Robert is home! At 7:00am on Tuesday morning we were awoken
to chants of “Uncle Boberti!” as Robert’s taxi dropped him at home, fresh off 2
full days of traveling from Houston to Entebbe, by way of Qatar. The kids were
still a little sleepy so the greetings weren’t as energetic as I’d been
anticipating, but everyone was smiling ear to ear. Knowing how attached we’ve
become to these kids in just 3 months, I can’t imagine what it’s like for
Robert to come home and see all his kids again.
One of the things Robert worked on in the states was
updating the organization’s website (www.malayakahouse.com). A long-time volunteer actually did the new
site, but Robert spent a lot of time writing up the pages and information.
Please check it out to learn more about the kids and the businesses. For each
of the kids Robert wrote a story of where they came from and what they’re like
now, plus each story is linked to an album of photos. He still has 10 more bios
to write, but the ones he’s done so far are incredible. There’s also
information about each of the businesses, the role of the aunties, and a link
to his new blog. With the blog he started from the very beginning and
eventually, when he’s given a back story and current story of every child, he’s
hoping that he can turn it into a book.
On another note - only 2 weeks until Conor flies to Entebbe, and just 4 days before he comes we have a service trip from Champlain College arriving! May will be exciting, but also bitter sweet because Evan and I are heading home at the end of the month. Evan's accepted a position with Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta region so we're coming home a few weeks early. I'm thrilled to see my family and friends so soon, but it will be incredibly hard to leave here. But, I still have a month so we'll save the tears for now. If anyone would like to donate items to the Malayaka House, I would love for Conor to bring some puzzles, building blocks, DVD's, books, etc over here, so any of these things that you're looking to get rid of would be really helpful for us!
And lastly, it's been a while since I put up pictures do there's a bunch below. But check out the website for even more info and pictures!
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This is Amina – she’s 3 years old and, as you can see, is
absolutely adorable. She’s funny, playful, and really sweet. Amina spends her
days running around the house with Elijah, Mercy, and Diego while all the
others are at school. She and Elijah are the best of friends and they’re
virtually inseparable. Unfortunately Amina is HIV positive, but she is
receiving the best care around. They say she gets sick a fair amount, but we’ve
only had to take her to the doctor once in the last 3 months. Treatment and
ARV’s are free in Uganda, and she’s been on medication since she was a few
months old.
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This is Jacinta on the left– she’s 19 years old and manages
both the pizza business and the cheese business here. She came to Malayaka
House about 18 months ago, with an 8 month old baby and another on the way.
When Jacinta was just 7 years old, she left her family out of fear that she
would be kidnapped by Joseph Kony’s army. A few years later, after living on
the streets, a woman found Jacinta and offered her a job doing some housework
for a family in Kampala. She was still young, but this would provide her with a
safe place to live. But, by the time this woman brought Jacinta to Kampala, the
position had already been filled. So, after some more time looking for refuge,
Jacinta ended up at Mercy Home, an orphanage that originally had good
intentions but was beginning to fall to pieces. After a few years at Mercy
Home, where the kids were treated poorly and internal abuse was around every
corner, Jacinta fled. A young man who had also run away from Mercy Home invited
Jacinta to live with him and he promised to find work for her. She was 16 at
the time and felt she had no better option, so she moved in with him. At first
he continued promising to find her a job, but she quickly became a servant to
him. He made her clean the house, do the dishes, and prepare dinner when he got
home from work. Eventually she got pregnant and gave birth to her daughter, who
she named Mercy. When she was pregnant for the second time, a friend came to
let her know that Robert had visited Mercy Home and was looking for her. Robert
had met Jacinta when she was 15 and even then he was impressed with her
determination and work ethic. Back then he had been trying to help Mercy Home
improve, but now he knew that was hopeless and he wanted to take Jacinta and
her baby to Malayaka House. Jacinta immediately left the young man she had been
living with and moved to Malayaka House. Now she’s an incredible role model to
all the kids here, especially the 10 other girls that also moved here from
Mercy Home last year. She’s a quick learner, she’s motivated, and she’s one of
the funniest people at the house. She works hard to manage these businesses,
hone her skills, and take care of her beautiful babies, Mercy and Diego.
Namatov (or Tov or Tovu) is to the right of Jacinta in the
picture above– she’s 19 years old and manages the office at the Malayaka House.
She oversees all 3 business and has various roles within each; she does all of
the accounting; she keeps all Malayaka House paperwork organized; she helps
with homework every day; she manages the store room; and she finds time to have
fun. She enjoys secretarial work, and she’s incredible at it. She’s also
bubbly, enthusiastic, hardworking, and motivated. The children call her Teacher
Tov and they have the utmost respect for her. What she says goes, always. She
takes good care of all the children here, and ever since she was 10 years old she’s
been the caretaker for Naiga and their younger brother Hakim.
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This is Naiga – she’s 17 years old and manages the craft
business. She spends her days making beads out of recycled paper, then
designing necklaces, earrings, and bags, as well as table decorations for the
pizza business. Naiga is kind of shy and hard to read at times, but she’s an
incredible listener and always takes our advice about business matters. She effortlessly
motivates the other girls and the aunties to help her business, and you can
often find at least 10 people sitting and rolling beads with her during the
school holiday. Naiga’s best friend is her older sister Namatov, and the 2 of
them are perfect compliments. Namatov wears her emotions on her sleeve, while
Naiga is always consistent.
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This is Danny – he just turned 8 last week and he’s in
second grade. When Danny was 2 years old he was abandoned in a forest and
remained there alone for 2 days before someone found him. According to Robert,
he was the most traumatized of the 36 children that he’s taken in. It took a
full year for him to feel comfortable and allow others in, but if you met Danny
now you’d never know it. He’s very social, very smart, and very thoughtful.
He’s also the best reader out of our 10 first and second graders.
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This is Malayaka – she’s 6 years old and in P1. Her other
name is Mary but she goes by Malayaka at home, despite the fact that many of
the other kids were also given the name Malayaka. We recently learned that she
actually thinks her full name is Mary Malayaka House. She probably took the
longest to warm up to Evan and I, but now we really love her. She’s funny and
wild and usually polite. She seems to get along with everyone, and her teacher
says she’s the best behaved in school. But she definitely knows how to be a
troublemaker too, and sometimes she likes to steal keys, pencils, books, etc
from the guest house. When Malayaka’s old enough to really understand what’s
happened in her life, I hope that she doesn’t focus on the terrible events that
made her such a vulnerable baby, but rather on the fact that because of her, 35
other children were given a second chance and a better life.
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This is Justine – she’s probably about 13 years old and
she’s in P4. She does very well in school, and she’s also a talented rugby
player. Justine is sweet, funny, and always happy. She loves to do any
worksheets, coloring pages, word searches, or math problems that we give her, and
she likes to just hang out in the guest house some nights. As is true with all
of the older girls, Justine likes to help Naiga with her jewelry making when
she has extra time on the weekends or during school holidays.
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This is Hakim – he’s 14 years old and in his first year of
high school. Naiga and Namatov are his older sisters, and they’ve all been
living at Malayaka House for about 3 years. Hakim wants to be a veterinarian
when he grows up and he works hard taking care of his animals here. Everyday a
couple of his friends come over and they care for Hakim’s pigs, goats,
chickens, ducks, rabbits, and pigeons. Hakim’s favorite things right now are
rollerblading, skateboarding, playing computer games, and watching action
movies.
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This is Juliet – she’s about 13 years old and she’s in P5.
Julie loves rugby more than anything, and she’s extremely competitive. You can
often find her climbing dangerous high in the trees around the compound. Her
and Sharon climb up to cut down jackfruits that they share with all the kids. Juliet
does well enough in school without much effort, so Evan’s been trying to
motivate her a little more because she has so much potential in the classroom.
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This is Mercy – she’s 2 years old, the daughter of Jacinta,
and Diego’s older sister. She loves to be held, but she’s also very
independent. Despite the fact that she’s a relatively new talker, especially in
English, I can tell that Mercy’s a really funny kid. She’s inherited her
mother’s good sense of humor. Mercy likes to color, play with Elijah & Amina,
and listen to me read the book ‘8 Silly Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.’
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This is Viola – she’s about 17 years old and she’s in her
second year of secondary school. She’s dressed up in the picture because she
was going to a friend’s wedding. Viola came to the house right after Malayaka
was born and Bobo was taken in, so she’s like a mother to them and many of the
children. She is funny, articulate, energetic, and she is wise beyond her
years. Viola dreams of being a pilot when she grows up, and she always has that
goal in mind. She’s also a trained masseuse and just gave me an excellent
massage today.
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