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 the
ir 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.
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.
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