One Year Away

Penny

All the children at El-Shadai are unique and the stories of their person al histories have really touched us.  But there is one child who from the moment we arrived has kept us on our toes and has made us laugh.  That kid is Caesar or “Little Caesar” as Joe calls him. 

Caesar is five years old and he is a riot.  He is younger brother to Rebecca and older brother to Gloria who is the youngest in the house.  Their mother Betty, who had her first born at 13, is also at the house and is a human machine that never stops cleaning and cooking.

Back to Caesar!  Early on, he had some difficulty in school.  It is thought that he has some learning difficulties as he started to speak late and is still having some difficulty.  But he is a real joy to have around (as long as you have the energy to keep up with him) .  He loves to read books with volunteers but is often too much in a hurry to reach the end.  The biggest laughs are when he screams “Auntie, see” which translated from Caesar’s language means “Aunt look at me” and “Uncle, isawhati” which translates to “Uncle, what is that/this?”.  Among his many talents, Caesar has the gift to imitate perfectly a police siren at 6AM.   This we can do without!  He also loves the puppy and kitten recently adopted by the family.  Holding them and petting them roughly is his specialty.  Unfortunately, his lack of finesse also means that the pets mostly run away from him.

When we leave, Little Caesar’s bulging belly (he will be de-wormed in the next few days) and electric smile will be missed!

Penny

While volunteering at the El-Shadai home, we have had the opportunity to attend a Ugandan wedding. 

On Saturday, we made  our way to Kampala for one of Stephen’s (the director of the home) friend’s wedding.  As usual, we arrived on African time which means that we were over 2 hours late.  Thankfully, the couple was also on African time and the ceremony started over 1 hour later than  planned.  We were able to attend the last 20 minutes of the wedding which was held in a nice church.  The ceremony was done in the local language, Lusoga.  The ceremony was lovely and filled with songs from the two choirs.  Once the ceremony was over and the paper work complete, the couple held up their wedding certificate for all to see.  The crowd broke out into loud cheers and the couple made their way down the aisle and out the church in a small dance-like step while waving white hankies.

The reception was held at the Hidden Treasure Conference Center.  It was truly hidden as it took us a while to find it.  The center was an outdoor venue with a head table setup and lots of garden chairs set up around it.  After the couple was introduced, the cake was cut and toasts were made with orange Fanta.   I will admit that there was one noticeable difference between the Ugandan wedding and weddings back home is the lack of alcohol in Ugandan weddings.  Sprite and Fanta replace cheap champagne and wine!

Next, we had the speeches.  There are lots in Ugandan weddings.  Interestingly, the first two speeches were given by the couples employers.  Gladys’ (the bride) boss made sure to mention how “we have had no complaints” about her work.  This is one phrase where using a positive would have been preferable!

The food was served buffet style and was typical Ugandan.  There was a Matoke (banana) mash with  beans, potatoes, a little meat and chapati.  The meal was eaten with your hands and once you were done people would come take your plate and give you some water to wash up.

Finally, the time had come to give the couple its gifts.  People made a line and danced up to the couple offering them gifts.  The gifts were often of plastic buckets or tea cups.  We gave the couple a Thermos for hot water – it comes in handy here!  From what we could gather, a gift for a wedding usually costs about $10-15!

The gift giving was at the end of the night.  At about 9PM, we said goodbye to the couple and were headed back home.  The drive was even more eventful than the wedding.  With the car breaking down multiple times and having the boys (including Joe) push to start it up again.  At almost midnight, we were finally home and grateful to Stephen to have given us the opportunity to attend a Ugandan wedding.

My overall impression is that weddings in Uganda are very similar to our own; church, cake cutting speeches, presents and “goodbye, thank you for coming”!

Penny

When we arrived at the El-Shadai Family Foster Home, most of the children were home from school.  They all had a one month holiday between the end of Term 1 and the start of Term 2.  But this week, the house feels empty.  This was the first week back to school!  During the day, we only have little Gloria staying with us and Agnes who has finished high school and is waiting for the start of university in August. This week has been hectic.  Preparing 33 children for school is not an easy task.  It felt like Stephen was coming back home every night with books, pens, pencils, socks and everything else that the children need for the new term. 

Many of the day school students began classes early this week.  The boarding students took this week to put their things together and are now off to their respective schools.  All the children packed their belongings into large blue metal boxes and waited their turn as Uncle Stephen drove them to school on Thursday evening.  There were some tears but overall the children seemed happy to be going back.

So things have changed around here.  Children wake up as early as 6AM to prepare for school.  At about 7AM many have already started their walk to school.  At about 7:30AM the house is quiet.  Breakfast is served at about 9AM by Betty (she has just finished Tailoring classes) and Agnes, followed by lunch at 1PM.  With the house being so quiet, we take advantage to get some of our work done like creating budgets for the home and sponsorship profiles for the children.  By 3PM, Peace and Caesar usually return from Nursery followed by the others at about 4:30PM to 5PM.  Things at this time start to return to ‘normal’ but the 10 children that are off to boarding school are very much missed.

Getting the money necessary to send these children to school is a constant struggle for Stephen.  Many of the children have sponsors but some have recently lost theirs.  If you are interested in sponsoring a child, visit www.friendsofelshadai.com or send us an email.

Joseph

It’s been a while since our last post.  We’ve been kept busy here at the El-Shadai Foster home in Eastern Uganda.  We arrived in the capital Kampala on May 10th and made our way to the Foster home which is about 2 hours drive to the east.  We were picked up at our hostel by a couple of the older boys from the home and a driver.  They told us all about the home and how it works by the time we pulled up to the gates.

We had planned on volunteering at an orphanage in Uganda but when those original plans fell through we were left scrambling for an alternative at the last minute.  We spent many hours at Internet cafes in Mumbai before we found the website for Kids Worldwide.  They helped us cut through the bureaucracy and got us in to volunteer at the home with a minimum of fuss or hassle.

There are 33 kids at the El-Shadai home ranging in age from 4 to 21 years old.  Their sole guardian is Stephen Wante, a 30 year old former street kid and foster child himself.  The main house is about the size of an average pre-war suburban bungalow in Canada.  This is where the girls have their bunk rooms and Stephen has a room for himself.  There are also 2 rooms for volunteers who stay over.  The boys sleep in a small dormitory built behind the main house. 

All of the kids who are of school age go to school, either at a day school or at a boarding school.  This in itself is a success in a country where parents must pay significant fees for primary and secondary school.  We arrived here during a month long school holiday so have already met all of the children.  The kids have been incredible!  They are so kind, appreciative, affectionate…I’ m going to run out of adjectives.   Perhaps the most incredible thing is how they turned out this way when they have lived through tragedies that most of us could scarcely imagine.  Most of the children here have lost their parents to AIDS, then spent years on the street suffering humiliating, degrading abuse that I can’t even write here.

There are also young children whose parent’s are still living but are simply unable to support them either due to extreme poverty or substance abuse.  Uncle Stephen as they call him has taken them in, is caring for them and ensuring that they get the education that they need.  Occasionally, children who have parent’s or family members living in the area do get the chance to visit them.  Stephen believes that it is important for the children to know their roots and to have a relationship with members of their families even if in the past some of those family members inflicted abuse on them.  Stephen’s mission goes beyond just helping the children.  He wants to help the entire family and community and has started various foundations to do exactly that.

From the moment we arrived, we have felt like a part of a large family.  The children call us Auntie and Uncle and spontaneously come to hug us or just sit with us.  They have been receiving volunteers here for about 1 year  and are used to having "mzungu’s" (literally Europeans – used as a general term for white people).  The kids are I think most of the volunteers have been female because the boys seem quite fascinated with my arm and leg hair… 🙂

We have been using our business training to help out here and have started work on a number of projects that we’ll write about in our next post.