Street Kids.

8.22.09
Yesterday I was sitting in a mzungu restaurant with Bosco, waiting for a birthday cake. Bosco and I were sharing a cinnamon roll, which has become my source of sanity against all the beans and rice I eat. Outside stood a young boy, who clearly was living on the street, his clothes were tatter and worn and his face held a look of hopelessness. I, honestly, had barely noticed him. Bosco watched the boy outside. Then he turned to me and pointed to boy, pointed to his cinnamon roll and said “auntie?” . I nodded that it was okay and bosco ripped his half of the cinnamon roll in half. As Bosco walked toward the boy a visable change in facial expressions took place. The Ugandans working at the restaurant looked on with surprise. Bosco gave away half of his cinnamon roll and exchanged a few words with the boy. A few minutes later Bosco asked me if he could give the boy some avocado from his lunch. I nodded my head again, speechless at the genorisity exhibited in a 3 year old. He showed both the boy and I the compassion of our savior. It had not even occurred to me to walk over and give anything away. I was so inspired. Which led to a lot of thinking. Bosco left with a volunteer and went back to Iganda. I had to wait a few hours for the cake to be finished. Sitting on Main Street in Jinja by myself I watched groups of street kids stalking the white tourists and volunteers. They literally would swarm the mzungus and ask for money, food, anything really. Normally, I get frustrated with the persistency of these kids. But instead, as they were walking by I called them over. The relieved mzungus looked confused at why I would want them to come to me. They had just spent a few minutes trying to get them to go away. The young boys sat with me and asked for money at first. I simply ignored the plea and kept asking them questions in Lusoga. I learned the boy’s names and spent a long time talking with them. This all made me come to a conclusion. I want to start a street kid outreach in Jinja. The raw reality of living on the streets is something that has always fasionated me. First I will need to finish school, but if you want to help me let me know!

Last night we were talking with some of our staff at Musana. We have a BIG problem. Snakes. Ever seen Kill Bill? She uses an African snake to kill some people. Well we have huge cobras living in our compound. Not to mention all the small poisonous snakes. Oh and we have a GIANT MONITOR LIZARD. Please google that. It is a huge scary lizard. The reptile problem at Musana scared me more than anything. Most of the giant snakes don’t come out until dark but the giant monitor lizard comes out whenever it feels like it. At first we thought it was a komodo dragon but after more googling and guide book reading we found the giant monitor lizard. I am pretty scared. Snakes and lizards were all I dreamt about last night

Look at this!

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS255US255&q=giant%20monitor%20lizard&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi