Today we visited both the Sister’s Of Charity orphanage, and the Sister’s Of Charity Hospital for the Destitute and Dying. Understandably, both facilities forbid photography.

This was definitely the hardest day for everyone on the team. It’s one thing to know the statistics of extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, but entirely another to witness them first hand and to put names or faces with these conditions.

The orphanage looked fairly new on its spacious grounds. Sister Mercy greeted us and arranged for our tour of the facility as the children welcomed us warmly. Each team member became a “magnet,” with multiple children holding our hands as we walked around the grounds and through the wards. With the exception of a few rooms with extremely sick and dying children, the orphanage had the feel of a happy and safe place. In some cases, we had to keep reminding ourselves that each one of these children had AIDS and would surely die before they became adults. Sister Mercy told us that the availability of AIDS drug treatments for the children was improving, but was still more costly than it should be.

The orphanage faces an interesting challenge in caring for the growing number of teenage children. Sister Mercy told us candidly how when the orphanage opened, the Sisters did not expect many of the children to reach their teenage years, much less adulthood. Thanks to the wonderful care and God’s grace, today there are dozens of teenagers at the orphanage. But as Sister Mercy put it, “We are six Sisters. What do we know about providing a growing environment for teenagers?” Most of these youth have been stigmatized and abandoned by family and friends when they were young. As a result, the only peers they have are those at the orphanage.

Sister Mercy looked at the teenagers in our group and noted how wonderful it would be if the orphans could just go out for pizza with some people their own age. Of course, we all thought about how much more effective Janelle, Sara and Emily had been in Dessie at relating to the 9th and 10th graders, compared to the adults on the team. Sister Mercy also talked about the need for mentors and professional counseling for the teenagers, so that there would be a support structure for the children as they mature. She noted how the boys are particularly in need of male role models in their lives. She spoke candidly about how these were the prayer requests of the Sisters – not money or even medicines or volunteers, but peers, mentors and professional counselors for the teens.

The Sisters Of Charity Hospital for the Destitute and Dying presented a different atmosphere entirely. The hospital cares for upwards of 800 men, women, and children, each one dying of HIV/AIDS and the other complications associated with that disease. Although there were wards with young children laughing and playing, mostly we remember the images of patients of all ages in their last hours of life.

The mood of the team became very somber as we experienced the sights, sounds, and smells of the various wards. Although we were greatly affected by what we were seeing, no one showed this to the people in the hospital, or let their feelings stop them from interacting with the patients. It’s hard to imagine that something as simple as a handshake or the gentle stroke of the brow could provide much comfort, but the smiles (some very faint and weak) revealed otherwise. Men, with wrists as wide as two of our fingers, beamed as Bonnie knelt down and engaged them in conversation. The women, some of them nearly unconscious, smiled meekly and tried to straighten their hair as some of the men of the team greeted them by holding their hands. The babies perked up when Janelle or others picked them up.

One ward housed just mothers with their babies. We met one 15-year-old mother and her two children. The mothers were eager for team members to hold their children. Many obliged, particularly the teenagers on our team.

At the end of our time at the hospital we gathered in the chapel to pray for the staff and patients. I think many of us felt a great weight as we went immediately from the Sister Of Charity hospital to a nice Italian restaurant for lunch.

In our afternoon debriefing our team struggled with questions, many of which had no immediate answers. How could a loving God allow this type of suffering? What were we to do with these images and how they were haunting us? We cried. Some expressed how perhaps the pain in our hearts from the visit to the hospital was meant to provide a small glimpse of the pain God felt as we watched people suffer. Perhaps it was meant to show us what Christ must have felt when He took the weight of the human condition on His shoulders. Perhaps, too, it was meant to help us understand how even the littlest things (holding a hand or picking up a child) could bring joy in an otherwise seemingly desperate situation. Is it possible that the biggest, most intractable conditions of human suffering in the world don’t require Supermen and women, with super solutions, but rather, just what we have?

This was our last day together as a complete team. Steve flew out to South Africa at 2:45AM on Wednesday morning. This team has become a family as a result of our living, learning, crying, growing and loving together. A strong feeling of sadness began to settle in as we realized that we would not all be together much longer.