Day 6 in Africa

This day started normal enough. We got up, met as a team, prayed, had breakfast, went over our shooting schedule and tried to get the best footage possible. Had I known that the previous night would change me forever, I may have questioned my desire to hurry and get back to the slums. For  more on that…read on.

Today was another exciting day of interviews. Similar to Fikadu and the day before, we were visiting another “graduate” of the street kids program Habtimu. And like the day before we are going into an exposed setting within the Mercato market. Pick pockets, extreme poverty, merchants, drugs, and potential issues lurking around every corner for a large film crew trying to be inconspicuous. Once again we had a police escort that gave us a small sense of security, but we are warned to stay in a tight pack and to watch each other’s backs. Going to Habtimu’s house was a humbling experience. I had met Fikadu and Habtimu the year before and seeing them still doing so well and having their own home is such an amazing and exciting thing to witness. While filming Habtimu at his house you could sense his pride and self confidence of being “off the streets” and living a more empowered life. One of the coolest parts of the interview was listening to his dreams of singing and helping others like him, and listening to him sing a song he had written. We then followed him to the market and filmed where he used to sleep on the street, and we filmed him doing one of his jobs, which was shoe shining. As the crowds gathered and we started to get a little nervous because of the scene we were making (picture here) I scanned the crowd and there THEY were. The boys I had met that morning, around 2am to be exact. I was shocked on how I had to suddenly hold back the tears because I was overcome with relief that they were there, in front me, alive and curious as to what was going on. At this point, let me switch to what some of the crew experienced from 12:00-3:00am earlier that day….

Part of what we are trying to show in this documentary was the reality of what these kids have if organizations like Life in Abundance and supporters like you don’t step in to help. In order to do that, we decided to go out into the slums at night and meet these kids where they sleep and sometimes struggle to get to the dawn of the next day.

We decided to go out in smaller teams because of the danger and the need we felt to be a more agile and less threatening group of people. So it was myself, Brian MacDonald, JJ and Justin from LIA USA, Deraje and Teddy our driver. They came and picked us up at about 11:30 and we started cracking up at how bundled up Deraje was. It was cool out that night, downright cold to an Ethiopian so Deraje came ready for the elements (and in hindsight I wish I had done the same).

On our way to the slums we needed to stop and pick up two armed guards that took us several days to secure and to get the blessing from the government and the local police. Once we had the security we started to weave our way through the narrow streets into the bigger market streets that were black and silent. Getting out of the truck I was surprised on how cold it was. Looking around trying to get my bearings I was also taken back by the emptiness, darkness and the wicked pitter patter or ferocious outbreaks the wild dogs would create now and then. Looking up and down the street you didn’t see much. You smelled smoke, and garbage, you could see small smoldering fires here and there, but no cars; no real noise. Deraje gave us the low down that he would approach the sleeping boys, offer them some food and hopefully get them to be willing to talk to us. If so I could slowly bring the light up to power and Brian could start filming. I wondered where we would find the kids, and then I saw them. They were these little shapes, barely outlined in the dark, jumbled together for warmth. As Deraje approached them and gently woke them up, they unwrapped themselves from the plastic garbage sacks they were sleeping in and slowly rubbed their eyes and tried to make sense of the scene. We repeated this approach for hours. Interviewing some, others just wanting the food and to try to get back to sleep. It was crushing to hear their stories. Ages 10-19. No place to go. No homes, no food, no education, no work or money except what they could steal or scrap for. As the night went on I started to realize how cold it was. Were starting to run out of food and I was wondering how much more we could film, and honestly how much more I could handle. I kept thinking of my kids, warm in their beds, stomachs full, roof over their head…and I was thankful and overwhelmed. We then turned the corner and saw a new scene. The same small lumps, but this time not in bags. As we approached the two we saw only one pair of shoes, torn shirts and pants and smaller than the others we have met so far. As Deraje woke them up they squinted at the light and started to cry because they couldn’t stop shivering. They were filthy, scared, cold and very hungry. These two boys came from the country with an older friend looking to make some money. When they got to Addis their older friend took off, leaving these two young boys, 11 & 13, to fend for themselves. All they wanted to do was to get enough money to get a bus ticket back home, but that money was an astronomical amount to them with no real hope of work, especially if they wanted to eat. Survival comes first, a trip home second. Unfortunately for most of these kids, they won’t make it out while they develop habits or a lifestyle cycle they can’t break. As we filmed them and witnessed their uncontrollable shivering we all barely could hold back our tears, as Justin from LIA started to take off his jacket Deraje stopped him. He said we couldn’t give these boys anything besides the bread we had, because if we did we would put them at risk from the older kids. That about put us all in an uncontrollable feeling of helplessness. Deraje also feeling helpless, paused for a minute, then grabbed the boys by their hands and walked them a block or so to a large group of kids, older, sleeping on the street. He spoke loudly at them to move around and placed these two boys among the others. He then instructed some of the older ones to watch over them and to come to the LIA center the next day. I’m not a good enough writer to explain the way we felt during this interaction, or how the rest of the night, and to this day I think about these boys. I’m grateful for the experience of witnessing these realities and for the workers of Life in Abundance who, day in and day out, serve the marginalized in Sub Saharan Africa. I could write for hours about this night, but I hope you watch our documentary available this Fall to see the need and meet these boys For a sneak peek – watch video below.

For past posts about our Africa trip, check out the following links: Journey to Africa, Day 1 & 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5.