Poverty

It’s a truism around the globe. The Rich get richer and those in poverty get pissed upon. Ethiopian brother Derbo loses his phone on the way back from burying his grandfather in Lalibela only to be told he must move out tomorrow coz his friend has his family moving in instead.

I give him his 1^st month’s rent as he acquires a bare room. He then gets a private taxi to help him move his few possessions to his new digs. He loads up the taxi with his meager bits and then realises he has left his phone at his friend’s digs. He goes back in to collect only to find the taxi driver has driven off with his only worldly goods. His graduation suit alongside all the rest of his clothes, his decent shoes and even his wallet, C.V.s and his most prized procession of it all – the transistor i bought for him as a Farewell and Thank You gift before travelling on to Sudan in 2011.

Derbo calls me in despair and disbelief. But as he notes himself disaster after disaster befall the poor. He believes that this may be an omen that he should return to his family home outside Lalibella in the North of the country. His mother is slowly dying of Aids, tuberculosis and now hit with diabetes. She never went to school and signs her name with an x. Derbo, at 20 is the eldest of what remains of the dwindling number of siblings. His father was killed during the war with Eritrea. And so it goes on. The poor get pissed on.

Nonetheless he has paid for the room for the month, and Derbo takes his chances in Addis for now. My request for new mattresses was finally granted last month and at least i can pass him one of these, blankets, pillows and bed-linen. I give him about US$50 to get some new clothes. Down, but not quite out!.