End of the School Year
November 7, 2010

If you recall, six of the students Sr. Patricia taught in P7 have been sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph through the education donations given by many of you, the readers of this blog. We are happy to tell you that all are doing exceptionally well! Four of those students transferred to Ocer,a new Jesuit school, at the beginning of the second term.

The school year is over for the four who transferred to Ocer Champion Secondary School, and three of these students have stopped by our house, beginning on November 3, to speak of their progress and gratitude for what they are receiving. Without you they would not be in school at all. What follows are the stories of two of these children…

By way of explanation, re-settlement issues are rampant. The government is encouraging people to return to their original villages instead of staying in the larger, crowded areas where people felt safer during the time of LRA invasions. The students we are helping won't even remember these villages since they left them when they were babies or toddlers.

Samuel is a tall, bright, and handsome young man (age 15) who had scored Aggregate 12 at the end of Primary. That score put him in the top division! He greeted me with a big smile and proudly informed me that he thought he had done even better on the exam he just finished. …And I have no doubt that he did just that! But then his face crumbled, and tears sprang to his eyes…. When he left school the previous day and returned to his “home,” it was locked with a padlock; the neighbors told him his family had moved back to their village. He has not grown up in that village, so he is unsure where it is, but knows it is quite a distance. He also knows that he is probably not welcome to join them. As an orphan, his “family” is a drunkard uncle who has been abusing Samuel psychologically, and even helped another relative to steal the money Samuel had managed to save. His heart was heavy from being rejected once again. He had slept on the ground that night, and had had nothing to eat since he left the school the previous day. After feeding him, I asked what he would do now. He was going to return to the school and try to stay in the place he had been staying as a boarder, hoping they would keep him for now…. How will his story end?

The second boy came the following day. Jimmy is also a 15-year-old who has grown about 4 inches over the year! Jimmy is bright, scoring almost as high as Samuel. He thinks he managed to get an Aggregate of 4 on this exam! That is really placing high expectations on himself! I immediately noticed that his affect was not as happy as he would normally appear. When asked what was going on in his life, the tears began to pool in his eyes…. Jimmy does not feel welcome back at his home. Even before he left for school he was not able to live at the home of his mother and father because his cousins had moved in and there was no space for him; he had been staying with his grandmother! But now, another set of cousins from Kampala had settled in with his grandmother while he was boarding at school, and he was told that he should find another place to sleep. Knowing you are being rejected again is very hard for a person to handle, especially if you are only 15. At least his family is willing to feed him when he is around! He is also choosing to go back to school to see if he will be allowed to stay there for now.

Both boys are being encouraged to find a male Acholi adult who might be able to mentor them. (As Americans, we really have no knowledge as to how to help them. Our education funds can’t build them a house or provide them with all of their meals, and the three of us can’t be a parent figure over the long haul.) I am hoping that a mentor can guide them to a reasonable future plan. Both boys have said that they wanted to work during the holiday; they would make bricks and sell them…. This is the season to start doing that. They aren’t lazy, but certainly need emotional support and direction. And, of course, they need a place to sleep and food in their stomachs. Please keep these two young men in your prayers.