life as it is...

so life here in uganda, is well very ugandan...and some aspects are quite disturbing to me...mostly on the hand of childrens rights and child abuse. this post might be slightly disturbing and it in no way describes how all or even most ugandans feel about these issues, however they are two instances that have really caused me dismay in recent times.

now, i'm not sure if i should write most of this or not, but i feel like people at home should hear about some instances that have really disturbed me lately so they realize that some of these things actually do happen and its not just stories from news agencies and people wanting to take your money and run...

a week or so ago, i heard a story about a child who came to a saturday program for orphans with badly burned hands and all the treatment that the young boy had was that his family put a handkerchief on it. the burn was so bad that his hand started scabbing over the cloth and then his hands were attached to the cloth. when asked when he showed up to the program (since he couldn't participate in anything with his hands so badly injured) they were told that his mother forced him to go (i mean why should a child be at home if he cant work??). well a week later i heard the disturbing part of this story --> supposedly (and this is all from the village rumor mill so we all know how that can go) his mother wanted to punish him so she poured kerosene on his hands and lit them on fire as a way of disciplining this child. now, i dont get it, but i know that the boy shouldn't have had that happened to him.

then later this week, again something happened that i couldn't do much about...i was walking to work and i saw a big man caning a young girl (maybe 3 or 4 years old)...and it wasn't a light hit, it was loud...i heard the contact about half a mile away. so by the time i got to the nursery school where this was happening the girl was crying and the man was yelling at her. i walked over (which i probably shouldn't have done) to make sure the girl was okay and the man walked away. i then thought about the situation and looked around. there were about 40 children at school and not a single teacher was there. I found that interesting, and found a man that works at the organization that runs the school and asked him about the situation. this second man, who I know personally, said that he didn’t know what was going on (which I know is untrue, but people never admit to anything that makes them look bad)…I then asked him who the other man (the one that was punishing the girl) was…I was told it was the girls father and she deserved a beating because she didn’t want to go to school. This confused me a little since the father was beating the child at school (yea I don’t get everything here). So I asked the man that I know, who works there, if he could do me a favor…I asked him if he could have a teacher present whenever there were children at the school (because aren’t the teachers supposed to be there teaching anyway?)…he told me he would call a meeting to discuss the issue and steps would be taken to correct it…well the next morning when I was walking by that school again (at 7.30a) there was not only 1 but 2 teachers standing outside with the children. Now I cannot tell you if this change is permanent or only temporary, but maybe these children will be safe for just a little while…at least while I’m around maybe?

Now, I have to remember something very important about myself – and that is that I cannot change the world…I can’t even change Uganda or the policies of Uganda…but if I influence one person to change for the better that means something right? I can’t walk by everyday and see children crying in fear, or children dropping out of school because they are too scared of what might happen when they get there. me and my American upbringing has me thinking that school should be a place where children are safe. The world is a scary place and you can’t protect them from everything, but shouldn’t they have at least someplace where they can go without fear of being raped, beaten, forced to work, etc….shouldn’t that be a place where their livelihood is being improved…maybe a place like school? I think I’m done ranting now. Things will be okay. I’m done now.

Well I hope everything there is going well. Things here with me are good. Miss you all…