Orphans and candlelight

Orphans and candlelight,
Well, I think this is the 7th or 8th week I decided to not keep track.

We had a great week with our P-5 class. I love our class. This morning my Mom called and asked "what is your favorite thing about Uganda?" and I had to say it was our class we teach every morning. I love these kids so much. Today a boy made me a camera
out of clay with a light in it that looks like a flash. They are so
creative. Anyhow, I love teaching, I never thought I would.

Friday we left for a town called Iganga where we work in an orphanage and it took over three hours to travel 60 miles in a crowded taxi van and on a construction bumped
road. It’s crazy traveling here. We stayed in a small home turned into a
hotel and there was no privacy it was hilarious. We had candle light is all,
and we slept three to a double bed. Oh the things we get to experience. We
went to the orphanage and the kids had a performance ready for us so we
spent the rest of the night listening to their beautiful songs. In the
morning we got up early and went to teach the street kids who live under a
veranda of an abandoned building. We got there and they all came out of
hiding and we sat and handed them pencils and paper and taught them the
alphabet and words and how to write their names. They were aged between
twelve and eighteen. They had some education but they were forced out of
their homes for one reason or another, most of them were threatened by a
step parent. A lot of them feared for their lives. It was so sad to see them and
hear their stories. I loved the experience, there were so many people from
the community who came and asked what we were doing and why. They see the
street kids like rats, so the fact that someone would come and treat them
like humans was new to them. And the chairman of Iganga really wanted to
meet us. We brought them rice and they sat around and just ate with their
hands. It was such a humbling experience. While we taught them it started to
pour outside. But they wanted to learn so badly.

There is so much we are getting involved in, secondary school drama clubs, building an orphanage for a member out here, building more stoves, teaching AIDS awareness…etc. three months is not enough to learn all I can learn and do all I’d like to do. Life in Uganda is so simplistic and so complex at the same time.
Love you all
April Gwakuna