The Collage Foundation: Travel

Journal 4:
Rays of Sunshine: The Children of Sunrise Village

Though above ground, the small office at Sunrise Children's Village feels more like someone's basement. From its cracked window, I can see Eva and Silvia walking up the path for the afternoon's lesson. Silvia is working on math and Eva wants to know more about world geography. As they circle the puddles hand-in-hand, the image of the two teenagers strikes me -Eva is a Burundian Hutu who fled to Uganda earlier in life than she can remember. She lived for several years in a refugee camp before finding a home here at Sunrise Children's Village ten years ago. Silvia is a Rwandan Tutsi whose family was slaughtered in the genocide of 1994. Somehow, Silvia survived and went to live with a distant uncle in Uganda. He tried to farm her out to profit off of her labor, but instead, she found a home here at Sunrise as well. Neither knowing their mother tongues, the girls speak the together in main language of Luganda. They were too young at the time they fled their countries to be able to tell me their histories. The world politics and human nature that led them to be together, hand in hand on this path, are still too abstract and overwhelming for them to process. I'm not even clear just how aware they are that their ethnic groups have been in brutal conflict dating back to the divide and conquer tactics of European colonization. It doesn't seem to matter here and now.

Eva and Silvia are just two examples of the children here at Sunrise Village. Each child has his or her own miracle that brought them here - thanks to the generous and loving heart of Victoria. Four years ago, Victoria took in just three children who were desperate cases. Today she finds herself with 55 children, whose previous circumstances are as disparate and diverse as their personalities. Victoria retired early (she's just 50) from a career in the upper echelons of Ugandan politics, which included positions ranging from District Manager, overseeing one million people, to most recently National Security Advisor. Despite the prestigious positions, she felt that she could be of more use in facilitating peace and mitigating the effects of the two decade long civil war outside the government. And that's how Sunrise Village was born.

Each day, we practice handwriting with Evelyn who was badly burned in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons. The homes in these camps are all built just a few feet away from one another. With thatch roofs, one small blaze can mean mass incineration. But this blaze was no cooking accident. Though the blame for the fire was ostensibly laid at the feet of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, the group's leader denied the charges. It was the first time he ever denied any act. The uncharacteristic denial lead many to believe the military itself was responsible for setting the blaze. Evelyn's mother also survived and recuperates here at Sunrise Village. She vividly re-tells of soldiers pushing people back into the flames as they tried to flee.

Evelyn loves to trace letters and color pictures. Her hand is burned into a deformed position that makes it hard for her to grip and control any writing utensil. Her head and the entire right side of her body are badly burned, but healing really well each day. Previously, she was unable to extend her left arm fully, because it had burned the same way she held it while cowering from the flames. After a surgery, which was generously paid for by an international sponsor, she is now able to fully extend her arm and plays with the same zeal as the other children. She will often stand outside our window and say our names or just pace back and forth until we come outside with the markers. There are six others who have just arrived from the North. Their parents were either killed or abducted by the LRA, and they had nowhere else to go. Victoria found a place for them here, though her larger goal is to create a similar home in the north so that the children do not lose their language and culture. Victoria is not from the north-she speaks Luganda and is of an ethnic group that makes up 35% of the country, who live mostly in the south near the capital of Kampala.

Diana changed her name to Patience recently because she believed that it would bring her better fortunes. After losing her mother at the age of two, she was forced to live with an abusive stepmother before fleeing to the streets where she had greater security. For about three or four years she survived by begging for money or managing to find a place to wash dishes for food. Sleeping in the open, under a veranda, she has endured rape and sexual assault. Victoria reached out to Patience and many others on the streets. Once trust was established, they joined her at her home. Patience takes me to play basketball where she has no qualms about joining the boys' game (and barefoot no less!). On the way, we leap over the muddiest spots of the path and she tells me about her life on the streets with uncanny wisdom, courage and perspective. Many of the fellow street children who first came with her to Sunrise Village have since returned. Not Patience. She now thrives at a competitive boarding school and has goals of becoming a journalist, actor, tailor and beautician! She recently honed her beautician skills by braiding Neela's hair.

Patience eked out her existence on the streets outside of the fanciest hotels, but most street children remain confined to slum areas. Victoria took us to one such place called Katwe. A handful of the children at Sunrise came from Katwe and hundreds more children there need a home like Sunrise Village. As we walked through the streets, Victoria handed out sweets. The children shook our hands, coming in for a closer look at the mzungu (white person). Like most children I encounter here, they examine the hairs on my arm and ask "Howareyou?" as though it is one word. I respond "Balungi" and they laugh and say that because I used this one word, I now know the language of Luganda. Forty-five of them stay with a woman who in Katwe. This woman provides a place for them to sleep and, evidently, enough food for them to survive. Many of them go out on the streets during the day and return for shelter at night. I marvel at what motivates this woman who is doing this solely because it has to be done. She mentioned that a major reason she does this is for the girls-so that they have shelter, thereby reducing the chances that they will be raped or abused.

Grace came from this woman's home in the Katwe slum. She is six-years-old and loves to write letters to people. I will ask her questions about what she wants to say and then transcribe her answers. She is one of the fortunate ones, who have a sponsor in England. Of the 55, ten have secure sponsors and ten more have sponsors that are in question at current moment. Grace takes my Franz Kafka book and, leading with her finger, picks out the words she can read. She likes contests in making faces and most of the day she and her friend Jackie look for ripe mangoes to snack on, leaving sticky orange circles around their smiles.

Edith follow Grace's lesson. She is thirteen-years-old and just learning to read. We use old books from the 50's as our basic reader. They feature the adventures of a middle class white family in the UK. It is not the most enjoyable reading, nor relevant to her life, but it is on her level and our resources are limited. Her dedication is inspiring. She refuses to leave when the next child arrives for a lesson. She will sit in the shade, working her way through the stories again. Now that she has discovered the power of stories, she is determined to access as many as she can. Her entire family died in a suicidal church burning by a fanatical cleric in 2001. The clergyman committed suicide by fire and took his entire congregation down with him. All somehow bizarrely related to his belief in the Ten Commandments.

Another dozen or so of the children here at Sunrise Village are AIDS orphans. Some are positive and happily participate in our soccer matches. For me, I'm just learning the sport and they are my patient teachers. Ronald participates in the soccer games, but is far more interested in chess. Neela and I are teaching the game to him. He finished number one in his 7th grade class and asked me what I knew about Oxford and Cambridge. He asked if they were the best in the world, because that's where he wants to go.

It is almost Christmas and there is much excitement in the home. Much of the talk is in hopes of having meat for the special day-a rare treat here where most of the daily diet is beans, banana, cassava, rice and whatever fruits you can find and pick. We will remain here until early/mid January when the children begin to return to school from their vacation. We then have plans to do some documenting of internally displaced persons. This will require more work in the north, as we investigate how and why people leave the north for the slums of the capital city, Kampala. What we find will be used for advocacy purposes, organizing for displaced communities and also for a summit on the war in July of '05. We also hope to find a way to visit Rwanda in the coming weeks as we continue piecing together a better understanding and perspective of the region.

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