NicolesLetters.org

Hi Everyone!

Thanks to all of you for still reading my emails. I know the get long but I get rolling and there I go….. I will attach the word doc and some pictures for today. Everything that I am attaching is actually from today Day 7 I am just confused, that happens when you don’t live by a calendar for a few days. The document will say day 6 but is for day 7.

Lots of love,

nicole

P.S. Babies raising babies is a picture Adrienne took in Gulu and the other picture is one of the boys that walked for two hours with his sick mother today and doesn’t have any shoes.

Day 7 Uganda

It’s the evening now. We are enjoying the African entertainment at the hotel. If you only knew. We are all so tired and just want to sleep. However it is Friday night and the hotel is having a party. It does sound like it is in my room.. The windows don’t offer any sound barrier. It sounds like Jamaican music, drums, whistles, etc. Michele said, “It sounds like someone with an Asian accent in Uganda singing American songs. Can you imagine? There are strobe lights at the pool in all different colors. We were thinking of joining however you wouldn’t get your daily message.

Today was more average. I was excited to arrive at the school. I smuggled some waffles today for the girls. I sat at a table at breakfast with a woman from Eastern Uganda she was very nice, we chatted about Uganda and the US. I explained what our team is doing here and she was pleased. The team was still in Gulu this morning so I was flying solo. The woman at Breakfast pulled out a hard boiled egg and my face lit up. I asked her if she got it at the buffet. I started looking around for some and she said I could have hers…. so sweet. I said it was okay I was fine. She insisted. So I took it and was very grateful. Jerrard came to pick me up at the hotel and told me on the way back the school that he has three children, his little baby is just two weeks old and he is working double duty to drive us all around this week.

The kids were excited to see me this morning. They were in class though when I arrived I can still see them peering out the door at the muzungoo. We started working right away. I forgot to tell you about a boy I interviewed a couple of days ago. Maybe yesterday, some of the days are blending. He is a boy that doesn’t have parents and lives with his grandmother. Did I tell this story? She had a tiny area at their house where she used to sell things. Her house burned down and they lost everything. He only has the clothes on his back because he was at school and was wearing them. I asked him if he had one wish. He wished for a backpack. We got him one today. I am so happy and excited for him. He wasn’t there today but they will give it to him on Monday. Yay! This is the same boy that said he didn’t have friends and I asked Sara to do me a favor and find him and be his friend. She said yes, at the end of the day I forgot to give her his name so when she was the bus I ran across the campus and scribbled his name on a piece of paper and gave it to her.

I met another little girl today, one of the teachers, the English teacher, knows her family. She lives with her uncle and about 20 other children at his home. Only 5 of them are his and the rest are semi-adopted because they need a home. He brought her here from the small village in Eastern Uganda where she was living with her parents but the village is so bad off he wanted to get her out. She seemed startled when I touched her back with my hand. She was so little, maybe 5 years old and soooo sweet. I could only ask her things like, what her favorite color is and her favorite food. She got a pair of shoes today. School shoes, black leather. The shoes here for the uniform and school are about $20 per pair because they have to import them from Kenya. But I can’t even tell you how excited the kids are to get them. So, this little girl was at the bus when I walked Sara to the bus at the end of the day. I knew it would be the last time I saw her so I walked with her. This little baby girl like I said was at the bus. They called the kids over for something and the kids went running to a group. The little girl looked around like what is going on. All the kids ran and I swooped her up to carry her over. She actually smiled. She felt special and the other kids we all excited for her. Then I carried her back over to the bus after the meeting. At the exit gate from the grounds are the children piled into the bus. I watched as the flowed in. I watched Sara and her friends. She was so sweet to share her Jolly Ranchers with Babra today. So.. I watched her and I saw the little girl I was talking about earlier. They were both on the same bus. I told Sara in my most basic English possible that I wanted her to care for the little girl. That I wanted her to watch after the little girl. I also recruited Sara to be friends with the little boy that has no friends and lost everything in the fire at his home where he lived with his grandmother. Sorry if I am being repetitive I am getting really tired.

Sara came to me this morning when she arrived and said that she hadn’t had breakfast. Good thing I smuggled the waffles. She was happy. I interviewed a bunch of people today and yesterday. Mostly people that have trickled in who are really needy. I did speak with one of the brothers of a staff member, aka translator/volunteer. I found out that the cost for someone to go to high school here is about $10 per month for an average school with no boarding and about double for boarding also. I am amazed that people can’t afford ten dollars per month to attend school.. I am also amazed that the administrators send the kids away for “school fees” and won’t let them come back if the parents can’t afford it. I met a college student today also, he wrote an essay about himself. He was orphaned and wants to be a civil engineer to help develop water flow from natural resources to the villages. He was amazing. I asked him what his favorite class was, he said economics and physics. I told him that he is smarter then me. He giggled. He has so much potential. All of his university schooling will be 5 years.

I met another family today. Get your tissue…. I had worked for about 4-5 hours interviewing. I saw this woman arrive looking sick. Really sick. She had two boys with her. Grace one of the staff and translators told me a little about the family. She told me a little about the family. The dad is dead from AIDS and the mother is sick with AIDS. The mother looked so ill, like she is about to die. The boys got some food, it was lunch time. I asked them about why the mother wasn’t eating they said she just wanted some water. She looked AWFUL! I learned that they had walked two hours to come there today to get interviewed by me. I was giving the kids some jolly ranchers when I saw them upon their arrival. I think maybe they cracked a grin, but probably didn’t. I was talking with Grace being the translator. I was trying to play peek a boo with the little one. He was just covering his face. Grace said they probably don’t know how to smile. Or have never had anything to smile about. The haven’t attended school and I asked if she had other children. She has another son that is 11 that didn’t come today. The ones I met today were 9 and 6. The 11 year old couldn’t come because he went to look for food and didn’t come back in time to do the two hour trek. The mother said that the 11 year old has to work, she can’t she is too sick and frail. I asked her how they get money to survive and buy food. She said that the 11 year old goes and “digs” for people, maybe working on people’s farms or something. He digs and sometimes doesn’t get paid. If he doesn’t get paid then he will go to fetch water for people and hope to get about 200 shillings, that is less than a quarter. Then he will buy a quarter kilo of corn flour and mix it with water to drink. Many days they go without eating at all. My chin was quivering as I was typing trying to keep the tears back. I wanted to take these kids and keep them at the school there. The kids at the school had their “sporting” day today and they were playing games and I was sure the little boys I was interviewing were wanting to be out there having fun. Or maybe they have never had fun. The 9 year old had a big scar on his chin. I asked them what happened she said he was walking down the street and was hit by someone on a bicycle and fell down. They were so sad I could hardly stand it. I spoke a little more to them, can’t remember more details but the bottom line is that this mother will die soon and her boys don’t have anywhere to go. She said the only family she has is 7 hours away. I made sure the boys got shoes, the middle one the one that walked barefoot for two hours got a pair and the other little boy was sized for a pair and will get them on Sunday. They are so far away I don’t know if they are coming for church on Sunday. I am sure Grace knows. I was hardly able to hold back the tears. I gave the mother 15,000 shillings. About 10 dollars to get maybe a taxi home or some food or something. She was so grateful. I told Grace I have a sponsor for them, just not sure who yet. She didn’t want to give the woman the total commitment she told the woman that there are many chances for the boys to get sponsored. Her translation was a little different from mine which was: your boys will have a sponsor. The woman was so grateful I can’t even describe it!. I had to leave and go around the back of the building. I was sobbing at this point. I guess the pool filled up at that point. The depression, hurt and despair in this woman’s eyes was so painful I didn’t know what else to do.

The children at this home/school are so lucky to have what they have. Three meals a day if they live here, structure, a place to learn. Almost every child tells me that they would like to have a sponsor so they can attend school and learn. Most say their favorite class is English.

On a lighter note: I saw them doing their sports. They were divided into three groups, yellow, red and green. Their shirts were the different colors. The game was that the kids put a coca-cola bottle on their heads (empty) and balance it while walking quickly to the finish line. The kids would roar with happiness when their team won! I was so excited to see them having so much fun. I know before I left we would talk about how I was going to work in an orphanage here in Africa and it seemed so heart breaking. When in reality this is the best place for these kids. I stayed there tonight until about 7. I finally was able to teach the kids how to play UNO. They loved it. I had to explain over and over so they would understand. It was fun interactive game for them to have. I had three playing with me, Angel, Robina and older boy, maybe he is 16 or so. There were probably 30-40 kids surrounding us as we played.

The team said that Gulu was interesting. The drive there was 10 hours with thirteen people in a minivan. They also had three flat tires on their way there. They said it would have taken 4 hours had the roads not had pot holes the size of a tire. Yikes! Andy described the road as swiss cheese. Adrienne said another road, a major highway, had miles and miles of speed bumps. Other then that they said that Gulu was really sad with babies taking care of babies. Adrienne said she saw a ton of kids wearing these ratty old dresses come to find that they were little boys wearing dresses because they didn’t have any other clothes. I saw the pictures they were so sad.

I think that’s a wrap for tonight. I hope you all have a restful night, the disco is bumping outside of the hotel so get another hour of sleep for me tonight.

Lots of love,
Nicole

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