My Favorite Things

Some of my favorite times here are the smallest, shortest things. Yesterday a thunderstorm was rolling in and some of the young children were scared and crying. I sat on the veranda with a few of them on my lap and around me while I sang. We just sat there while it poured for about half an hour as I sang song after song. I also love just sitting with the kids in the evenings when the sun is setting and there is a refreshing cool breeze.

Another one of my favorite times is when I have one of my program sessions. I had my second class for the older kids and mothers and it went so well! The kids are much more creative than I had ever thought and the mothers are learning to ask their children questions and interact with them. My program is different than I had originally planned. I knew that when I got here I would have to adapt it anyway to fit the needs here. There was no way to know how things would work without ever being here first. I had planned a program for mothers to read to their children and for them to do educational activities together. However, when I got here, I learned that the mothers can't read and the children are mostly too young to do the activities I had in mind. But they are still learning, being creative, and interacting together, which are my new objectives. My purpose is now for the mothers to learn to ask their children questions and encourage them to use their imaginations. This is something I, and I think many Americans, have taken for granted. I remember when I was growing up my mom making puppets with us out of paper plates, buttons, and yarn. She also made us play-doh and always encouraged us to be creative. In turn, when I baby-sat or nannied I would color with the children and I would encourage my students in the classroom to use their imaginations. The mothers here have never been taught this and so they have no idea how to do this with their children. It makes me appreciate so much everything my mom has done for me.

Even though my class is only about 20 or 30 minutes long, once a week, I have been told that is has made a big impact already. The other teachers were saying how good it was and that the kids were drawing more pictures and giving them to their mothers. They said to not think of what I am doing as a small thing because it has already made such a difference after only one session! This touched my heart so much!

Saturday I participated in the Gulu Walk. This is a walk to raise awareness to protect the children of northern Uganda. There are also walks in U.S. cities that were going on the same day. We walked all over Gulu for about 3 hours and there were hundreds of us- all in bright orange t-shirts. It felt good to be a part of a cause that I have wanted to help for so long. I know I do this everyday at ChildVoice, but there is something about being a part of a huge walk that so many people were involved in that made me really excited to be here.

When It All Clicked

It is amazing how things finally are starting to click! After a full month, I am finally feeling comfortable and like I am doing something here. I had an especially great day last week. I went into the Lukodi Primary School for the first time, and was only supposed to observe an English P6 class (which are about 12- 13 year-olds), but ended up teaching the class. The teacher just handed me the book 5 minutes before class and told me to start teaching that page, which was about restaurants and ordering food. There were around 45 students or so and the teacher and I taught a 40 minute class. I will be going in there every morning to teach that class until I leave in December. The day continued to go well because I taught my first class for the mothers and children at the center too. Because there are so many kids, I am separating them and having two classes: one for the children ages 2-5 and the other for the babies under 2. I had the class for the older kids and it went very well. I was a bit nervous because the kids had just woken up from their naps, but it went better than I expected. It was so good to see the mothers interacting with their children! I hope that the class continues to be a success. I am planning on having one session for each of the age groups once a week. It is so good to feel that I am finally doing something here and I can see my program going somewhere. Before my session started, I was sitting with one little girl in my lap as she was waking up from her nap. I was not sure when my session would start, so I was just holding her and singing to her. I realized then, that it doesn't matter if the session happened that day at all, or if my program does not turn out as I would like it to. What matters is that I am here and building relationships with the people here. That is all I had wanted to do in the beginning anyway. A year ago I just said, "God, please get me to Uganda". The program was just an added bonus. God got me here through CVI, and I am so grateful. I knew I just wanted to be with these kids. And here I am.

Other things that have been happening: some of the staff went cobra hunting around the compound, but unfortunately, without any luck. However, there have been two snakes found in my hut so far. They are not cobras, but they are still very poisonous. I pray that we do not find any more! I am literally losing sleep worrying about them! Also, we have made some pretty fabulous meals in the last week. We have made guacamole, banana cream pudding, homemade macaroni and cheese, and pizza! What a wonderful break from beans and rice!

I have also been thinking about my interests and how I have the freedom to be involved in whatever hobbies I want or have the time to be interested in whatever I want. In America, people go to work, come home, have time with their families, do what interests them, plan for vacations, holidays, and family gatherings. Here in the villages, people (especially the women who mostly do all the work while the men drink) wake up, work in the fields all day, go home and prepare food, clean, go to bed, and do the same thing the next day. I wonder, what right do I have that I can do whatever I enjoy? I am beyond privileged. I can read, go for a bike ride, go on vacations, and enjoy life. Do the people here enjoy life? They work, sleep, work; day in and day out. Do they have the freedom to have interests? When I get home, I want to enjoy my life by doing whatever interests me. Before I came here, I wondered what the purpose of life is. I came to the conclusion that it is to do God's will and serve His people. So by coming to Uganda, I was sure that I had found the purpose of life and was fulfilling it. Now that I am here, I find that I appreciate my freedom to do things that I enjoy and take an interest in. I thought the purpose of life was to help others, and that is what I wanted to do. I do still want to do that, but I find that I don't want to sacrifice my own interests. Am I following the purpose of life then? Or, can I follow God's will and help others while still being able to enjoy my own interests?

Independence Day Weekend

On Friday Uganda celebrated 47 years of independence. We all went into town to march in the parade. The parade consisted of marching around in a huge circle in a blocked off area. Schools and organizations marched wearing their different colored uniforms. Our girls wore their uniforms too. I marched with the girls and was the only white person in the whole parade. I have never had so many people stare at me in my life. Some people even laughed. As I was marching I heard one person yell "muzungu" and I knew without a doubt or looking over that he was talking about me. For the first time in my life, I am the minority. And it was very clear that day, surrounded by so many other people. I try not to take it personally when the children yell "mono" ("white person" in Luo) at me. After we marched one little girl came up behind me and reached for my hand. When I looked at her, she shrieked and ran off with her friends giggling. When we were done marching the girls changed into their dance uniforms and danced for everyone. It was a big deal because they had never perfomed in front of hundreds of people before. When we got back to the center there were sodas and our holiday dinner- goat. I tried a little bit but was not much of a fan. Maybe because I had just seen the animal alive and eating the grass around the kitchen the night before.

On Saturday my friend Aaron came to visit me. He has been living in northern Tanzania for a few months and decided since we live so close he would come see me. "Close" in U.S. standards, but in East Africa, the trip took him about two days. I was so excited about a friend coming and I wanted to be right there at the bus park when he got off the bus. Of course, it being Africa, things didn't quite work out like I planned. I had been in town all day and Kristen and I went to visit some people we met who had started an orphanage in Gulu. I did not realize, though, that they were pretty far away. When we got there, the children were going to dance for us but it started to rain so we all went inside to wait it out. 45 minutes later the rain started to let up and I heard from Aaron that he was almost in Gulu. The guy that runs the orphanage called a boda ride for me because I would never get to the bus park in time if I walked. As I waited, we watched the children dance. After awhile, we heard the boda was not coming so the guy and I walked down the road and found another boda. We slowly drove through the mud and finally got to the bus park. Aaron had been waiting for about 15 minutes, but he knows how it can be in Africa! This just shows you how frustrating the rain, bodas, and timing can be!

I took Aaron to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant in town that I heard was good. Unfortunately, we both did not agree. I tried the lamb but decided that Ethiopian tastes are not for me. I then took him to a coffee shop and we both got mocha ice cream that was delicious. We took bodas back to the center and I showed him around. The girls had a welcome ceremony for him and sang songs. I had taught them a couple of camp songs, "Step by Step" and "Amy's Amen" so I helped them sing them for him. Aaron also stood up and gave a short speech as well. I had bought some potatoes in town and had the girls make chips for us by frying them in oil. They were so good! Sunday we went to the church service at the center and just spent the day talking. Usually I like to keep people busy and entertained when they visit, but I had to realize that I just could not do that here. Part of the life is to just sit back and slow down, so that is just what we did. I also took him to see the IDP camp, the spring to get water, and the market. I was really happy to have a good friend here. It is also nice to have someone else see what I am doing here.

Hearing Their Stories

May 19th, 2004. I was a junior in high school, most likely preparing for upcoming finals and looking forward to summer. For the people of Lukodi, life was completely different. At around 5 or 6 in the evening, the LRA had surrounded the village and killed forty people within one hour. They burned down huts, killing whole families inside. It was one of the largest, quickest massacres of the war. Yesterday I saw the memorial that ChildVoice built for the community. When CVI first came to the school building (where the center is now) in 2007, they had to clean blood off the walls and pick up bullets. Even this past summer bullets were still found in the compound.

My first impression of the girls and the children at the center was,“This is poverty. This is what life is like for war-torn Ugandans.” That was nothing. These girls are so lucky. After seeing the memorial, I was taken into the Lukodi IDP camp right next to us. This camp was only established a couple of years ago so it is one of the “nicer” ones. I had no idea that life could be worse than at the center. The center seems like a palace compared to the IDP camp. There are tons of mud huts packed together and there are some places with rubble still from burnt down huts. Two little naked girls, no older than two, came running up to us. They were filthy. There were other young children hanging around too, left by their parents who went to work in the fields. They were malnourished, with huge, protruding stomachs. They do not go to school because they can not pay the fees, let alone for food for three meals. They are lucky if they eat some rice twice a day. I wanted to come and give children here an education. But there are so many basic needs that have to be met first. The Acholis have not always lived like this. Before the war, parents did not leave their toddlers to fend for themselves all day. There was food, tradition, and a sense of family. After 20 long years of war, their culture has been destroyed. Many people went mad. Alcoholism is a tremendously huge problem is the villages.

It is said that this is the worst war affecting children in the history of the world. Despite all of this, the Acholis are incredibly resilient. After suffering again and again from past wars, they are still working at getting their lives back. There is a presidential election in 2010 and an Acholi man is running. The Acholis are trying to rise up and be heard after 20 years of silence.

Painting a Picture

I thought I would explain a little more about what ChildVoice is and what the center consists of. Let me paint a picture for you:

ChildVoice International was set up in 2007 to take in former abducted child mothers and their children. The girls are about 15-22 years old. They have lived in the bush from a range of a few months to many years. They have been soldiers, sex slaves, or some just living in the bush, afraid of being abducted. At the center there is a school building which has a classroom for the girls, an ECD classroom, and a nursery room. The girls each have a dormitory room and there are a couple of offices in the building. There is a separate building for the kitchen on the side of the school. Behind, there are about 8 huts for the staff to live in, and thankfully I do too. There are latrines across the field and some enclosed areas for bathing. Littered across the grass are clothes that are in the process of being washed and hung to dry on the line, jerricans and bottles of water, and naked children running around. The entire compound is surrounded by a fence, which had a guarded gate by a man during the day and two soldiers at night.

Last week six of the girls left the center after 18 months of being here and went to their homes. Some are going back to live with parents, some with an aunt or an uncle, or brothers. We had a going away ceremony for them, took lots of pictures, and drank some sodas. (Drinking soda is a very big deal and happens only for very special events.) I did not know these girls for very long, but I pray that they are going back to decent lives and that they can use the skills that they have learned at the center to have a better life. When some of the girls leave, they will be going back to homes in camps or far into the bush. They will have to walk an hour to the nearest bore hole. They will, hopefully, feed their kids two or three times a day, but it will be a struggle.

I am talking with the girls a lot more and a bit easier. Not that I know much of the language, but somehow, we just make it work. One of the girls gave me an Acholi name: "Ayerwot", which means “Accept God”. Other things I have done with the girls include playing net ball. It is sort of a mix between basketball and ultimate Frisbee. Another mzungu, Kristen, and I played, though we did not really know the rules. We learned afterwards that we were doing many things wrong. I had a lot of fun running around and doing something physical. The girls also like to wash mzungus’ hair. I had one girl wash my hair the other night in a basin. It was really nice for someone else to wash it because it is really hard to wash it without a shower!

Almost every night I cook food with the other mzungus. We cook vegetables mostly and we sometimes have fruit. Some foods I have had are: dragonfruit, jackfruit, papayas, mangos, and passionfruit (although the only one I really like is passionfruit). The other day I had traditional Ugandan food in town at a restaurant. I had smoked meat in a peanut sauce, matoke (which is mashed plantains), and a dough made of ground millet flour. Thankfully, there was rice as well, which is pretty much what I ate mostly.

I go into town Saturdays and Wednesdays to do various things. I try to get on a computer, which can be very difficult sometimes because the power goes out frequently, where the whole town is out, from a few hours up to three days! I also go to the market and get some vegetables and fruit sometimes, or other things I may need at the store. I also went to a tailor and had a couple of skirts and a traditional dress made.

I have been in the ECD classroom a few times now. There are only about 6 children between the ages of 3-5. Most of the kids at the center are babies. They did not really do much in class, but it was nice to be in a setting that I am comfortable in. I have not started setting up my program for the mothers and children yet because the center director has not been around. His son is very sick in the hospital with typhoid. I don’t think I will be getting to my program for another couple of weeks, which is a little frustrating, but at the same time, I don’t feel that I need to be in a hurry. I like just being here with the people, experiencing life like they do.

I have had lots of time to think about how life is different here. I realize that here, no one ever asks, “What are you doing tonight? Or this weekend?”. People do not make plans, and there is really nothing to make plans to do anyway. I am learning to just take one day at a time, live in the present, and not make plans. I can also see how mother and children act. It is not uncommon for the mothers to hit their children. If the kids are bad the mothers tell them that they will beat them. Children also walk around with plastic bags in their mouths. Mothers will find baggies and give them to their kids to play with. If you see a child with a plastic bag in their mouth in America, you would immediately grab it out. Here, it is something that I just have to accept, just like the mothers hitting their kids, no matter how hard it is.

One last random thing happening: supposedly there is a cobra somewhere at the center, which makes me a bit nervous walking though the long grass. They did pour kerosene down the hole where it lives and they think it is now gone. Other than that, I am sleeping well, for those of you who have been wondering.