Allan had finally fallen asleep. The images of Korah kept haunting him whenever he closed his eyes. He kept seeing that last moment, when Ayana’s tiny hand waved good-bye as he walked away. He’d accidentally overslept. When he awoke, he quickly pulled himself together and hurried to the breakfast café to meet the rest of the team. The men had maneuvered the tables in a semicircle around Ray, who was talking as they ate.
“Allan,” Ray said, “I was just about to send someone after you.”
“Sorry, guys. Had a hard time getting to sleep last night.”
“Quite a few of us did,” Ed said. “That was rough.” He was referring to how they’d spent yesterday afternoon. After Ray and Allan had made it back to Addis Ababa to meet with the team for lunch, they had all agreed to change plans and spend the rest of the day in Korah.
Allan had almost declined. He could’ve easily cited an upset stomach or even a headache, because both were true. But he went. This time, he didn’t see Ayana or the little boy they had met that morning. But he’d continued to look for her throughout the afternoon.
“Go grab some breakfast and join us,” Ray said. “I’ll hold off what I was going to say till you get back.”
Allan walked past the small buffet and threw some breakfast things on his plate, unsure if he’d eat them. He took the empty seat the guys had left for him next to Ray.
“We didn’t get too far,” Ray said. “Everybody just talked about how much the dump affected them.”
“It’s affecting me now,” Allan said. “I feel an overwhelming sense of guilt just looking at this plate of eggs. This would be a king’s feast to everyone out there. And seeing those kids . . .”
“Believe me, Allan. We all feel the same way.” Ray sipped his coffee. “I’m thinking the trip to Korah yesterday was the reason we came here.”
“But what can we do?” Ed said. “There are thousands of people there, and it’s been like that for so many years.”
“I asked Henok how many people lived there,” one of the other men said. “I don’t know if this is accurate, but he said a hundred thousand.”
“Whatever the exact number, it’s a massive amount,” Allan said. “The worst part is how many of them are kids.” The group paused. Allan forced down a few bites.
“I know the numbers are huge,” Ray said. “It’s hard not to be overwhelmed. Standing at the top of that hill of garbage, looking down on it all. How can you not be? But I kept thinking, I’ve got to do something. I can’t ‘unsee’ everything I’ve seen. There’s got to be something we can do for those kids. Even if we could only help a few of them, it would be something.”
Ray stopped a moment. Allan figured it was to let what he’d said sink in. It worked, at least for him. The problems at Korah were too massive if you looked at the whole thing all at once. So don’t look at the whole thing; look at one thing. What was the one thing he could do?
“So here’s my idea,” Ray said. “Let’s help get Henok’s orphanage going. It will be a small operation at first. I’m sure Henok will help us get it set up locally and even be willing to run it.”
“But we’re flying back tomorrow,” Ed said.
“I know. So we have to make today count. Yesterday afternoon, we forgot the video camera. I know you guys got some videos from your cell phones, but I’d like to go back out there and spend the rest of the day intentionally capturing footage we could use back home. Something we can polish up enough to show people at our churches, to help them grasp what’s going on here. I know I can get my church behind this. I’m sure most of you guys are going home to a church that’ll be expecting a trip update. What if we could show them a video about Korah, especially about the orphans? Talk up the idea. See if we can get some fund-raising started. Things here are way less expensive than in the States. And Henok’s a pretty sharp guy. We can work with him by emails and Skype, help things move along with government officials.”
Sounded like a great idea to Allan. Everyone was nodding their heads.
Ray put his hand on Allan’s shoulder. “I was thinking of Allan here, maybe he can be our point man once we’re back home.”
“But I’ve got a full-time job,” Allan said. “I can’t really travel much. I’m using vacation time for this trip, and I only get so much of that.”
“I’m not thinking you’ll need to travel,” Ray said. “Once we get things to a certain point, we’ll probably need to come back here. But I’m not thinking of you driving or flying around to a bunch of churches back home. More of a behind-the-scenes kind of thing. Some tasks on the phone, some emails. Helping to coordinate what the other guys are doing in their churches.”
Allan felt relieved. “I suppose I could do that.”
“Great. We can talk about this some more while we’re out there today. Let’s get our stuff together. I’ll go find Henok and brief him. He already said he could go out with us again today. Then let’s meet out by the curb in thirty minutes.”
“Can we make that forty-five?” Allan asked. “I told my wife I’d call her at nine. Haven’t talked with her for a few days.”
“I’d like to call home too,” Ed said.
“Sure,” Ray said. “Let’s meet in forty-five minutes then.”