the river moves on

The Ethiopians

In a happy twist of fate, I am about to have a reunion of sorts.

Well, not quite a reunion.

Before I left for Jordan I was volunteering with an Ethiopian refugee family in Seattle. They'd been in Yemen for 14 years after he was exiled from his country in 1991. The wife moved into the refugee camp just to be with him. Now that is love.

So I left Seattle and came to Jordan and lost touch though my mom would periodically call them to check to make sure everything was ok in their lives and that the oppressive bureaucracy of the United States that you see when you are a recent immigrant wasn't crushing them too much.

Yesterday I got an email from my mom telling me she received a phone call from LemLem, the mom of the family I worked with. They had a baby girl!!! That is the good news. The bad news is that the baby has a congenital heart defect and they are afraid to get the surgery that would help her. Medicine in a foreign country is a frightening thing and I can completely comprehend a distrust for the shiny metal getting near my kid.

and then a bit of good news. LemLem's sister lives in Cairo! I called her today and will meet up with her this weekend. I can't wait to see the look on her face when I show her pictures of LemLem and her two daughters that I'm sure she has never seen because they were separated for so long while living just across a small bit of land mass and water.

posted by Annika @ 5:24 PM