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Burim Blog #4 From Uganda–Youth Volunteers!

Mar 17, 2011

This last week was kind of slow.  Monday and Tuesday, March 7 and 8, were both public holidays. Monday was election day for the youth MP’s and Tuesday was International Women’s Day, and schools were closed both days.  So I spent all day Monday with the Youth Volunteers, doing training, playing music for fun, taking pictures, and getting to know each other better.

Nine Volunteers had said they would be there, but only five came.  The others contacted me and said they had work to do or health problems.  Even though there were only 5– Isaac, Magada, Irene, Mercy and Collins–we still had fun.  We started with singing songs and playing instruments outside, and the kids and adults who were near us came to listen to us and thought it was very cool that we did that.

We have never had a day like this in Uganda before, so it was very good for the volunteers to spend a day differently than they usually do.  These teenagers are amazing. They are growing up being very responsible. They don’t drink or smoke, (and drinking is a big problem here in Uganda–I see young  boys and girls they drinking a lot, day and night, but our youth volunteers don’t) and they also help their families work on their farms or do various jobs to get money to pay their school fees.  They all love our program and are very happy to be part of SMF.

We have a new Youth Volunteer in the program.  His name is Ojok Isaac, and the other volunteers welcomed him and

were so good to him that he was very surprised.  You can see in all the pictures he looks like he has known them for a long time.  Isaac was a student in our program at Gulu Central High School.  He is 18 and still

has 2 years to finish High School.

Irene is one of our best volunteers in Uganda.  Her mother lives in Gulu but her father lives in Kitgum (2 hours from Gulu).  Irene used to live with her mother, but she’s been staying with her father lately because her mother could not pay for her school and the father is the one paying.  Even though she is now living in Kitgum, Irene comes to Gulu very often now that I am back and she helps a lot.

Mercy goes to school in Gulu and she lives at the school.  She has one day of the 3-month school term for her family and relatives to go and visit her, but she is able to leave the school after lessons finish to come for her training with SMF.  Mercy lives with her mother when she is not in school.

Magada also goes to school in Gulu. He is from another district but his father is a police officer and he has been transferred to Gulu.  Magada doesn’t have his mother living with him, only his father who is not home most of the time. Magada is now staying home because he did not pay all of his school fees yet and the teacher sent him home. His father has been sending money to his other son who is in University, and now is working very hard to get the money so Magada can go back to school soon.

Collins was the first student in our program and he is now the oldest.  He is working part time as a plumber and still looking for a full time job, and even though he is working, he is always willing to help the program to make it better.  Collins teaches, he translates and he comes for his training.

On Tuesday I met again with the volunteers, but this day they came for their individual training, and it was very good because they kept me busy.

Gulu Central High School wants me to go to their school and make an announcement in each class so that more students will join.  I will be going there next Tuesday to do this.

Pabo IDP Camp was also good this week. I went there early and I stayed there longer, to make sure I could meet with all the groups, and since we are adding one more group out there I needed to make sure we have the schedule all together and we understand what time each group has to come.