While in Africa one of my Ethiopian friends told me that a child we were supporting and who
disappeared in the middle of the last school year, is back in Soddo and would like very much
to continue going to school. Disappearing means that the child does not show up for school
one day and when inquired no one knows where he or she has gone. It is quite usual in this
environment. The child’s name was Petros and he was in second grade. It turned out he lives
near-by my friend. I promised I would go and visit him.
Petros lives with his grandfather and granmother. The lightbulb in their livingroom was so dim
that you could hardly make out the peoples faces. There was a big commode by one wall
and a bed by the other with a small table and some chairs in front of that. Petros’s
grandfather greeted me in English at the doorstep and the joy he felt could be seen in his
eyes. The grandfather had served in the Ethiopian army in his youth.
Petros’s mother became preagnant and gave birth but decided to abandon the child since
she wasn’t married to the father of the child who didn’t want a child and even less wanted to
raise one. Petros’s grandmother took the newborn in and together with the grandfather
decided to raise the child. Mother moved to the countryside and nobody really knows
anything about her.
Petros is 9 years old at the moment. In the beginning of this year he decided that he is going to find his
real father. He had found his father’s name and address and one day he just took a bus there
all on his own. Even the grandparents didn’t know a thing about it. The father lives twenty to
thirty kilometers away in the countryside. The father had a new wife and new children and
once again said to the boy that he can’t raise him. Petros stayed with fis father until the
beginning of a new schhol year but then had to get back to the city. The granparents couldn’t
get into contact with us and so Petros went to a public school. After having had a chat with
both Petros and his grandparents I decided to take the boy back to our school. Petros said
that education is very important and that he wants to live his life so that he can take care of
himself and his family. To his grandparents we were once again like a heavenly blessing.
ANNIKA