Watango and Kadija

Our last blog post was in December. We told you about an accident we were in where we struck a pedestrian and we asked for prayers over the situation.  What followed was not easy. We spent 3 weeks helping him with his care until he ultimately died on December 27th.  Michelle wrote this soon after that but with the stress of life we never shared it with you:

Our friend, Mr (Ato) Watango was in the hospital for two and a half weeks. He only had minor injuries from the accident. A skin laceration on his left calf and a cartilaginous rib injury, but his is old and his health was not great to start. So, as expected in any county, we had some exacerbation of some underlying health issues. He was given ibuprofen and it exacerbated an ulcer. He has been confused at time and has been withdrawing for a local opiate/amphetamine leaf he chews call khat.  He then got pneumonia from not breathing deeply and developed some fluid around his lung. He got a tube in his chest to drain 1 L of clear yellow fluid, and still needed oxygen. Our hope for his was that he would get better and we could repair his cataracts. 

We west to visit him every day and pray over him. About 1 week ago, I went to go see him and had a translator. He does not speak the national language, but a local language, Hadia. We speak Wolaitta and Amharic here. In Hadia, he first told my translator the white woman didn't need to worry if he died. That she has treated him well, so she does not need to worry. 

I then asked him, "are you worried about dying?" 

He told me that at night he has been having dreams or images that he is dying and is seeing a bright light. He says at night he feels uncomfortable and frightened, like he needs to "run" away from this place and this hospital. 

My translator thought it was because he is used to mud houses and this was a nice concrete hospital. I thought it could have been some delirium, but it was in that moment that I realized the spiritual strongholds that were tugging in this man's heart. I asked my translator to pray for Ato Watango in Hadia in the name of Jesus. He and his family thanked us. 

Then this past Thursday, as we sang Christmas carols around the hospital, Ato Watango's family followed us around the entire hospital. As we sung, in between songs, his daughter and son we able to hear the good news of the gospel in between our songs. 

On Sunday morning I was already in the hospital for a very sad case, a woman who's baby died in labor, and went to go see our friendly Ato Watango. He looked chipper. The chest tube had helped him tremendously, his pain was relieved. He smiled at me and his family as we did our cultural greetings. The day prior he went on a little bajaj ride around the hospital campus, he walked twice and then went back to his room. He looked the best he had looked since we met him on the road. 30 minutes later he was found dead in our ICU. I believe it was most likely a blood clot to his lung. 

We were both shocked on so many levels. I really felt like God was in the middle of this and taking care of so many things. I had really hoped that we would be able help to restore his sight, and I had really hoped that we could have seen his heart change. Yet, he died. 

The police came and changed the report from car accident causing minor injuries, to car accident causing death. 

Adam is upset, I am upset. It is a sad day. 

Please pray for the family and for our negotiations with them and the elders of his village. Please pray in the process no one would in hurt as our hospital administrators go to negotiate with them (sometimes this people group is known to be quite violent). Please pray that the son and daughter, with whom we had many interactions, would feel the fullness of God's love and that the gospel message they heard would sink deep into their hearts.

This is a lot to process I know. But that was written 2 months ago. And so much has happened since then. The matter was settled with Watango's family. The process was difficult and exhausting requiring me to drive to his area multiple times and our hospital administrator a few more times. Because we were handling the business in the village justice system, not the national courts, all the matters were out of our hands. The negotiations fell onto my representative (a "big man" who is extended family of our hospital administrator) and at times I felt that I was being taken advantage of. We are rich of course, and maybe the village is trying to get something from us that it wouldn't get we were locals. But God gave me peace that the process was being handled well, and God provided good friends to help us with the expenses from this accident.

The final matter was settled when I went to Watango's home in my mourning clothes and my mourners/wailers and paid my respects, and paid cash for the expenses associated with his death.  I was out of my element. At the end of the day we left the village in peace and with the hope of putting this experience behind us.

My and my mourners. The fashionable accessory is called a Gabi.

It was on that day that we met Watango's wife Kadija. Kadija is a 30-something year old woman, who is blind and has a 6 year old son. Even though Watango was over 70 and had failing eyesight and hearing, she needed him for her everyday needs. We gave Kadija some money on that final day and wished her well. But then God started working on our hearts.

We were ready to help Watango regain his sight as he recovered in our hospital. Our hope was that if this man could have seen, the accident would have never happened. We could show him love by helping him from our resources to regain his sight. He was a candidate for cataract surgery if only he could get better. This never happened.

We contacted Kadija's family and told her that we wanted to help her have her eyes evaluated. Kadija's loss of eyesight came when she was a teenager. She had an untreated condition of in-turned eyelashes that caused scaring on the cornea. Here vision can be restored by a cornea transplant. Fortunately we have contacts through our hospital to eye surgeons that work in Addis Ababa and they can do this type of surgery. Praise God. But Kadija was unsure, and we weren't sure that she would go through with it. Michelle writes:

This past week, I received a call from the eye clinic at the hospital. Kadija arrived to tell us some good news. She had feared before that the surgery would replace her whole eyes, and when she learned that they would be only fixing the front of the eye, she realized that she wanted it so much that she started crying at home. She came with her traveling companion and family member to tell us that she has decided that she wanted to go through with the corneal transplant. She had tears in her eyes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corneal_transplantation) 

Through a translator and our optometrist, we arranged for her to most likely get her corneal transplant on Tuesday. She has to travel to Addis from her village on Sunday, pay for the corneas on Monday and get the transplant on Tuesday. She will need frequent follow up and has to stay in Addis for one month after the procedure. We will be giving her the money for her food and rent in Addis as well as cover her medical care. 

We are still confirming details (there are a lot), but please join us in prayer over the procedure and her heart. We pray that her whole village will feel the love of God through our part in this whole story and that it would be a witness for God's grace and love for them.  

As she left Thursday we prayed together. As she walked out the door I thought to myself, the next time I see Kadija, she will also see me. WOW!

Thank you for your prayers. We know that we are not alone here in Ethiopia and that so many people around the world are partnering with us. We will keep you updated (hopefully very soon) of the results of the surgery.

Michelle and Kadija