Holidays

It's holiday time so today the clinic who does a lot of work with HIV and Aids patients where we take our children and families for treatment had been given free tickets, for all their children who have HIV, for the cinema at cineplexs. My mum and I had volunteered to help out. We arrived at the clinic where the children had started to gather, they were lined up in front of 2 buses and 3 taxi's putting on a pink ribbon so that everyone could be identified. 200 children were expected to come along, as the children got onto the bus they were giving their names and then squeezing into the bus. 3 taxi's had come from a particular village two hours out of Kampala. After counting all the children and transporting them to the big shopping mall we realised 300 children had come to enjoy such an exciting trip.

Most of the children have never left their suburb or village let alone visiting a wealthy mall. One of the biggest novelty for the children were the toilets many of them hadn't seen a flushing toilet before and didn't know how to use them, the children went back and forth throughout the morning visiting the fascinating toilets.

Every seat was full with a child sitting ready to watch a film, they actually filled two cinema halls, the adults didn't sit on a seat they sat on the steps at the side watching the children as there wasn't enough room. Every child was given a soda and a bag of popcorn donated by coca cola and cineplex.

I was greatly moved by this adventure and the experiences the children had. As I watched them and looked at every child I was touched by so many children before me all affected by HIV. There were so many. I looked at so many seats available and every seat full. This is just a small clinic in a small suburb who is working with a small group of people, this just scratches the surface of actually how many are affected in Uganda. I have been moved by the effects of HIV over the years being here and working with people who have HIV, but today I am challenged in a greater way to help these little children. Next time you go to the cinema try to picture every seat full with a child affected by HIV.

As I said it's the school holidays, so most of my children are home apart from the candidates who have their final exams at the end of the year, Nangiro who is doing the British holidays and of course my day care is still running. A few of the boys volunteer in my friend Betty's resturant for a bit of work experience, the rest of the boys are at home and enjoying the rest. On Tuesday it's half price at the cinema so I'm taking all the boys to see a film, I hope to take them to do some other things as well before the holidays finish. Because their is no school some of my younger children, brothers and sisters of the boys have no one to look after them so I have been taking them to the Daycare in the day, so the day care is quite busy. In the evening we have around 12 young children for a few hours. You can see them in pictures below.

Isaac's Birthday Party

We celebrated Isaac's birthday last week. He was 19 years old this year. We made him a cake and a nice meal and everyone ate together, afterwards my parents gave out gifts from their trip away in China and then we watched a movie together.

That's the usual way we celebrate the boy's birthdays. There are so many of them we normally have one almost every month some fall in the same month, they are allowed to have a few friends to come and celebrate too. I also give them a small amount of money so that they can go shopping for clothes or put it towards something else they were wanting.

Isaac came to live with me just two weeks after meeting the boys. I was told that he had been living full time on the streets with his uncle. His Uncle was a security man in the day so Isaac just hung around on the streets taking drugs and doing small jobs to get money. One day a lady told me that his uncle had died at night he was drunk and fell asleep on the railway line and a train came and killed him. At that time, being the beginning of the work,I felt that if I was really going to work with these children, I had to show them that I was really there for them and if I was really going to help them I needed to meet all their needs. Someone wanted to take him to a children's home but I felt I had to take him. So I did.

For the first few months he was an easy child, so excited to be with me, to have a home. He would run around the whole house flicking all the lights on, doing press-ups in the kitchen, jumping everywhere. Years later he wrote an essay at school about one of his most exciting memories and he wrote about having his first shower and the excitment he had. After the novelty wore off the longing for drugs settled back in so he started to run off, I use to spend the whole evening looking for him in the slums, it was late at night and I would walk around on the way picking the rest of the boys up from film halls where they were asleep rolled up on the floor, or running around the streets with their friends. By the time I had found Isaac I would nearly have every other boy with me. When Isaac saw me he would run away, so the boys would chase him till they caught him. One time the boys were chasing him so everyone on the road started following, until there was quite a crowd (in Uganda they take the law into their own hands, its called mob justice where they will either beat up or kill the criminal suspect.) So they thought Isaac was a criminal , and by the time I caught up with them they were trying to beat up one of my other boys thinking they were a thief. While living with us at that time, Isaac became really violent, hitting us, biting us, destroying everything in sight. I t took more than one person to cool him down. My dad told me on a number times that we had to let him go because by the time this boy is 18 he could kill us. I was determined at that time never to give up on anyone especially him. He had to change we couldn't give up on him as that's what the world had done.

Eight years later Isaac is a settled young man, very intelligent and does very well at school. Although he goes out a lot more than he used to, for a long time he was what you would call 'a home boy'. He loved being at home and rarely went out. He's still a bit loud and laughs a lot with a lot of his jokes. He has changed so much, he's caring and concerned about the people around him. He is hoping to be an engineer when he's older.

I Love My Babies

My Youngest two children are Lizzie and Jude, Jude is my biological child who is 17 months old. Lizzie is 19 months old.

Lizzie is Grace and Namuya's little sister. Their mum (mama Namuya) is an alchoholic, drug addict and a street lady. A few years before Lizzie was born her mum had a baby and through her depression and achoholism Nakiru was neglected and abused. Lizzie's mum would leave Nakiru in her one roomed house locked up the whole day untill her mum would come home drunk and beat her. Nakiru was starved and mistreated until she was hospitilized and died of bronchial pnemonia. I was in a horrible situation at that time and due to many circumstances was unable to save Nakiru. It was one of the worse situations of my life and broke me so much that I vowed I would never let it happen again. Lizzie's mum never meant to have a baby she never meant to hurt Nakiru but a lady who was unable to care for herself couldn't care for others.

Up to the birth of lizzie I was still in confusion what I would do with her, being pregnant myself I didn't know if I could care for two. I went to the labour and helped Mama Namuya give birth. It was an eventful birth where you can read an account of it in my friends blog African Diaries. From the birth onwards I have cared for lizzie and have taken her on as my own. So it has been like having twins.

Lizzie is a very busy little lady who loves singing, she is very motherly always helping her other little friends, giving hugs and kisses to everyone. She has a very sweet character and a lovely sense of humour.

Jude is also a very sweet natured boy, he loves playing with balls and his sit along car, he is very gentle, happy and friendly. His language is excellent where he can speak all sorts of words. The sweetest thing is thank you, he will say thank you everytime he is given something even in the middle of the night when you give him a drink he will still say thank you.

Jude and Lizzie really love each other, its sweet to see when ever one them has been away they always greet each other with a hug and a kiss.

I love my babies and cherish every moment I have with them, I know they grow so fast and I try to spend every minute I can with them making sure I make the most of them.

Sparkling Stars Early Learning Centre

Sparkling Stars is set up as a day nursery and a pre-school. I initially had the thought of starting it because I wanted to reach children at a younger age before they reached the streets. So many children wander the streets without parental supervision. They walk with their younger brothers and sisters and friends some at an age of 2-3 years. Many girls are left to carry their baby sister or brother where they will walk and play anywhere. Children are left on busy roads in town to beg at the age of 2 years or maybe younger where they will sit from the early hours of morning to late at night, staying in one place not even playing.

My boys were full of habits and bad behaviour when I first met them which they had learnt from a life on the streets. It is much easier to stop a child being exposed to this life style than to deal with someone who has already been exposed. So I thought in opening a daycare/nursery school I could give a child a place to play and they would be able to be a child instead of living in a place of danger and having to behave like an adult.

As the years have gone on Uganda has become quite an expensive place to live, food, housing, transport, health care has become unaffordable. Things became quite difficult as a family to live, so I decided to make the day care not only to reach the young children who would be at risk but also to use it to help provide for us financially.

I have tried to build the centre at a high standard with good equipment and an enjoyable environment so that I can charge high fees to the affordable parents, then the centre can be self supporting giving free places to children in need and also giving us extra to help my older children and their families in their daily needs.

So far I have 5 paying children on a monthly basis. I also have 7 children who are coming free. I am really hoping to build the centre to a high standard so that it really does attract the paying customers. But my deep hearts desire is to bring those abused children who beg on the streets everyday in the scorching sun, dodging the busy traffic and the the young children who play in the streets in the slums who are exposed to the danger of being abused physically, emotionally and deprived of being a child. May I keep the focus.

New Shoes

Over the last year or so Nangiro Grace has been finding it difficult in school. She is a bright child but lost all interest in studying and her grades were low. She seemed to be so unhappy. The classes were too big and not enough attention was given to her. So this term I put Grace into a new school. I found one up on the Hill. It has an integrated system where it covers the local and cambridge curriculum. The classes are small and they are trying to be practical in their teaching. She also does swimming once a week, tennis and cooking. She is so much happier and she is interested in studying again. On the weekend she spends her time making pictures and cards for people.

The other week we had to buy her some new shoes as she didn't have any good ones for school. So we went on a Saturday shopping. I went with Lizzie and Jude, Diana and Naomi Ruth, and Grace. It was all very exciting as we went to the big new shopping mall where the children can play on a bouncy castle after shopping and have a plate of burger n chips. While we were in the shoe shop the babies got tired of sitting in the push chair, so I allowed them to get out not realizing how much mess they would create. In just a few minutes they had pulled so many shoes off the displays that there were shoes everywhere. The shop assistants said that they were fine. I decided to buy shoes for all three of the big girls. After we had finished, when the children had chosen and paid for the shoes we went to have supper and play. Reaching home that evening we realized we had come home with too many shoes. Some of the girls were carrying theirs and the shop assistant packed the rest and put an extra pair in the bag. So we had to take them back. I think they were quite shocked that we actually returned a pair that we hadn't paid for.

The Girls were so excited to have new shoes. Diana especially. The day before she had her hair platted and had new sandals and then the following day new shoes. She was telling everyone at home that it was her birthday. For a long time she had been walking around in odd slippers and wellington boots (even when it was extremely hot). For her, it must have really felt like her birthday. She's so happy now running all over the place and so chatty.