Some friends we have made...

I have done a lot of reading since arriving here and Lynn and I have met a quite a few locals. One thing I notice more and more is that the personal stories of locals we have met often mimic the very story of Africa itself. This is a story typically rooted in misfortune or tragedy yet, at the same time, full of promise and potential and hope for the future. My story is about four friends we have met in our short time here who all have their own stories to tell that are extraordinary from our perspective, but unfortunately, all too common from theirs.

David is the first local I met here and he has been mentioned in our blog already. He is a 31 year old who has devoted a large part of his life to reaching out to kids in need. He does this because, as a child during the Idi Amin years, his parents were thrown in jail and he became a street kid. He lived on the streets for several years before a Nigerian missionary took him in. Luckily David’s story does not become more tragic as his parents were released from jail when Amin was exiled in 1979, but that experience convinced him that he needed to do everything possible to keep other kids out of that situation. He moved to Nyamitanga village three years ago because he heard that it was a chronically under served area of Mbarara. He rented a house and opened it up to the kids as a place to come and socialize, have fun and stay out of trouble. He has taken in eight orphans; two of which were infants abandoned on the floor of his outdoor latrine. His mother was kind enough to take the infants to her home to raise them as hers was more accommodating to such young kids. The other six live with him and are part of a group of about 40 boys and girls that make up the “Nyamitanga Kid’s Club”. This club is the beginning of a dream that David has to eventually build a clubhouse/orphanage to accommodate either abandoned or orphaned children as well as any kid that just wants to come and hang out. Lynn and I have a rule that we don’t like to give out cash for a couple of reasons: First, is that we don’t have much and second is that giving out cash sets a bad example that fosters a complacent attitude of entitlement. We, instead, like to help in other ways. We give them soccer balls, I help coach them and Lynn gives the girls health talks. David and I are currently working on how to acquire funding for the long term dream and we recently submitted a proposal to the local Rotary Club to help fund our research. We look forward to hearing from them.

Moses is a 24 year old kid who is the official coach of the “Kid’s Club” boy’s soccer team. I help him out and, as of late, I have starting coaching the girls. Moses grew up in the Capitol city of Kampala. His father had many wives and many kids and Moses often lost favor based on which wife was in favor. He was treated very badly and so he took off to live on the streets. He ended up in Mbarara where David found him and counseled him to get off the streets. David found him a job with a friend and Moses became the kids’ coach because he is a good soccer player. Unfortunately, as is typical here, the friend employing Moses shut down his business a couple of months ago putting Moses out of work. With no education and few skills, he is now living off of David, which means he walks 10K round trip to David’s house for one or two meals per day. Surprisingly, Moses’ English is very good and he was telling Lynn a couple of weeks ago that he was very interested in learning how to use computers. Lynn and I felt that with his English skills he would be able to find a job as long as he had another skill to go along with it, so we are funding him to take computer classes at a place that will also try to help him find a job.

Dennis is a 22 year old kid who is actually from Rwanda. His father was killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide which forced him, his mother and siblings to flee to Uganda to live in a refugee camp just outside of Mbarara. These camps still exist today and his uncle continues to live in one. His mother was finally able to repatriate and go home to Rwanda in 2004 after ten years in the camp. It turns out Dennis is a pretty smart kid and he was given a scholarship through a UNHCR (United Nations High Council on Refugees) program to go to college in Kampala. He started veterinary school there, but decided that he would rather do pharmacology and so he ended up back in Mbarara where I met him at school. Receiving a scholarship is obviously better than not receiving one, but I could not believe the small amount of money given to him and how he manages to live off of it. He is given 590K shillings per semester for books, room and board. His books and room cost 450K leaving him with 140K to live and eat for four months. 140K is about $90USD so typically he eats one meal per day at a cost of 800-1000 shillings (50-60 cents) and then supplements that with some fruit and juice, and yet he always manages to bring us at least one pineapple when we have him over for dinner. Dennis is a great kid, very friendly and outgoing and determined to make his mom proud by finishing college.

Finally, we have Henry. The Henry situation has been a difficult one for us as well as our other expat friends living in the compound. Henry’s tragic story is a recent one that involves his sister. She had traveled to Kampala to do some shopping and was robbed not too long after getting off the bus. Unfortunately, these robbers not only took her money, but for some deranged reason also threw acid on her, which severely burned her face, arms and upper chest. This was almost a year ago and she has not been able to come home from Kampala because that is where the best hospital is. Henry has been on a mission ever since to raise money for her surgeries, but she mainly just stays there waiting for foreign doctors to do free procedures when they come through town. Henry is very persistent in asking every new white face for money which becomes everyone’s dilemma. This is a case where you realize you cannot solve every person’s problems and you have to just be OK with that. So we stuck to our money rule and, instead, have turned him into our banana bread connection. His other sister makes unbelievable banana bread which he typically gives to some of the newly arrived expats as a friendly gesture before asking for money. We love this banana bread so I asked him how much it costs his sister to make one and he said it was 5K, so I told him we would pay him 8k per loaf and order one per week. Banana bread day is easily my favorite day of the week and I have convinced 3 other people (after tasting it of course) to set up the same deal with Henry. This way he makes some extra money for his sister and we get a weekly treat. I work on every new arrival to help Henry expand his business and we are adding eggs to his delivery route this week. My next goal is to convince him that it can become a small business and that he should pressure his sister’s suppliers to sell her cheaper ingredients. So much for getting away from business….oh well.