naguru :) + :(

andrew and i go to naguru on friday afternoons. we always bring as much as we can afford...our budget is about $200/week. yesterday we spent $375....but it was worth every penny. we went to the nakumatt and bought an air pump for the footballs, bread and sugar for everyone, and as an added treat for the girls, we included butter, vaseline and nail polish. we simply could not find sealed bags of popped corn so went on to the game store...none there either, so settled for cheetos for everyone. we had already bought pineapples, so by the heat of the day the van was smelling a bit like some fermented pineapple beer george and i had smelled in a dug out log in the jungle one day last year!!! we also had a bag of toothbrushes and some ibuprophen. the director had told andrew in the morning that there were 104 currently in residence, but when we arrived we learned there were 130! hmmm, seems like he would have known. it was funny when we got there because andrew heard someone yell in luganda: "the pineapple people are here!"

praise God!

generally we don't go to the Raising Up Hope safe house on wednesday, but we needed to reschedule our day because we wanted to see john. he had been injured in a soccer game and had been taken to the clinic for wound care instructions and to get antibiotics. both andrew and i were worried about him (you can read about him in my previous blog).
we went shopping on the way....exhausted our budget in less than an hour. our first stop was the commodities market where we always buy posho and beans. what a horrible shock...posho is now 120,000 ugx for a 50kg bag....it was 60,000 less than 2 months ago. (posho is a maize flour, the staple of all ugandan orphanages, prisons, boarding schools, etc...very much like our grits only much finer..kind of somewhere in between grits and cornstarch...it is served with beans on top...). my friend, ssenyonga john, who directs the highway secondary school in kiganda says it is 130,000 ugx there. he just bought 3 months worth because he fears a famine is inevitable. anyway, we bought 5 bags of posho and two bags of beans which was another 250,00ugx.

john

john is a 12 year old boy who lives at the Raising Up Hope Safe House. the first thing you notice when you observe john, is his enthusiasm and cheerfulness. he is bright, and loving, he is energetic and caring, he has an infectious smile, and he is one of the uncounted, ignored and vulnerable street children of kampala. i love john....i love him with all my heart.
the first time i met john, he was a bit aloof...not knowing whether to trust me, not knowing whether i wanted to befriend him for a selfish purpose. i think now he understands...and though he may not love me, i can tell from his huge hugs and hand holding moments, that he likes me and that is absolutely perfect, i could not ask for more.

hot bananas!

today is saturday and i MUST do paperwork, i have been avoiding it all week. i would rather stand in the burning sun, surrounded by biting gnats in the middle of nowhere than spend an hour at a desk sorting out receipts and trying to make sense of my own notes. well, there is a reason why i can't make sense of my notes....mostly because they are written while i am riding, and if you are familiar with the roads in kampala, you understand that the potholes are large enough to swallow a vw!

yesterday we went to naguru 'remand center'. i think we are developing a really good relationship with the staff.....they supplied paperwork to verify that sweet deniz had been returned to her parents in west uganda. YAY.....the child had been found wandering the streets of kampala after someone had promised her an education....well, you can imagine that scenario. she left her village thinking she would improve her life, and instead found herself in a children's prison with no means to return home. we're so glad we could help. we were told her parents were so happy to see her they couldn't stop crying for joy. i love a happy ending! little 6 year old collin was transferred to a facility for young children....thank goodness. i'm thinking this is a facility we just might have to visit soon.

yay it's thursday!

yesterday andrew and i went to the post office to pick up a "parcel" which i had kindly been asked "to retrieve". on the way i told andrew that "i really hate your post office!' he said: "you live here now, so it is your post office too." YIKES...hadn't thought about that.....BUT as it turned out, everything went really smoothly and there were 2 parcels to retrieve.....the really nice customs lady didn't make us pay any processing fees or custom's taxes or anything. she just said: "keep doing the work you are doing!" all right...maybe i need to rethink MY post office. we shopped all day for the safe house and naguru..came home and i opened the parcels to discover one completely crushed bag of mini powdered sugar donuts which we ate regardless. andrew hadn't ever had them before, but ate his share....i of course ate myself sick.....but it was worth it.
all sorts of tear gas in kampala yesterday....policeman killed...police out in full force....nothing near me, thankfully. lack of power is an issue again. seems i have electricity for 3 or 4 hours a day, usually early , early morning. i guess i have gotten used to it, though i dearly wish uganda would stop selling it's electricity to the congo...they never run out.

keepin' busy

patrick and peter came over on saturday to work on the video and have a late lunch. i've met most of my ugandan friends on facebook, even my partner, andrew. i'm just amazed how God uses the internet to connect people to further His work on earth. there really aren't any coincidences, simply connections perfectly planned by Him. i also love how From The Heart House is becoming a gathering place to exchange ideas to help some children, and to enjoy fellowship, food and prayer. we are all anxiously awaiting tony's arrival.....can't wait to have our Perfecting Faith Ministries missionary here in kampala. can you hear me tony?
we had a lot of food. peter said he ate like a goat, grazing all day. patrick put salsa on everything but the oatmeal cookies...even took some food home to the kids at the safe house. we spent many hours writing the script for the video, even though it is not that long. patrick gave further testimony about his life on the streets when he was orphaned at age 15. we also searched through iphotos for the 'right ones' and peter had to laugh at me in my gomezi...we had to remove the word kampiringisa from the script all together because i simply cannot pronounce it on the first attempt....we used 'children's prison', which may be better because it is not specific. the safe house boys are much more specific when they give their testimonies...they tell their experiemnces there. it will all be on THE VIDEO, which hopefully will be completed in a couple weeks.

naguru - 16 March 2012

fridays are always interesting....running around to get everything we promised the kids at the nuguru children's prison..it is more politically correct to call it the remand center, but, "i calls em as i seez em." who said that anyway? well we went to western union to pick up money from desanagiving....the bank clerk said "you have a very interesting test question. i need to ask you what bothers you most." "easy, i told him....your postal service, or the lack of service at your post office." he apologized as most ugandans are exceedingly polite....i told him about a few of my visits there and that i was headung there next. he apologized again. couldn't quite figure out why he felt responsible, maybe because but he was a nice man and had not come across that answer to a test question before.

going postal

yes, i know i have already complained in great detail about the kampala post office, but i keep expecting my experiences there to get better instead of worse. why oh why oh why? yesterday i received a call from the polite lady at the kampala post office advising me that i have a PARCEL and must retrieve it promptly. no problemo...because i know my friend, kathi gilleland, has sent me 9 pounds of junk food, which is sure to include chocolate!

so...this morning my favorite taxi driver, wycliff, picks me up at 10 and says "where to"? (our van is in for repairs AGAIN, but that is another story) when i say "the post office, i have a PARCEL there!" he gets this kind of weird look on his face, like oh no, not again. we had to stop at the bank in case they decided they needed to charge me a $50 tax to receive my box and then off through the explosive detection gate, into the first reception area, out the front, along the side, up the stairs to the PARCEL department. i hand my paperwork to the woman behind the desk and she types and types and types and calls for assistance. this postal employee says "your PARCEL is not ready, you can retrieve it on friday." i reply "no, there must be some mistake, you called me yesterday and said to come get my PARCEL promptly, so here i am, prompt." "there is no mistake" he says, "your PARCEL has not been processed."

kampiringisa is haunting me

i've been thinking about kampiringisa a lot these past few days....it creeps into my thoughts when i least expect it...it chases away my happy thoughts and fills my mind with dark, depressing images of children living as no child should be forced to live. andrew says we will not go back, that evil resides there.....i don't know. i think he can't bear the heartache and maybe, just maybe, it is an embarassment to him that this place exists in his beautiful country and no one does anything about it.
kampiringisa is officially a remand home, a detention center...at least that is what the sign indicates and that is what the staff says. but, when you ask what happens when the children of naguru are found guilty of a serious crime, you are told "they come here to kampiringisa"....sounds like a prison to me. when you ask what the age range is of the children who are residents here, you are told "12-18". this week we talked to children who had been in residence there at age 6. sounds more and more like a children's prison.

safe house picnic day....!

yesterday started as one of those days that absolutely HAS to get better....no power in my house, no power in illona and andrew's house, the van in the shop for $650 of repairs, a rental car fee, the chicken needing to be cooked for the picnic had leaked in the trunk of the rental car creating a major stink and a horde of flies....meaning we had to pull out and scrub the carpeting, andrew kept getting lost on the way to peter's house (peter is a documentary film director) and all before 10 am!
but, as always....the worst day can turn into the BEST DAY EVER in a matter of moments. we arrived at the safe house to be greeted by hugs and smiles from 30 kids, all anxiously awaiting a picnic, though no one knew what a picnic is! we realized there were many new faces. it seemed that some of the kids who leave the house during hte day to look for food and money on the streets had decided to stay at the house for the picnic. what a blessing!

a trip to the kampala post office

i'm told there's only one post office in kampala...seems odd when you realize that the population of kampala must exceed 5 million. i know my first reaction was "boy, it's going to be really busy." wrong.....no one goes there because it is sheer torture! waiting for a package, oh, excuse me, a parcel to arrive? yes, well, don't call them or attempt to check on your parcel because you will be told: "we'll call you when it arrives, it could take 4 or 5 weeks." amazingly, a very pleasant person does call you and insists that you pick up your parcel prompty (there isn't any mail delivery...ugandans simply do not get mail). hmm..drive to the post office and wait at the closed gate while a guard checks your vehicle for explosives, asks why you are there (uh-huh....it's hard not to give a smart alecky answer) and makes you complete a guest register book. (what year is this and when was the last time you did this anywhere other than a fun place like a state park or a funeral?) you are told you have 30 minutes....well surely that will be plenty of time. WRONG! you enter a reception area, wait in line and someone asks why you are there.

A New Addition!

it's been a busy couple of days after a wonderfully quiet weekend...we bought fruit (bananas and mangos) and took it to the EXTREMELY energetic 30+ kids at the Love and Care Ministry. they were so excited to see us again....every time i snapped a photo they laughed uncontrollably..don't know if it was the flash, but they were WILD. i got shot 1000 times with a green plastic laser pistol which caused more chaos as i pretended to be stricken and in pain...haha...love these little kids.
one has the most awful scarring on his arm, which is also badly enlarged and misshapen. apparently he was the helpless victim of a horrible stepmother and a witch doctor (for real). he was intentionally cut in many places and some type poison was inserted into the flesh of his arm.....of course WHY was my question, but no one knows....andrew said perhaps to kill him. fortunately he is safe with people who now care for him...away from the evil step mom!

Naguru - 2 March 2012

today is friday, our day to visit naguru remand home for children ages 10 to 18...children awaiting trial for crimes they supposedly have commited. we think some of the children are younger than 10 and we think perhaps the circumstances created by extreme poverty were, at least partially responsible for crimes such as theft.....for who can fault a homless or orphaned child for stealing something to eat? we know that children are only supposed to be there for 3 months, but we also know that they can be there for a year. we always bring food, because these children are hungry all the time. they eat posho and beans....that's it! today we brought bread and milk and sugar to put in their posho porridge and mangos.....and as a special treat for the girls, bright colors of nail polish. they had also asked for slippers, but we just didn't have enough money!