July 8th 2010

We are greeted in the morning by Shamim and surprised by three guests. Fiona 19, Bridgette 14, and Hadija 11. Unexpected? Yes. But welcome nonetheless, all of whom are Lela's younger sisters except for Shamim of course. We headed off to another sister of Lela's, Stella 16. I met Stella three years ago while staying in kiwanga orphanage, part of the organization, Children of Uganda. Stella has a face that you rarely, if ever, see. Its a soft spoken, raspy voice followed by eyes that you can't turn away from.

Arriving at her secondary school, looking back on it, we are very surprised that we weren't completely shocked. We walked into the headmasters office and asked permission for a visit. Stella walks in as if she has been called to detention. I will exchange the following moments for anything. Her face was an expression I have never seen before and will never see again. I will not describe it here as it is personal and there are no pictures so I will stop with that here.

Stella's secondary school looks as if it had been bombed. In shatters, wood everywhere, garbage and soot. It literally looks like the aftermath of a war zone. Young women are bathing in the open and the whole schools smells of urine. The chalkboards are scratched with inelligble words and scribbles. She was proud though. At this point we had put forth the effort to have a straight face. The kitchen was made of sticks and wood covering old giant rusty bowls that contained brown lumpsomes that were clumped onto the plastic bowls of the children lined up. We refrained from taking pictures only out of humanity.

Stealing Stella from her last class of the day we walked through the gate of the school next door. In sharp contrast from Stella's school, these grounds were well maintained and we were cordially greeted by the school's administrators immediately as well as two toddlers clinging to Kelly's hands as we toured the school grounds. Well kept latrines, beautiful classrooms, a library, a filing room and even a computer lab not to mention the school's own generator left us with hope and a lot to think about. We learned SO much today and it is sure sign that we will continue to learn everyday that we are here.