I was ready to post another meaningless entry about the Australian Idol, on who survived this week and who got booted out (for the record, it was Tom Williams). After the Australian Idol verdict show, I flicked to other channels and stumbled on Four Corners on ABC. This week’s show is A Walk to Beautiful, about the plight of some of the ladies in Ethiopia who had fistula (a tear between the bladder and the vagina, or between the vagina and the rectum, or both).
I was deeply immersed in the documentary, which was touching and heartwarming at the same time. The joy on their faces when they were cured goes beyond the boundary of languages and cultures. I have to admit that I was a bit teary-eyed towards the end when I watched what happened to a lady called Wubete, who was married off when she was young and had a fistula because of a botched delivery of her baby. The baby was still-born … she dreaded going back home because she said that she had nobody to go home to. The viewers also learned about Almaz who had double fistulas – she was cured at the end; you can almost feel her joy radiating through the TV screen.
At the end of the documentary, we learned more about Wubete – she works at an orphanage and becomes a ‘mother’ to four children there. The responsibility given to her has empowered her again. It was fitting that the background song that was played to close the documentary was ‘Amazing Grace’. I cried.
If you want to learn more about the documentary, head over to: Fistula Foundation website. The documentary was awarded the Best Feature Length Documentary of 2007 by the International Documentary Association.
The documentary teaches me that no matter how bad I feel because of my circumstances, there are millions of people out there who are less fortunate than I am … I am blessed indeed, even in my current predicament! 🙂