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.