Slums

I can't believe that I haven't even told you about the slums yet. That's where we go every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from about 1 pm to 4:30 pm. We give food o the kids there and medicine, which is VERY basic. We clean wounds and take kids to the clinic if they have malaria or something else majorly wrong. Our first day in the slum was the hardest thing I've ever done. I knew it would be hard but I didn't expect to go through that degree of emotion. I cried for a day and a half. I don't even know how to begin to describe it all. The smaller kids are in Chisenyi (not sure of the spelling), which used to be the main area where African Hearts would serve. They have 2 tiny rooms (basically the size of small storage sheds) for the kids to sleep at night, with locks on them to keep them relatively safe. African Hearts used to work here with 2 other organizations. However, due to recent rifts between two of them, they have not been able to work here and have started serving in another slum, the Gulu wall, a few blocks away. This has been a real challenge for many reasons. One- the kids from Chisenyi do not like to come to the Gulu wall because the older boys are there and they fight with them a lot. There is also a language barrier betwene them because the older kids come from another area and speka a different language. Two- the older boys at the Gulu wall fought having anyone in their territory for awhile. Now they tend to sit back and let us feed the little kids but don't engage with us much. They still take the food, though. ;) These kids have not opned up o us much so we have not been able to really fgure out were a lot of them ave come form or how we could better serve them.
Yesterday, we saw a huge breakthrough with these kids. After serving food, they all gathered around and listened while Paul, one of the African Hearts leaders, spoke to them about our new plans. We just secured a room at a local church, where we will have the boys come (rather than go into the slums, they will come to us). We will better be able to play games with them, stock up on medical supplies and lock them up there, and have a larger safer area in which to work. Not to mention that the kids won't be allowed to smoke there so it will give us a break from that. After telling the kids this, they all started telling us things they'd like to have, such as a canvas to provide shelter for them at night (they sleep and live along a wall, in an open area), and jackets for the younger kids. It was amazing that they opened up to us and that they requested things for the younger ones, who they usually don't let in. Then they let us pray with them. It was a huge answer to prayer for this team, I know.

Raquel and I have become especially attached to one boy, Shafique. He grabbed onto me on the first day and would not stop telling me, "I want to go home with you." It broke my heart. When we had to say goodbye that first day, he cried. The next time we saw hime, I was standing next to Raquel and another white person (I don't remember who) and I saw him come over to us immediately and look closely at each of our faces til he saw mine. He lit up and I waved to him and he ran over and gave me the biggest hug. He just held onto me for awhile and I wanted to cry. He attached himsel to raquel that day, too, and now ever time we see him, he sticks with us. We want so badly to do something for him but are bot sure what. We want to get him off of the streets and in a home. He's such a sweet boy, with so much innocence still left that it breaks my heart to see him every day on the streets, where he is going to becomemore and more hardened by that life. We are praying for him each night and for God's leading us in what to do for him while we are here.

Everyday that we walk into the slums, the kids run to us right away and grab whichever hads are free.They walk with us over to the Gulu wall. The entire way, men standing on the streets call out to them and us and laugh most of the time. I don't understand exactly what they are saying but I have the impression that's it's not very flattering. They make fun of us and of them for associating together. It is a funny sight, when you think about it. One thing that I still am not used to is the attention that we get- negative attention. Men call out to us everywhere we go. Everyone makes comments, asking us to marry them, trying to get us to stop and talk to them. The craziest thing is the amount of times we hear people say, "Mzungu". All it means is "white person" but EVERYONE feels the need to say it as we walk by. It's like stating the obvious. Can you imagine people doing that in California? Pointing out every race as that person walks by? It's totally bizarre and completely tiresome after 3 weeks of that.I can't wait to go home and be invisible again.

It was cute because on Monday, at the Gulu wall, Collins, one of our leaders, told us to introduce ourselves officially to the kids. He said, in his soft spoken Ugandan voice, "Tell them your names so that they know it's not 'you' or 'mzungu'."

Ok, gotta go. Sorry for all the typos but no time to edit today!