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!"
i immediately went to the girls dormitory....the girls were sooo happy for bread and butter. i got a hundred hugs and as many thank you auntie kathy's. i also sneaked pineapple to their room and andrew gave them a huge bag of cheetos. he says i show favoritism to them, and yes, it is true. maybe because some are not much older than kaleigh and i just can't imagine why mothers are not here visitng EVER! we had a great talk though we barely understand each other....2 of the girls, enid and fiona were to be released on tuesday and neither had transport money or clothes to wear, because, you see, the institution keeps the tattered uniform dress, and neither had shoes. i knew were we in serious financial trouble right then and there. "NO" is not an option when it comes to the girls of naguru. everyone met in the big meeting room for pineapple and cheetos....the heat was almost unbearable. we noticed some of the boys were wearing the Jostens t-shirts we gave them a few weeks ago.we didn't really talk to the group, just some of the individual boys. farouk told me that he was in the midst of his hearings for murder. i asked him if he was guilty, he said "no, my brother did it...but the police came to our house and saw me and arrested me. it is bad because my brother did it." i didn't know what to say...he asked for help. if he is found guilty he will go to kampiringisa, the infamous children's prison, for 3 years.
i asked maria what the spots on her hands and arms were....she told andrew that she had syphilis and that the spots were an indication of the disease. we hugged and i thought "how on earth does this child deserve this"? i didn't ask her full story, but maybe i will next week. elizabeth told me she had been sentenced to kampiringisa for one year for theft. i will probably never see her again. i asked katy, a staff member, if we could do anything at all to prevent this, she said no, that the decision had come from the high court, that her parents had not been there to plead for her...the decision was final. i put my head down and cried.
katy, andrew, and i decided to take enid and fiona shopping for clothes and shoes for their journeys back to their villages as neither owned clothes. now this was an experience. as we went deeper into the local market, i heard "mazungu, mazungu"! we decided it was not a market frequented by whites. i told andrew that in the USA, you rarely see cabbages and bras for sale on the same table. haha.... i did feel like the star in a freak show, but everyone was really nice....think they were just surprised. the girls got shoes and dresses and underwear. i even bought a dress as the cotton dresses here are the coolest option in the neverending heat. the store owner said "that is the perfect color for you" for every dress i looked at. i guess white goes with everything...HAHA! we went back to naguru and the girls presented us with a fashion show......exactly like my granddaughter does after i take her shopping....what fun that was. they looked beautiful and so happy. we decided that they had never EVER had 2 new dresses and new shoes and new underwear all at the same time. how blessed we felt to provide that for them. katy decided that the transport cost for the 2 girls would be about $125...choke, choke...we paid, of course and dearly hope they return to their viallages safely and we never see them again...well, never at naguru anyway!{fbcomments}
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