Ethiopia

We received these pictures from the director of the original orphange that Ty was brought too. They were a bit overwhelming for me to see. We didn't have any idea of his history other than his parents were dead and he was taken care of by a lady who found him on the street. Ty does not like talking much about Ethiopia but he has told us a few stories over the past couple of weeks. One of them was about this lady that took care of him. He told us she was "bad... girl... hit Ty". Through his hand motions he told us that she yelled alot and hit him in his back. He did not like her and became very sad and quiet when talking about her. We have not asked about her since.

Well, when the pictures came, along with that came some missing pieces to his history. The director told us that the lady, Shalote, was his mother and is much too poor to care for him or herself. This hut is where he lived in his village. His village is extremely small and about 50 miles away from the Sodo the nearest town.

When Ty saw the pictures he became visibly upset and kept saying, "no Ethioia... no Ethiopia". He did confirm that he was the one in the picture and he was in his pajamas. Then he just kept saying, "No Ethiopia... Ty no go Ethiopia!". He clearly was disturbed by the pictures, and asked me "Mommy no pictures?". He was wanting me to get rid of the pictures.

Some of the other stories he has told us are about the execution of 3 people and about "2 big strong boys" who beat him up quite badly, based on scars he still has. I remeber when he first came and the doctor saw those scars. He asked us if we knew what happened, and of course we didn't, and he said, "it's probably a good thing we don't know". Now we know and no wonder he doesn't want to talk much about Ethiopia and wants to make sure that he is going to stay here with us. He has had quite a life for a 5 year old... more than I even imagined. One night as I was reading him a book he saw a picture of a farmer who was carrying a gun and that is when he began to tell me about the execution. He sure knew what a gun was and began acting out, "some people" rode motorcycles into the village and sat 3 people down... covered their eyes... shot them in the back.... then he fell on the ground dead and told me they were "all gone".... then the people rode away on their motorcycles. I asked him if he was hurt and he said, "no, Ty hide.... Ty no hurt". I was a bit shaken up with that story. Those are stories I have read about, but it's hard to look at this happy little boy and think that he has actually experienced these things and he can still smile.

One last story he told us, just the other day, was about 2 cows he had in Ethiopia. I was excited to hear about something good that he remembered and he kept laughing, so I asked more questions. I found out that his cows ate grass and he told us (or acted out) how the cow would charge people and throw them in the air... I'm thinking to myself, "that's funny?... sounds like your cow was a dangerous bull to me!" So I asked if he got hurt by his cow and he shook his head and said, "No, Ty kashia cow". That means he had some sort of whip and whipped the "cow" when he charged him. Oh my,... I don't know what I was expecting, but it's no wonder Ty gets frustrated with me when I tell him that he can't ride his bike in the street because it's too dangerous! Honestly, I feel absolutely ridiculous sometimes telling this child to be careful, but you know... he likes to be cared about and can't help but smile sometimes when I tell him to be careful.