Stories of Resettlement

Resettlement, like so many things in Uganda, can be incredibly convoluted. All of my time in Uganda has been a learning experience, I readily admit that. And I am trying to learn as much as I can. Sometimes I feel like I could be in this culture a lifetime and things would still surprise me and so needless to say, after almost three months I am barely scratching the surface of things. We resettled a boy named Innocent last week. It was interesting.

 

I want to give you an honest perspective on how things are here, or at least my honest perspective on how I perceive things to be. I have noticed that some people come to Africa and they have a romantic and consequently somewhat naive view on the way things are here and what it means to be in the culture and "help." Others are very a where of the issues. They feel the burden of them and they want to see things change quickly for the best. But things happen differently here and it can bring a lot of frustration.... These are the extremes I suppose. But I have seen them here in others. And I have seen them here in myself. Somehow you have to see and love the beauty in the people of the culture while still being willing to honestly stare in the face of the brokenness at the same time. Sometimes the brokenness manifests itself in the lack of relationships, integrity, and responsibility of the very people you know to be so beautiful.  And then you also have to stare honestly at your own heart and see the brokenness that is also there. It is a hard thing to do.

 

I care a lot about Innocent. At program he was hardworking, resourceful, responsible, polite and seemingly honest. My decision to help him go back to school was largely based on the premise that he had a legitimate need for sponsorship due to his family situation and that he was sincere about having a deep desire to go back to school. Kids that show responsibility and incentive but lack the chance pull on my heart because I feel like they will not miss use an opportunity.
 

Innocent had told us bits and pieces of his story. I felt like something was missing in his story but it is rare for a boy to tell you everything as it is so personal. From his story we had enough to know that his family situation, although not ideal, was not so bad that he could not return to it. He said his real dad was dead. His stepfather had a number of wives. Innocent had ended up on the streets when he was ten but returned home after three years. At this point his stepfather would not pay the school fees to put him back in school. He wanted badly to go back to school. He waited a year but nothing happened. He had problems with his family and so he ran again. This is what he told us.

 

The bus ride up to the area of Uganda where Innocent is from was somehow long, but it was beautiful especially as you got closer to his home. The rolling hills became larger and they flatten out to meet what is left of the thick jungle that used to cover this part of the land. Sugar cane is grown in abundance and banana orchards fill the hillsides. We were getting very close to the border to Congo. Innocent lives near Lake Albert and from the shores of the lake you can see Congo.

 

 

 

Innocent was nervous but excited to go home. It must be such a mix of emotions for these boys when they make the decision to go back to their families. "We are here" he murmured and exhaled deeply as we rounded the last bend before the turn off to his home.
 

It took a bit to untangle ourselves from the care. We had hired a private car from the closest big town since it was easier than going by taxi. There were four of us crammed in the back seat. When Innocent finally managed to get himself out of the vehicle and his family realised who it was there was loud collective shouting. Family members came running from out of the house, around behind the house, and down the road to give him hugs. They were all so happy to see him.

 

Unfortunately Innocent's mother was not there but was in a hospital getting treatment for an illness. We met his jaja (grandmother figure) and siblings. His father lived in a different house due to the number of wives he had, but one of the family members gave him a call and he came to meet us and visit. He also was very thankful that we had brought Innocent home.

 

This is where the stories began to not coincide. As we discussed things with the family they said that they had no idea why Innocent had ran to the streets. He had been in school when he ran. It seemed that the father figure was the biological father of Innocent, at least by all accounts of the family. He called Innocent "my son" and although he was not affectionate to him, he was not rejecting of him. The father himself stated that he was willing to pay school fees for Innocent to go to school. His only concern was whether or not Innocent would actually commit to staying in school. He kept saying "are you sure he wants to study?"

 

When we talked to Innocent he maintained his story. It seemed like we were at a little bit of a impasse when it came to finding the truth in these stories.

 

Interesting.

 

And that is how we left it. We ate supper with Innocents family and took tea with them the next morning. We went to the school where Innocent will be studying and payed the school fees for one term. We talked with Innocent and encouraged him. We prayed with him. And then we left. I still don't know what is true.

 

 

Irene, my wise Ugandan friend who had come with us on the resettlement, said to me that sometimes the best thing in these types of situations is not to look at the past for the truth because people tell many stories. Instead you should look at what is happening now, and watch what happens in the future. That is the truth you can know.

 

So here are some of the things that are true now.  Innocent is at home with his family. They are happy to have him back. He is off the streets which are not a good place for any boy. He will be going back to school when the new term starts in a few weeks. His father has verbally committed to keeping him in school as long as he applies himself. He has given us permission to call the family and follow up with how things are going for Innocent.  Time will tell the the rest.

 

I say this resettlement was interesting because I lack better words to describe it. In my heart I want Innocent to be honest and trustworthy. I want him to be just a kid who is basically "innocent" but had some bad things happen to him. I want him to be telling me the truth about "his dream to go back to school." I want this because it is easier than the possibility that maybe he has other motives.

 

And then another part of my heart feels the weight of the issues that surround Innocent and his family. The many wives, the distant father, the ill mother, the convoluted stories. Innocent ran for a reason. All kids do. I really do not want to place him back in an bad situation. I wanted to know the truth, to make sure it was okay, maybe even make sure that the problems were fixed. But I can't. And that also is the truth.

 

So that is a little of my honest perspective. This type of thing is hard. It is difficult letting go of the desire to control. And then somehow learning to love without expectations. I guess that is what God does. I mean, you want people to make good choices but you love them because you know them, not because they make those choices.

 

Regardless of what happened in the past, I pray that Innocent will now make good choices. I think he will always have a place in my heart. I have learnt a lot through this resettlement.

Also, on a lighter note, we saw baboons! We were in the car but they came really close hoping to get treats. So far the main wildlife I have seen in Uganda is baboons.  I think they are ugly and a little terrifying up close.

 

You can see Lake Albert and the mountains of Congo in the background.  

 



Another one comes Home

It is always an exciting thing to bring a new boy home. It is becoming more special for me personally as I am getting to know the boys on the street more deeply. When one of them comes home it is a new page in their story, one of hope and restoration. It is a chance at a new future, a new family, a new opportunity to be a child again.

This week David and Abby brought a new boy into their homes. It was really special to see him there when I was at the land this weekend. When I first arrived in Uganda and began going to street programs he had caught my eye. You see all the boys, but sometimes you 'notice' certain ones. I am not sure why I noticed him. Maybe because he was shy, but keen to learn. Sometimes I notice the quiet ones, the ones that aren't clambering for you attention and even avoid you. Maybe it was because he had a funny way of singing and moving to his own music (the stuff that obviously is often playing in his head) without giving a care as to who was looking at him.  Sometimes that is rather funny. Whatever it was I was secretly hoping he could come into the homes.

Bringing a boy into the homes is a process that needs to be done with a lot of wisdom and prayer. A boy needs to want to work within a family structure, one that has rules and responsibilities, in order to do well in the home. They have to be willing to come under the authority of the Uncles and Aunties in the home. If they are aggressive or abusive they could easily hurt the other boys in the home. If they aren't serious about being in a home and going back to school they could quickly run back to the streets and convince other boys to go with them. Any of these things would be harmful to the other boys and the home. For this reason knowing the right boy to bring home is not simple. We want all boys off the streets. That is our dream, but there is only so much you can do now. Issues are complex. The boys are complex. And there is a great responsibility to protect the boys that are in the current homes.  I am glad that I do not decide who comes home. But I do get to celebrate when they do!

When boys come home they take a while to settle in. As they become more and more at ease with their new home they begin to let their guard down and show who they truly are. It usually takes a few weeks to start seeing this.

Once a boy relaxes into the safely of a place to call 'home' he comes alive. I love being there for the process. It is a beautiful thing.

Roads they Walk - a street boy's day in pictures

This is Alex. He is about 14 years old and has lived on the streets for a number of years now. He has been into a number of homes but has not stayed in any preferring the free spirited life of the street to rules. Often he is the boy at program who is rilling other kids up and pushing back against authority.  But as much trouble as he often is, everyone loves Alex in one way or another. He is very street wise and knows how to get what he wants. We asked him if he would like to help us learn about street boys using pictures and video. He said yes and then added "I want to be a movie star!" Not sure if you are going to be that Alex, but thank you so much for sharing with us some of your day to day life! You did great.

This is the gate that leads out of Grace Church. This church is in Kivulu (one of the slums in Kampala)  and home to the street program API runs. As soon as you walk out the gate you are met with a pile of garbage. Alex had his sack ready. These burlap sacks are what the boys use to collect their source of income - scrap.

 

Scrap can come in many forms, bottles, plastic, broken phones, pieces of metal. The boys look for things that can be recycled. Often good scrap can be found in the many sewers that flow through the slum area of Kampala.

 



 





  Alex, like all the boys, shows no hesitancy to clammer down into them and retrieve what they can.

 

Along the one side of Kivulu runs this sewer channel. This is where the boys bath and wash their clothes. Parts of this water system are cleaner than others, but not by much. Often when you cross the channel into Kivulu you can see boy wading in the water.

 

This is the humble abode of two of the older boys, Big and Innocent. They are fortunate in that they have a container that they can call their own. They even have the ability to lock it and keep their meagre possession safe. The cardboard is their bed. The older boys often share their space with the younger boys.



 

 After the boys gather scape they go to weighing stations so see how much it weighs and collect their Ugandan shillings.

 

 

Alex continued to show us the places around downtown Kampala where he collects scrap.

 

The taxi park

Alex loves this picture and is definitely proud of his ninja skills!

 



 

Scrap is others cast-offs. Basically these boys live of the garbage of others.

 

Unfortunately people often see them as having about as much value as the  heaps of trash they wade into. Abuse is inevitable on the streets, verbal, physical, emotional. "People are afraid of us. They don't like us." I have been told by the boys. "But the things that happen to us here even though it is so bad is better than it was before we came to the streets..."

 

Walking is a huge part of a street boys day. They cover miles. 

 

There are so many street boys in Kampala you don't go far without meeting some. Street kids stick together and form tight friendships in order to survive. Alex came across Enoch and they visited for a few minutes sharing a carrot Enoch had in his possession we carried on.

 

 

Pineapple stands are abundant in Uganda. The street boys will often spend their change on the street venders getting what catches their fancy and they can afford.

 

Kisenyi. It is the worst slum in Uganda. I have heard it said you have to do drugs, sell drugs, be a protitute or the child of a prostitute to live here. It has a heaviness over it. This is home to a lot of the kids. Alex does not live here. He lives in Kivulu which is a consideably better place to live even though it is still slum. The boys in Kisenyi often have the vacant look of those who have lost hope.

 

Every time I look at this picture I feel sad. This boys name is Andrew. Others have given him the name Chenga. Chenga is the aviation fluid that is commonly used among the boys. They keep it in bottles and sniff it continually.  Andrew does so much of it that he has been nicknamed after it. Constently using this drug kills the boys mental abilities. The boys who have been doing it for years have been effected so much by it - Andrew is one of these.

 

Kisenyi street boys.

 

Here is where we meet Sabote. He is the boy waving in the picture.

Sabote has lived on the streets for so many years even he has lost count. Some people say they can remember him being on the street as he was loosing his babyteeth. For him the street really has become his "mother." He has spent the majority of his time in Kisenyi and done a lot of chenga. His smile is the best. When he uses it, you can't help but smile too. Sabote also agreed to show us around Kampala and parts of his daily life.

This is the crowded downtown area. You can buy pretty much anything from the shops that line the streets. During the day it is so crowded that is it sometimes becomes hard to find you way through the maze of people and vehicles and merchandise. Due to the sheer amount of people passing through this area a lot of garbage is discarded. In the late hours of the night and the early hours of the morning this area becomes the hunting grounds of the street boys. 

 



We ran into some more street boys. These boys had been working hard all morning and had sacks that were almost full.

 

They joined out procession as we wound our way through the city streets.

Kampala is definatley a cleaner place because of these children.

 

Often with barefeet they walk.

 

 

At night we visited an area called Wandegeya where some of the boys sleep. This is Ivan and Reagan. They often sleep in front of these stores after the owners have locked up shop for the night.

 

 

The neglect these boys experience is incredible. What is happening to them is not right. No child should be without a parent figure in their life, one who they know will love and protect them.  No child should have to live on the streets, sleeping in dark corners with out even a blanket. No child should have to walk for miles ever day wading into the sweres to retrieve what they can to survive. No child should be treated as garbage by others or live in fear of being beaten by the authorities. Where are those who will fight for these boys?

 

Looking at them as a whole becomes overwhelming. But you can't just look at them this way. Yes there are many of them and yes the issues surrounding them are complex and not easily solved. But each boy is an individual. This may be the biggest thing I have learned so far.  I cannot reach the masses of boys, but I can reach out to an individual boy. And this is how it starts.

 

Alex and Sabote are bing reached out to. As I type Caitlyn, a staff member of API, is preparing to open a home of her own. Her plan in to take in some of the hardest boys, the boys that could not easily go into any other home. Alex and Sabote are on herheart and will be coming into this home when it opens at the end of April. You can follow her story here http://ugandansunshine.blogspot.com/2013/04/prayers-for-enoch.html

 

 



Innocent Dreams

This is Innocent. He is one of the older boys at program. He is 15 years old although sometimes I feel like he acts a lot older. He works hard helping his friend Abby (an older boy that API has been able to hire) to cook food for the 60 or so street boys that come to program. He is quite responsible. He works hard on his English and because  of that he is quite good. I have heard bits and pieces of his story as I have got to know him. His story is somewhat typical of many street boys. Broken family relationships, broken hearts, broken dreams. But the thing I admire about Innocent is that he still dares to dream. And not just a little bit, he dreams a lot. His dream is to go back to school.

He made it to primary 5 (about the same as grade 5) before he had to drop out. Part of his hope in coming to the streets of Kampala is that he would find a sponsor to put him back in school. This hope is not uncommon for street kids, but can sometimes be dauntingly unrealistic due to the sheer amount of boys on the streets. Sometime in the first month I was here I started giving him English worksheets at program because he was so eager and self motivated. Since then he has also gotten a few of the other older boys interested in this as well.

 

 

Monday last week Innocent was having a hard day. I think it would be fair to say that I had had an equally hard day just a few days before. Sometimes the things you find in common with street boys leave you realizing that our lives, while so different in some ways, are so very similar in others. It turns out we have both lost out fathers not so very long ago, and the date of their passing was only days apart.  Maybe I was meant to be an encouragement to Innocent. We talked about it for a while, sitting outside of program. He cried a little though he did not want to. I cried a little too.  We talked about random things like cranes and guitars. We talked about family and his dream.

 

The thing is that Innocent's dream has really been on my heart. A boy that wants to go back to school so bad that he thinks about it for hours every day really should get the chance. You are surrounded by so much need on the streets. If you look at it as a whole is becomes overwhelmingly ominous. But then sometimes I look at individual kids and it be comes easier to see my way.

 

Maybe it was a sign, maybe randomness, I am not sure. Whatever it was it gave me a push in the right direction. When my brother Tim arrived Monday night he brought with him some mail for me. One of the envelopes had an address on it but no return. My mom thinking it was a letter for me had sent it along. When I opened it there was no letter, but to my surprise there were bills.

 

Putting a kid in school here is relatively cheap. Around $50/month will cover their school fees as well as supplies and clothes for school. A Perfect Injustice does help out with school fees for kids if they have sponsors in that area. I have been thinking it over a lot and I want to use this money to begin putting Innocent back in school (thank you to whoever you were that sent me this!).

 

David (the director of API) thinks that the best solution for Innocent is to try to find a good relative with whom he can stay while he goes to school for the next number of years. His family life is less than ideal and it seems like putting him back with them might be harmful for him, but African culture is very communal in it's caring of it's children. I think the struggle often is that relatives, although they care about the children that are in their family circles,simply don't have the means to provide for them. But if the means were supplied it frees them up to give the relational element that the kids really need.

 

Innocent doesn't know this yet, but we want to give him his dream. It is a matter of logistics at this point. We will tell him soon. And I really wonder what his reaction will be.

 

So many of the boys at program have dreams. And now, as I get to know them better I start to see their hopes individually. It is so beautiful that they dream despite everything that has happened to them. And when I see it I am so proud of them. And then I wonder what I can do. What I should do. What any of us should do...

 

P.S.

I forgot to include this with the last post.

 

Once a street boy always a street boy? I think not, but in some ways maybe! After they got tired of swimming some of the boys swept the perimeters of the beach area looking for scrap. In the case of this little fellow pulling it off the air plane. You could see them sizing up the plane, thinking of all the money they could get if they could somehow bring it back to Kampala and scrap it. They made do with the pieces they could manage to get off. This was unbeknown to me. I was unaware that this sort of vandalism was being committed until we had made it out of the gates of the beach area and the boys let out a collective cheer. Turns out they were rather nervous about being caught by the guard at the door. They were very proud of their days work, and at since we were well on our way there was no point in taking it back...  Good work boys. Now you just have to carry it all to the weighing station.

 

Thank You so so Much

I have learnt from the boys to use the word so. They use it to increase the intensity of what they are saying. And so, I would like to take this moment to say, "thank you all so so so so much!" I know that all of you who are reading this blog are thinking of me and about the street boys of Kampala. That in itself is a huge encouragement to me. Some of you pray for me, pray for the ministry of API, and pray for the kids themselves. Thank you. There is so much brokenness here. Some of you have wrote me encouraging notes while I have been here. Some of you have supported me with money to use during my time in Uganda. Some of you have sent me chocolate and tea! Thank you all so so so much!!!



 

 

 



 Because of the money some of you had given I was able to help in taking a group of 25 boys to the beach. This beach was in Entebbe on lake Victoria. We all squished into two taxis and drove the hour (or so!) to Entebbe. Before we left the boys were given new shorts and T-shirts. We also bought them snacks and supper. They were so excited! It was a beautiful day. There were big waves on the lake because there was a bit of a wind. At first I was a little worried that someone would disappear in the waves. The boys can't swim very well! And so I spent a lot of the day out in the waves bobbing with them, counting heads. They loved the water so much.

 

There were a couple of old planes at the beach. Some of the boys had a great time exploring them.





These boys are like any other boys. They love understanding how things work. And somehow like my own brothers they like to correct me if they think I am wrong. "Auntie Rachel. I think this air plane carried things, not people." Okay boys, you are probably correct...

 

 

Another thing that has been able to happen is that my bother Tim has been able to join me here in Uganda for the next three weeks. He arrived late Monday night and we wasted no time introducing him to the kids as we all went to the beach the next morning. Tim is going to be working on a documentary style video about street kids in Uganda. I am very excited about this. API has so many connections. We are going to start filming next week.  These boy's stories need to be told. 

 

 

I wanted to give you a glimpse through my words and pictures of what you have been a part of. I really feel like if it was not for you all I would not be here, or at least not in the same capacity. I would not be able to bless the boys like I can. I really need God's love to be able to love these boys in all their brokenness. Thank you for your prayers for me. Those of you who do pray please continue to pray that I would have wisdom in how to love these boys, that I would have integrity, and that I would keep learning.  

You are all a bessing.