Did You Know?

Did you know in Ethiopia:

One in ten children die before their first birthday
One in six children die before their fifth birthday
44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
The median age in Ethiopia is 18 years
1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone
Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.
Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas.

So I posted this because not a lot of people know these numbers of Ethiopia. I don't want it to sound all doom and gloom, there is also much hope in Ethiopia. As always, I'll put my money on hope and one day Ethiopia will no longer be a country of statistics.

From email correspondence, it sounds like March 27th will be too soon for us as well. So no longer March. Tariku's birthday is on Sunday. I won't see him for it, I won't see him for the week after. I MIGHT see him the month after but that might be pushing it.

I can't wait for the day when I can come back and talk about things of Ethiopia that I haven't read or seen in books.