nicholas

Thank you for all the wonderful, encouraging e-mails! I have no time to write everyone back, but wanted to assure you that I have been sending your greetings to “the team” and taking to heart all the kind words you have expressed.

There is one person I’d like to respond to in this forum, however. Josh from Kansas City has a pen pal here at St. Mary Kevin’s. His name is Opio Nicholas – in the US we would call him Nicholas. He kind of stole my heart last year when I was here, and I began asking about him as soon as we arrived last week. Nicholas, I was told, was ill and was actually in the hospital. I was disappointed, to say the least, and of course, worried.

Nicholas comes from Northern Uganda. His story is much like the others we have heard from these special children, all of whom are very bright and very talented. He told me last year that his parents were killed by the LRA rebels. He is only nine.

I have continued to ask about my little friend and have been told he should be out of the hospital before we leave. Yesterday I was in Gulu; when the team reconvened for dinner, Jane and Lonnie began telling me about this kid they hadn’t seen before showed up for art class. Jane asked him (yes, it was Nicholas!) to start by drawing on the group mural she had taped to the wall. Before long, she said, all the children in the room had stopped what they were doing to watch Nicholas draw.

Josh’s mom had told me that Nicholas draws pictures all over his pen pal letters. In fact, Josh sent over a present for his African friend – a sketchbook and pencils. Josh, you wanted to know if Nicholas liked the gift. I have a feeling he’s ecstatic.

Today Jane will arm him with canvas and paint. She thinks the work this young boy will make will be amazing.

I have learned that food is really the number one problem at Mary Kevin’s. From day to day, Rosemary is not sure that three meals will be provided, where the food will come from and if she has the money to pay for it. The children are often hungry when they come to art class or to therapy.

Well, these children are mostly ALWAYS hungry, literally and figuratively.

We’d like to think that we are filling them up this week and that skills will be passed on to the teachers so that the process of “nourishing” continues after we have gone.

As far as the food goes, Change the Truth will place more of an emphasis on raising money to be earmarked for beans, bananas, cassava, sugar, corn and tomatoes.

And as far as Opio Nicholas goes, he is feeling better, and I bet last night he dreamt of colors, lines and shapes. Josh, I also bet he’ll be first in line to get into the art room today!