Uganda: day three

Today we hear from Ann:

I have spent more than 10 years working with abused and traumatized children. I have heard terrible stories and seen the lasting impressions. I have developed some effective skills to help me handle my own emotions; today the skills were not enough, and I was brought to tears. It started with a picture of a gun, drawn on an inexpensive piece of muslin. This 10 year old girl from Northern Uganda, drew what to some would seem like random pictures; a baby, a house, a mother, a bed, a gun, a tree, a flower. The child had been given the task of drawing a picture of her memories on a cloth. When I asked her to tell me about her pictures she smiled, appeared non-chalant, and labeled the pictures as they appeared. I thought there had to be more… so I said, “tell me about the bed.” Her smiling face clouded, but her words remained strong. “The baby was asleep in the bed, I was asleep in the bed and my mother woke me up yelling, that I had to get up or they were going to kill me. My mother put me outside the house, my mother was killed, I lived because an old man picked me up and started running with me.”

So began my dance with tears. The heat in my eyes was intense as the warm moisture built. Her beautiful dark eyes met mine, and I had to touch her hands. At that moment, I had to reach to her in a way that my words could not. I looked down at her cloth and saw the flower and tree and remarked, “some things keep growing - you are living and growing, your mother would be happy to see you growing. She wanted you to grow.”

This type of story continued over and over today. Day 2 at the orphanage was the day I had the privilege of working with children from Gulu and Northern Uganda. I met 28 children today. Their stories were remarkably the same, over and over. It was unforgettable.

The children ARE growing at St Mary Kevin’s. The children are being nurtured; they are safe. I believe that this young girl’s mother would be happy with the work that Rose Mary is doing.