A LONG WALK TO A NEW LIFE

Bires, 25, dropped out of school in ninth grade due to taunting from students about his deformed back. He worked as a day laborer and shined shoes. He entered a program in Gondar training people with disabilities to become tailors, using foot-powered sewing machines.

One day a classmate took him aside and showed him his back, saying, “I used to be like you, but a doctor in Addis sent me to Ghana for traction and surgery.”

Bires graduated second out of 120 students and told his brother, an Orthodox priest, that he needed to come to Addis Ababa. The priest told his wife he would sell a cow to raise the $15 bus fare. His wife said, “No way.”

 Instead, the brothers walked for eight days, about 250 miles. We asked, “Where did you sleep at night?”

“Egzabher engida,” they replied, literally “guest of God.” At night they would knock on a stranger’s door and say, “We are guests sent to you by God. Please let us in.”

Every night they were welcomed, given a basin, water, and soap to wash their feet, fed a large meal, and shown out in the morning.

 We sent Bires to Ghana for five months of traction, followed by two surgeries. He is now hoping to buy a sewing machine to open a tailor shop.