A couple of weeks ago Chris looked up “Addis Ababa traffic law” on the Internet. She discovered that in 2010 several new laws had been added to the statute book, outlawing front seat passengers with no seat belts, motorcyclists with no helmets, jaywalking across the ring road, talking on a mobile phone whilst driving and the like. The other day I reflected on this as I sat in the front seat of Yonas’s taxi without a seatbelt on (there isn’t one) whilst he drove me up the ring road dodging jaywalkers and being overtaken by a motorcyclist with no helmet on carrying on pillion a traffic policeman also with no helmet. According to “The Economist”, in terms of deaths per year per thousand vehicles, these roads are 250 times more dangerous than in the UK.

The lorries are a major problem, so much so that the big red trucks are known as “red terrorists”, and the proliferation of Isuzu trucks in variable states of repair and driven often in an uncontrollable way that cause so much mayhem are called “Al Quaeda”.

On the way home today with Haile we were nearly hit by the remnants of a piece of corn on the cob being lobbed out of a bus window presumably by someone who had just eaten the edible bit. The maize season appears to be in full swing now as along the edges of the road all over the city we see people with piles of maize either selling it as it is or roasting it over charcoal or steaming loads of cobs in a big plastic bag and then selling them as a roadside snack. Haile loves it. “Really sweet” he explains.

Why am I telling you this? Because Aynalem, a lovely 20 year old woman helping one of our missionaries popped out of their home to buy some corn on the cob snacks and didn’t return. They went to look for her and found her bleeding by the side of the road. She’d been hit by an Isuzu truck.

Aynalem is the sister of 26 year old Abiyot. If you’ve followed this blog you may remember in March I introduced you to Abiyot as she made me coffee while her 38 year old husband Gezahegn lay on a mattress on the floor in their sitting room dying of liver cancer. Gezahegn, who worked in the SIM translation project, died a couple of weeks after I met Abiyot and their two young daughters. She was without husband, without money, couldn’t afford the rent and was far from family. SIM gave her a job at HQ and enabled her to just about manage.

A couple of hours or more after the accident Aynalem arrived at the Black Lion hospital opposite SIM HQ where, shortly after and for want of good medical care, she died of her injuries – which had caused massive internal bleeding. After church last week and with tears in her eyes Carolyn, who had prayed with Abiyot , Gezahegn and the children so beautifully that day I was privileged to be in their home, told me the whole appalling story. She told me how the doctors had initially said Aynalem was OK, but soon afterwards came back and told them she was dead. At that point Abiyot, as Carolyn so simply put it, “lost it”.

I learned something else from Carolyn I didn’t know. Three years ago Abiyot and Gezahegn’s first child, their only son aged 3, contracted cerebral malaria and died.

Abiyot has now lost her three year old son to a preventable disease; her 38 year old husband to a preventable cancer; and now her 20 year old younger sister to a preventable accident. I’ve no idea what she is going to do. Please pray for Abiyot, and for Carolyn and SIM as we try to support her.