Sintaro

There is a small village that is located about 200 miles (seven hours) southwest of Addis Ababa called Sintaro.  Sintaro is located just south of Awassa in SNNPR [region] of Ethiopia.  Each region is also broken down into zones.  Sintaro is located in the Sidame zone of SNNPR and the working language here is Sidaminia.  Many older youth and adults know at least some Amharic because that is the working language of the whole region.  The population of Sintaro is around 1,500 and primary religion is Protestant Christianity.  There is a Catholic church in town for the small Catholic population.

Sintaro is located in a very hilly area that is absolutely beautiful.  Almost every home is a large hut made of wood, mud, and straw.  Other buildings are often made of cement and/or cinder block.  Some buildings such as the health post are government owned and often are a little sturdier than private buildings such as homes.

The church my parents attend in the states fund the primary school being built in Sintaro through a non-governmental organization in Ethiopia called Hope Enterprises.  There is also the option of sponsoring young children in Sintaro through hope Enterprises so that they are able to go to school.  When the school first opened two years ago, sponsorship began with five year olds to go to kindergarten.  Each new school year, there is a new class of students to be sponsored.  The older kids continue to be sponsored throughout primary school by the same sponsors.  Each new year as new kids start school, new people sponsor them or others will choose to sponsor an additional child.  The school has been open for about two years now, so there are currently two kindergarten classes and a first grade class.

This is one view of the school.  It is still in the works.

One of the many huts in Sintaro that are common to what many families live in.

A few times each year, a group of people (generally a group made up of members from my parents church) come to Ethiopia to visit the village.  The first week of February of this year, I went to Sintaro with my parents and four other women from the states to serve the community as a medical team.  Our primary goal was to assess the health of sponsored students at the primary school. 

When doing the medical assessments of the students, we first began by measuring their height and weight.  The older kids had been assessed a year prior to this because this was their second year of school.  It was very interesting to see the changes over the past year.  This was the first year of school for the younger kids, so this was the first time they were being checked.  After having height and weight measured, the kids were sent into another room where the general medical assessment was taken. 

During this assessment, we did a general check to make sure things such as skin, hair, teeth, etc. were in good condition.  We also asked the kids about any pain they were feeling.  Common things we noticed included, very dry and/or dirty skin, bad teeth, and complaints or pain in the general area of the digestive system.  For the older kids who had been checked the previous year, it was nice to be able to compare their assessments and see if there were any repeating symptoms.  We also gave each kid de-worming medicine.  Despite the church sending a medical team only once a year, it has been very cool to see how what we are doing has brought more awareness.  What the medical team did last year as well as the team this year really helped the health worker at the health post as well as the nurse at the primary school.  What we did helped to expand their knowledge base and help them learn what to keep an eye out for when concerning the health of the children.

In addition to our medical assessment, we had sponsors from my parents’ church write letters for the kids they sponsor.  As each child finished up their assessment someone in our group would sit down with them (in addition to a translator) and would read their letter with them.  It was such a cool experience to see the big grins spread across these kids’ faces as they opened up their letters.  All of these kids are very young and don’t necessarily understand the concept of sponsorship.  So it was also very cool to see some of these kids gain some understanding of whom these letters were from and what it means to be sponsored.

Our last day in Sintaro, we did hut visits.  We did not have time to visit homes of every child, so we focused on the sponsored kids of those who were part of our team.  My family sponsors to little girls in Sintaro, so my parents and I visited their homes.  It is such an amazing experience visiting these kids and getting to know them.  I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful it was to see how excited these two girls were as they led us to their homes.  We were able to see the homes they live in, meet their families, and have normal conversations. 

Experiences like this happen rarely in a lifetime.  I have learned that when an experience like this comes along, you have to take full advantage of it.  You have to learn all that you can.  Despite being in Sintaro for only four or five days, those kids taught me so much and even changed me a little bit (for the better I think).  At the beginning of the week, many of us got really sick, but were back on our feet and able to get back to work within a day.  Despite such challenges, I would not have changed anything about that week.  I have been learning, especially over the past couple of years, that the most rewarding experiences that will also be the most life changing are often the most challenging as well.  Such experiences have taught me to not give up easily when something becomes difficult.  I have learned that when something becomes difficult, you’ve got to keep pushing further and harder.  It is usually worth it in the end!