again and see the abundant love that Christ offers us daily.