Nov 19, 2010 - woohoo..i found girls...:)

The morning started off great! I headed off to the boys house, and instead of taking a boda I decided to walk (which I should do more often then I do..but I apparently am always in a rush..lol). Anyways, just outside my gate a met a group of girls, maybe 8 or 9 of them coming from school. I asked them where they were going, and they told me that it was speech day at school, and so they were headed home to get ready (keep in mind it was only 9am..but their school day had started at 7). We kept walking and talking, and I learned ‘some’ of their names, found out that they were all in P4, and for their presenting they were doing a fashion show, so they showed off the best model walk:) It was fun to get to know them a bit more, I spend so much time with Ugandan boys that I enjoyed meeting the girls! Anyways, we walked almost all the way to the boys house when they came to the house they were headed to. I told them where the boys lived, and that they were welcome to come and visit sometime. I continued on my way when about a minute later I heard my name being called..and there were the girls coming down the hill calling my name. They came to the house and met some of the boys that were there, and then played some football and rugby with us. After sometime they said that they had to get back to school, but they would come and visit us again.

And thats it for today's blog...! Short and sweet :)

Nov 17, 2010

Today I met David at the house at around 9 and we headed off to ASCO (another Street Kid Organization in Jinja) to meet Sarah and learn more about how they set up their filing, etc. David had at one point lived at ASCO, but he had returned to the streets after living there for a couple of weeks. It was interesting walking with him, and hearing what he had to say about what it was like there, and why he left. I am not sure the reasons that he had were real, but I was glad that he was able to open up to me some. Once we got there Sarah showed us some pictures of when David had been there, and then took me through a lot of their paper work that they had set up. It was nothing difficult, but they have a good system, and I think that starting tomorrow we will be working on this for ourselves. She had a binder for each boy that they have, and then inside had all of their information. It went from family history, to medical, educational, sponsorship, etc. I learned a lot from her and am looking forward to getting all of our information together.

After this Henry and I headed out to Sonrise Babies Home. Henry needed to go because he needed to help them with some computer issues, I had to go because I was MISSING BABIES! Seriously, I just wanted to be with some kids that age of all of my daycare kids…(Annie, remind me of this when I come back…lol). It was so fun to play with the kids for a while, but soon they were all off for their nap, and Henry had finished his task, so we were off again.

We went back to the boys house for some lunch, and this is when the issues started. Each time after lunch David and Robert (the 2 newest boys) are asked to do dishes, and each time we end up with a very angry David who sulks off not wanting to help, which leads to an angry Robert because he is stuck doing the work himself. This is been happening off and on over the last few months, but this time I had had enough. Henry and Alex had left to go buy fresh fish, but when they came back we all sat down and had a big discussion about what was expected of the boys (as far as I could tell anyways, because it was all in Luganda). There were angry words and even some tears, but in the end it seemed that things were sorted…I guess we’ll find out.

That afternoon we had ANOTHER meeting with the lawyer, which was supposed to be the last, BUT we are still waiting for the final piece of paperwork, and Betty couldn’t make it because she was working away at getting it. We are starting to get frustrated with how long the whole procedure is taking, and raised out concerns to the lawyer. He said that things in Uganda take time, and just because we have Mzungu expectations, we are still in Uganda and things work differently. There was some heated conversation, but we were told that everything would be resolved as soon as possible. I guess we will see.

That night Glen and I were both at the boys house for dinner. Glen had mentioned that he enjoyed fresh fish, so that is what we had :) Yum!

Oh, on a not so happy note we also found out that Patrick had malaria, so Henry went to get him his medication, and he spend the afternoon/evening resting.

Prayer:

- Patrick recovers quickly from Malaria

- We can get the last paperwork for the house

Nov 15 – Let go and let God….

WOOHOO…after this one I am all caught up…atleast as far as blogging goes…then there are emails..lol.

Anyways, so today was CRO day. The plan was to meet at Flavours at 9am. Glen and I were there about 5 minutes to…in normal mzungu fashion, and then Henry showed up with Isaac about 15 minutes later. We decided to wait another 15 minutes to see if the other boy Allan would show up, but when he didn’t we headed off. I am not sure what exactly I was expecting to see..maybe more of an office type building, but it was more of a courtyard, and inside there were atleast 20 different children of all different ages, both boys and girls, moving around and doing different chores. We met a lady called Aunt Dorothy, and she spend some time talking to Isaac. She didn’t recognize him though, and when she invited him to stay so that they could work on getting more information on him, he started to cry, and said that he didn’t want to stay. Then she said we could take him with us…until there was more information. But no one was being specific, were we expected to get the information, was she saying that she was going to get the information…what?? Lol. It went on like this for awhile..finally they got one of their social workers, and said that if we supplied the money for fuel, they would take him to find his family. (back story: he had an idea where his mom HAD been..but wasn’t sure where she was anymore..so they were going to start from where he could last remember, talk to people in the area, and see if they could track her down). Henry talked to him to see if this was ok with him, and he said that it was. In the end we received a phone call a couple of hours later saying that they HAD found his mother, and then he was going to stay with her..and what did we want to do. We asked them to find out more information on the family…what was his reason for leaving? Was he forced to? Did he want freedom? Was he actually just lost? Was he being abused? I am not sure that we will ever find out the answers to these questions, but incase he does come back to the streets, I want to know more of his situation. They also said that they would take us out to see where he is living, and I think that this might be something that I would be interested in doing…I guess time will tell whether or not that is actually possible.

So that was CRO. Then we met with our contractor – named Romeo and got the costs on how much it is going to take to finish off the house. Right now the house is liveable, but it doesn’t have plumbing, finished floors, and it could definitely use a good paint on the inside. The quote that we got was cheaper that was expected, which is definitely an answer to prayer! Now we will have to see what is next. If we can get enough money, we need to start on digging the septic system ASAP! There will be more information coming on all of this, but if anyone is interested in helping out with the help, I would really very much appreciate it. We want this to be a home for the boys. Yes, they can move into it now, and it will be more then they have ever had, but I would love to be able to give them more. These are things that we wouldn’t even DREAM of living without…at least not for more then a week when we are camping. Please think about it, and pray about it. We can all work together to make a difference it each of these boys lives.

Ok, enough about that. The afternoon was spent with Robert working on his ABC’s…he is actually starting to improve, which is exciting! Oh, and then we had 2 surprise visitors. Allan showed up (the other boy who was supposed to meet us in the morning to go to CRO). He told us that people had hired a bunch of the street boys to help clean up one of the stadiums for some money, so he had come as soon at that was done. He is going to go with Henry in the morning to CRO, so please pray about that. I am not sure if CRO knows anything about him, or his situation, but pray that he will be open to going home AND that his home situation is a good one…pray pray pray….trust God. That’s all I/we can do.

The second visitor was a mzungu who is friends with

David and Robert. Henry and I met him before, and he was very interested in finding out more about what we are doing, and how he can help. Mind you he took David out to a very fancy restaurant for lunch..and drove him around in his car all afternoon, which does not at all help David’s situation (he needs to be at home helping with house duties and working on his schooling…not that we are trying to be mean, but him getting a taste of the ‘goodlife’ makes him just want to be back on the streets..why would you do housework in a home, or work on your alphabet if you can get gourmet meals and sit in an air conditioned car..). Anyways, I believe that this man means well, and we will be meeting with him again to discuss how he can help, we just need to direct his assistance in a more positive way. He was very happy to see everything that they have been learning at home though, and told them over and over how proud he was that they were learning their ABC’s and 123’s. Hopefully we can use this positive reinforcement to keep the boys going in their studies.

Anyways, that was that. I came home early today and had waffles for supper with Siouxanne…! YUM:)

Praise:

- Isaac went back to his home

- We got a good quote for the house

- God continues to provide

- Steven came home safely from Kampala

Pray:

- We can teach other mzungus how to best help kids on the streets

- Isaac is safe at home, and will stay there

- Robert and David continue to focus on their learning

- I will now when to help, and when to let go

Nov 14 – But…..

This should be short and sweet. Church like usual this morning. I decided to go the early service, and Robert showed up sometime near the beginning. (I still love going to church with the boys). David also showed up…but probably about 7 minutes before church was over, although he did end up staying for the next service).

After the service, the man who had called me about the 4 boys earlier in the week came over to me with another 2 boys (1 of them I had met in the group of 4 – named Allan, and one I hadn’t met yet named Isaac). After much debate, and translating through David (thank goodness he knows a lot of Engligh) we invited them over for lunch (mostly so that I could talk to Henry about what to do). They came for lunch, and seemed very happy to be getting a meal, plus water and a mango. Henry and I talked…trying to figure out what the best way was for us to help these boys…especially when we don’t know much about them, and have no extra room.

David came home with a girl that I knew from church named Jessica (also a Canadian), and she came in and met the boys (current AND the 2 new comers), and spent a couple of hours with us. We had fun washing dishes, playing rugby, and it was really nice to have another girl around.

The 2 boys stayed with us for the afternoon, taking part in playing games, gathering water..and they were able to wash themselves off with our basins in soap. It was decided that Henry and I would go with them to CRO in the morning to see if we could find out more information about them, and then we would go from there. They stayed for supper, and then we had to watch them head back into town. I should mention that the weather lately has been rather cold in the evenings (I know…I’ll get no sympathy from you…)…but as Henry drove me home that night, and we had to drive by them walking with just tshirts and pants…ahhh… It was hard. What are we supposed to do?

Tonight Henry and I had a pretty big discussion about the future of Sanctuary. Who are we here to help? The boys that are at Sanctuary now? Where it is like a big family? Or more? And if more, how many? And then what? It appears that there are a lot of conversations that will need to happen over the next couple of weeks, and months…my heart is torn in half. I know that I can’t help everyone…. But….