So my laptop busted out on me so I can't put up photos quite as easily due to RUBBISH internet :( So I won't bother with writing about our safari because you really need photos to SHOW you how awesome it was! But here's a little teaser - we got charged by a Silverback Mountain Gorilla and got stuck in a ditch surrounded by a pack of lions. I kid you not.
So by now, the parents have experienced quite a lot!
Their job for the last week was to spend the money they’d fundraised for on my mum’s birthday last year.
Valley View was first on the list this time. The parents had offered to concrete the floors in the brick building. It will make all the difference for a) the safety of the kids b) the teachers won’t be tripping up when they’re teaching c) the kids won’t cut their feet anymore if they don’t have shoes.
Next was spending some of it at ASCO. When we were on safari, all the boys moved into the ASCO house and spent their first night on mattresses! They had a big party (I was so gutted to miss it) with good food, dancing and Will entertained them with fire sticks and fire poi. However they don’t have what every house should have – mosquito nets, especially as it’s coming into malaria season now. The old man went with Moses to Soft Power Education at Bujagali and managed to barter his way to getting mosquito nets for 3000/= (around £1, Nomad mozzie nets for £25 are a rip off!) and they bought the kids a TV and DVD player. Admittedly a TV is a luxury for here, but realistically, keeping 22 boys entertained 24/7 with activities just isn’t possible! And it’s the kind of thing ASCO would never be able to buy with donation money anyway.
We were all expecting the boys to find it difficult going from living on the streets with no rules to living in a house where they need permission to leave the grounds but actually they’re settling in really well! Kanyike, a seven year old who used to come to the project but stopped coming as he was ‘controlled’ by the older paraffin crew street kids, came back too – although seeing such a little boy on a come down and sleeping for 3 days solid is pretty heartbreaking. But at least he’s back now and has fitted in really well.
Moses, Wes (another English volunteer at ASCO), my dad and I went to Massese, the Karamajong village where some of the boys come from, to get our final permission form signed. Peter P’s mum has disappeared and whenever ASCO’s been to Massese in the past his dad’s been passed out drunk in the middle of the afternoon. This time we went in the morning and we found him sober so we got him to fingerprint the form (he can’t write) without any fuss! As ever, we were surrounded by children, but this time we could compare the ASCO kids with the Massese kids. As well as Peter P, we’d also brought George along as he wanted to give something to his mum, and James as our translator. None of their clothes had rips in, their hair was cut short, they weren’t dirty, they weren’t ill, they didn’t have fresh scars from seeing witchdoctors, or whip marks on their backs from their families, they were very healthy, smart boys in comparison, and that’s down to Moses and Sarah at ASCO because four months ago they were worse off living on the streets than the Massese kids we saw. But seeing that poverty, which is pretty much as poor as you could imagine for a whole village, always makes you feel really helpless and you don’t really get over it for the rest of the day.
I did my own little project with the kids this week too! Jess, from BCS, told me about her mum’s art exhibition called Heartfelt. The aim is to get 500 people to decorate a 20 x 10cm heart according to their most heartfelt memory, then attach a piece of card explaining the story. We had to adapt the project slightly mainly because the kids can’t write and we have limited resources. We asked the kids to draw their favourite memory on a tea stained heart in pencil, then Amos, Dan, my mum and I added colour to the drawings with paint (the kids can’t be let loose with paint, they would’ve just painted the whole heart blue or something…) then added pen outlines. On the attached cards, we stamped them with the ASCO stamp, added a photo of each boy and asked them to sign their names. I added their full names and ages which was quite a mission to get – Kanyike said he was 39 years old, and James, roughly 13 years old, said he was 2 years old – none of them have birth certificates or have ever celebrated their birthdays… But I think the hearts look great! Hopefully they’re done right and that’s what we were supposed to do
Then it was time for the family the leave, I think everyone was genuinely sad to see them leave! All the boys keep asking when Uncle Will’s coming back then bust a few break dancing moves, Moses now refers to my mum as his English mum and my dad now owns a hideously yellow African shirt from Moses, Dan and Amos…it can only be a sign of affection!
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