JUST AN AFRICAN BOY

Sharing life story, learn from others and move on to the best choice of life! It is possible to be successful no matter who you're or where you come from, just a strong faith deep in my heart. I am from the dust, to a life saver. Sometimes i don't know myself and i just need someone to remind me. I don't know my age, i don't know my father and my mother is like a shadow!! I wonder why i am living and what for is my life, some day i thought i can find a purpose in me, and now i am a baby seater. I have 20 children in One Family House and there i found this woman, but always i think she is a girl and i wanna 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

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.

Kristen Johnson visited me in October, 2013 and published this story in her church newsletter in November, 2013 in Vernon, Vermont, USA