7-3-07 my cup runneth over!

Today was an incredible day. It started with saying goodbye to the HEALS volunteers, not so incredible. Then I went to the IC office to meet a mentor, Evelyn, to shadow for a bit. IC’s scholarship program is really great and each student not only has to go through an application process and maintain strict requirements but they once accepted they get school fees and financial aid and a mentor. This mentor keeps track of the student and his or her progress and makes sure everything in life is going ok. I got to walk around with Evelyn to three houses to talk with the guardians of the students. Evelyn, like most mentors, has about 30 students she is responsible for. She visits the homes at least once a month and meets with the students at least once a month. It is a lot of work but really great! The first house we visited was a woman who had 8 children but only 3 were actually her biological children, she said she takes care of “desperate children” These kids aren’t even related to her! She just finds out about them through different situations and takes them in. She was really an incredible lady. It is amazing how giving some people are even when they have nothing. She spoke about the Lord and how she just knew that is what He wanted her to do. I told her she had a beautiful heart and she smiled. The next was Florence. We spent the most time here. She is a mother of 5 or 6 and her husband recently died. She was a stay at home wife/mother but has recently had to take up farming to support her family. She was extremely hard working and proud. You could tell that she missed her husband and that things were not easy but there was just something about her that told me she would be ok. She is strong and a fighter and I know that she will make it. Every day around 10:10 we get tea at school and Florence insisted that we stay for tea and mandazi (a fried dough thing that is soo good in the super sweet African tea). So we did. I asked Evelyn if a lot of the guardians gave her stuff when she came because it is such a cultural thing. She said that some did but she tried to get them not to and they usually didn’t after the first few visits. Then we went to the last house. It was pretty far into the little area we were in. We came upon a blind man that was apparently the uncle of the student. When we walked up Evelyn told him that I was there and he was very happy to have me there. He went back to his hut and brought out chairs for everyone. Apparently he wasn’t always blind but became blind from some sickness.
As we walked from house to house I talked with Evelyn about her work with IC and her life in Gulu. She told me about how she came to work at IC and that she missed her family who lived in another part of Uganda but she seemed hopeful that they would be able to move to Gulu soon.
I left the office to go teach my one class for the day at Gulu high. Then Patrick and I went to lunch together. Here comes the good stuff. Here is what I actually wrote in my journal when I go home from lunch:
It’s 3:45 and I am sitting in the living room exploding on the inside! I had the most amazing exchange with Patrick today. We had class (I introduced foldables) and then we went to lunch. Until now, Patrick and I haven’t interacted much on a personal or emotional level. We walked together to lunch and talked a little just about how the program was ending and such. At Bora-Bora we missed the people we were going to meet so it was just us. We walked about the time we have shared and what we have learned. He shared that it wasn’t him learning new things but being reminded of what he already knew and ho to implement it. I told him that I have learned so much about how he can work with so many and with so little and the responsibility of the teacher in the lives of my students. We also shared a lot about our personal lives. He shared about his family and how he misses then and I told him I would pray for them to be able to come here (his wife and children still live in the town he came from because he was just transferred and she might be able to get a job in Gulu). He asked me about my life and I shared a little of my story. One of the best parts is when we shared our memories and we both laughed about when I fell the first day!
It was such a great conversation! It really showed that this program can be successful and that there was good that came from it and was just awesome!
I went home and amy and I made no bake chocolate-oatmeal cookies for our last round table at Gulu high. We had some good discussion about me coming back and what that would look like and how to do it to best benefit the program and the teachers involved…hmm