JUST AN AFRICAN BOY
Sharing life's stories and learning from others . . . inspiring one another to always press on toward the best choice of life! It is possible to be successful no matter who you are or where you come from. This is a strong faith deep in my heart. . . . .I am from the dust, and now I live a life dedicated to saving children so they can have a better life. Sometimes i don't know myself and i just need someone to remind me of who I am. You see, I don't know my age. I don't know my father . . . . and my mother is like a shadow!! Sometimes I wonder why i am living and what my life is for! In the years past, I wondered what my purpose was, but now I know. I save children who are like I once was . . . alone and scared with no food or shelter. I now have 20 children living in One Family House. We are a family and this is my purpose!! It was there that I found this woman, but always I think she is a girl and Iwanna call her that... This girl is Kristen Johnson.. Let's share life on here..
African Time
Today I am rather worn out, but for good reason. lol. My friend Moses M. was abandoned by his mom when he was 3 years old and she has just recently been in contact with him. She is dying of something having to do with the kidneys so he asked if I would go with him to visit his mom. He said it was not very far away. lol And then the adventure began.
So, in the morning before I had to meet Moses M to go see his mom, Moses K and I spent some hours together at a cafe that has free WiFi. (I had been told about African time and that people just show up when they show up and that is that, but I didn't know if it was really true or not until today.) So we decided to walk back and after we had been walking for a while, I asked Moses how much longer of a walk it would be back to the convent. He said about 10 min. So I called Moses M and told him I would be there in about 10 min. because he had a taxi ready for 12:00pm. Well, the walk was not just another 10 min. 25 min later we show up at the convent. I run inside and use the bathroom and grab some water and food and run back out because Moses M is waiting for me. When I got to where he was, he smiled and started laughing and he said - "I see you are American on the outside, but you are African in your heart!" And so I found out that African time is indeed a real thing and I fit in very well here. lol And we missed the taxi. :) So, since we missed the taxi, we had to get another one. Well, here in Uganda the taxi drivers get out of the car and position people in very odd contorted positions so they can fit as many people in the taxi as possible, because they make more money this way. So we started off with 7 adults and 3 children in the taxi plus the driver- which was do-able for me because Moses M said that where we are going is not far. (well I also learned this day that "not far" and "we will be there soon" do not mean what they mean in America.) So the taxi takes off. I am on the driver’s side in the back seat with two mothers holding one child each, another woman, a man with a child and Moses M. There is one lady in the front seat. Well, a little way down the road we pull over and I I am happily thinking that some people are probably getting out of the car, but it turns out the taxi driver is stopping to pick up more people. So he looks at me and says, "Stand up". So I stood as much as I could in a car and this young guy gets in and sits on the seat behind me and now I get to sit on his lap. The taxi driver has also put another passenger into the front seat of the car. So now we have 7 adults and 3 children in the back seat of the taxi and two people in the front seat and the driver. At this point I am so squished that my head is almost out of the drivers side window. So we travel on down the road a little while longer. The taxi pulls over. Luckily, some people were getting out of the car (it was one of the mothers with her child and the guy I was sitting on.) My heart actually felt rather relived, but the relief was short lived. And then one of the biggest women i have seen walks around to my side of the car. I pushed over as far as I could and I am thinking there is no way she can fit in here too!!! There were only a few inches from my leg to the door. Well, she got in, though she sat right on my legs. I must have made a face that told Moses I was not ok because he yelled, "She is not OK!!" I pulled my legs as much as I could out from under the woman and she looked right at me and said, "Girl, you in Uganda now!! Get used to it! This is how we do things around here!!" lol So, onward the taxi went. I heard Moses M say something to the driver in Luganda and the driver pulled over and - THANK GOD - it was the end of my taxi ride. lol
MY LITTLE COMMUNITY WHERE HEARTS LONGS FOR CHRIST
Its just more than being a person i know, she is my aunt. She is a relative! Around 5pm yesterday i received a phone call that she was dead. I was on my way from the garden, i was scared. Not so long i reached the home of the deceased, it was a moment of tears, grief and sorrow from friends, family and relatives.
I was just at the beginning of the story that had just started to fall into my hears. It was a death, we are all to die. That is death, you and i can say to our hearts if our faith just lies to Jesus. But here it was not the case, there were much plenty rumors about witchcraft practices by her co-wife. The second wife to her husband was caught earlier by the villagers performing these witchcraft near her house according to neighbors.
Domestic violence started in once a peaceful family, the children's days to school were faded up. Happiness in this united precious family was just coming to an end.
Fighting was the order of the days and a dance-hall of the nights for the accused trouble causer wife. It was becoming a family of tears and blood due to fateful nights of quarrels and fighting.
It was her heart which failed, it burst and blood flew out of the nose and mouth, it was a moment of tears where the doctors had nothing to do to help on the situation. It was that moment when the village people were triggered into cruelty.
In a short while later, one daughter fainted and was speedily rushed into the hospital. Then after a moment another younger daughter fainted too and i rushed her into the very same hospital. Then another situation began as many villagers started running to the hospital where the two daughters have been rushed in a critical condition. In the next 30 minutes all entries to the hospital were closed to all kind of vehicles as villagers blocked the way.
In the next 2 hours, both daughters were improving and soon was driven back to the home by the doctor in his luxury car. I then followed by as the car stopped in front of the house one older girl (the first rushed into hospital) fainted again and the doctor very first drove her back to the hospital where she is upto now in critical condition.
The burial is due later today in her home village where the mourners have vowed not needed to see the second wife suspected in this nonspiritual caused death matter.
How can we save the world, most especially a community like??
NAKAYENGA CATHY SIX YEARS OLD
My name is Nakayenga Cathy, i am six years old.
[laughs] and then says, i don't have shoes!! My shoes are torn.
My dream is to get a new dress and shoes. I also want school uniform
MY HEART HURTS
My name is Viola and I am 17 years old. My school is Numasa Secondary School, I am in form four. I walk over 8 km every day to go to school. This is very hard for me because most times I am late at school and after school I could come back home late. Its not safe on the streets where I walk to go to school and I meet different challenges everyday, sometimes I worry that some days I may not jump over them. As a grown girl I have many challenges and needs which I can't have in my life, I cannot even get pads for my menstruation and during those days I could miss school.
I don't always get everything I need and this is very hard for my life. I grew up in a family of five children with my beloved grandmother who died in 2011 when I was in primary six. For me ever since I started understanding and studying, I was with my grand mother. I didn't know my mother and I have never seen her coming at home to see me or to visit us.
I didn't know whether she was alive or not. Sometimes I used to ask my grandmother but even her could not tell.
We suffered a lot with my sisters and brothers because sometimes we couldn't go to school because of school fees and sometimes we could miss lunch and supper. Time reached when our grandmother was weak and had nothing to do and then we left school. We started looking for money for school fees and food to eat. Our grandmother used to sell coffee in order to get money but time came when this also was no longer possible.
I have my father but he is a drunkard man, he never paid for me school fees even for one school term but he is ever drinking whenever he gets money. We stayed in that condition for a long time.
Time reached when my grandmother suffered from malaria and we had no medicine to give her, unfortunately after three days she died. I cried asking myself why me... Why us, because at that time I had nowhere to live with my sisters and brothers and I was the first born in our father, but for them they were lucky because they had their mothers even though their mothers were poor, they can be taken by someone who can take responsibility on them.
Then, I was taken by my father where I suffered a lot because I could not eat lunch sometimes also supper. I could also stay home with out going to school. My father could go and drink alcohol whole day and send me out side from the house in the midnight and I sleep outside. But one day, a woman came whom my father told me that she was my mother. I was very happy to see her and she took me back to school. She paid for me school fees for one term and I went back to school, unfortunately, after that she went away and she was married to another man and she was very far away, also she had no money too. The following term I had no school fees and then I missed the whole of the second term. But in term three a man came whom I had never seen and that was Master Moses. He took me to SAVO – One Family House and took me back to school and started paying my school fees. But the problem is that sometimes I am sent back home for school fees and when Master Moses does not have any money. He started caring for me in all possible ways ever since 2011 until now.
I pray to God so that He give protection to Master Moses and give him blessings in everything he does to care for me and many other children in this home. We are family here, he tries everything for us although sometimes we get tired of eating posho lunch and supper everyday. This is the only cheap food he can buy. He don't have a lot of money and we are now understanding this.
I study very hard so that I predict my future, I want to be a doctor in future so that I treat sick people at SAVO and to others. I also want to help the needy people in future, this is my dream.
Well, we got out of the car and Moses goes to a little side store and buys some bread and we get on a boda boda (they are sooooo fun to ride on!! Just for the record - there honestly is no other way to get to places except for these bodaboda's so I had no choice but to ride them. But I love it!!). The driver of the Boda Boda starts driving down a little dirt road and into a market where Moses M. gets off the boda boda to buy some very weathered looking fish. He also bought me some bottled water. :) So we get back on the bodaboda and we ride miles upon miles down a dirt road and Moses finally points out the school he attended when he was a child. We keep on riding and riding and finally come to a turn off in the road that is just like a narrow path sort of in the woods. We ride down that path for a while and arrive at a small hut. Inside was Moses' mother who is very sick and she carries her mat and puts it on the floor so she can sit down. I soon see the resemblance between Moses and his Mother. Moses' mother abandoned him when he was only three years old so she is happy to see him and smiles and Moses looks on the outside like he is smiling, but inside his heart does not smile. I shake her hand and they speak together in Luganda and I know some of it is about me because she looks over at me and smiles. She let me take her picture and we move onward walking down the dirt path in the woods and not too far we find another hut and there lives Moses’ grandmother. She kindly welcomes us and we go inside of her house She has three rooms in her hut - one has what looks like some cooking supplies and one is the entryway and the other has a couple chairs and an old couch and a small table. Moses sits on the couch and I am able to take a picture of him and his grandmother together. We do not stay very long and Moses tells her we have to go and at that point she asks if I want tea. I did not know what she was saying, but Moses leans over and tells me she is insisting that I have some tea and Moses tells me he is insisting that I am fine. So she goes back into her hut and insists that we take some ground nuts with us to take home. So we took them home. Then we walk back to his mother’s hut and see her one last time and I ask Moses if it is ok to get a picture of him and his mom. He just looks at me and I tell him it is OK if he doesn't want me to. He asks me if I want the picture - I tell him, "yes" and he gets down closer to his mom and i take the picture. We stop at two other people's houses and we start our long journey back to Masaka. Moses is quiet now and will not utter a word. We do not take a taxi this time. We climb up on a bus. Moses asks the driver if he is leaving now to go to Masaka and the driver says he is. So we find seats near an open window and wait. And we wait. And we wait. And we wait some more. It turns out that the driver lied to Moses and was not leaving at the time like he said he was. He was just driving around trying to fill up the bus with passengers (as all busses and taxis do until they are full and it can take hours to fill them up with people.) So we hop off that bus after waiting so long and there is a smaller van in front of the bus that we climb onto. Moses says that the wait won't be so long to find passengers to fill up this smaller van and he was right. The driver found passengers fine and more quickly than the other bus. The van was all ready to take off, but then there was a disagreement between two men and the van could not go until it was resolved - so we sat and waited. And we waited, and we waited. Then we finally took off toward Masaka. We made it back to Nyendo, Masaka and we hopped on a boda boda and stopped at Moses M's home to get his Boda Boda and he took me back to the convent. The pain in Moses M.'s eyes is so intense. He grew up a street kid and has much hurt and pain inside of him. I recorded his story on my iPhone. He spoke for 85 min. He is 30 years old and cries often, but hides his tears. My heart breaks for him. I want to save him . . . . But I can't. 
EXTREME POVERTY CAN AFFECT CIVILIZATION IN UGANDA
I hate going to school because every time my name is the first on the list for students who have not cleared school fees. Almost every day i am being sent back home for school fees. Despite of walking long distance to go my school i am always not provided with enough scholastic materials. 
I ended up with my mother's profession!
My father is a doctor and my mother is a retired teacher. I wanted to be a nurse but after my brother doing this profession there was not enough money to take me to a nursing school because there was my little sisters and brothers who also took a huge amount of money. Teachers training colleges looked to be cheaper and that is how i ended there.
I did well in the college and after two years of the college, i started working with a private school where i stayed for almost 3 years but the payments were not good and by the time i chose to quit that job i was still demanding my salary for five months which is not cleared up to toady.
Later i joined SAVO and that was in February 2013 where i am currently practicing my profession with the most beautiful children and supporting the poor children.
I love working here but our biggest challenge is the lack of structures and enough facilities for a more quality education for these children.
Ssuubi ly'Abato Voluntary Organization (SAVO), Ssuubi ly'Abato is "Hope for children.
Our dream is responsible citizens who cause their own developments, in their households, community, country and the world at large. Where a community can root on itself to bring development in that particular area without waiting government, donors and any other incoming support from different areas ( its a build up of responsibility begins with you). This is to say " a community built on trust in itself to work together for their development". For example, a community can start up its own savings union for their development where each member has confidence and trust in one another in such developments which benefits them together.
We are starting with building children who can be trustable, honest, faithful and religious in their hearts. Raising morality in the future generation it means building a society with low levels of bribe and corruption if we can't finish all corruption but the levels of taking it can be put low in our communities. And at last we can sight developments in our communities and country.
Your support to build a better society is very much needed, no matter how small you can give; it makes a big impact to build a new better community. We can re-train our children, we can rebuild them, we can rebuild our communities and the country. This is beyond giving a better life to the needy children but also building better people for the future starting with these children.
I
“SILENT CRIES"
"When I asked him to tell me his story, little did I know the pain it would bring back to the surface of his heart and the river of tears that would flow from his eyes as he re-lived the life he wished he had never had to live. Written in his own hand, this is the story of Mutyaba Moses … a boy who grew up unwanted and unloved on the streets of Uganda. This is a story of a child whose cries were not heard by anyone … a story of a life that Love saved. This is a story of how Love changed his savage heart … a story of how he heard the silent cries of so many children around him and could not stand by and watch them have to live the life he had been forced to live. This is a story of a boy who chose to give away the little he had and, in so doing, found out that there is no limit to what Love can do even if all we have to give is so little. "Silent Cries" will be released on February 1, 2016. You don't want to miss this! Both digital copies and hard copies of "Silent Cries" will be available for pre-order on January 1, 2016 on Amazon.com. You may also contact us for a special order. Every copy of this book that you buy goes to help build a school and a home for our orphans and street kids in Uganda.
Contact us at:
Email: littlehandsuganda@gmail.com OR frommoses@yahoo.com
Phone: Little Hands of Hope: +1 207 259 6037
SAVO: +256 752 599000
Address:
Little Hands of Hope 42 Hudson Blvd.
Machias, ME. 04654 U.S.
OR
SAVO P.O Box 250 Masaka
UGANDA (East Africa)
