For Five Hundred Shillings

Gloria and her grandmother

Written Jan. 26, 2013
Well, SOVCO has been having a hard time getting back to normal after the Christmas holiday, mostly because of that big black snake I told you about in my last letter. At first after the accident our director Tonny thought the pain in his chest was nothing, but as time went on, it began to bother him more, so that he couldn't stand straight. So the local clinic, which apparently didn't have the equipment needed to treat him, sent him to a medical center in another city for several days. He is now back to work and feeling better. Here is one of his "slice of life" stories, which I love, again involving Gloria, and five hundred shillings, which is about twenty cents:

"Today when I was riding coming back slowly from the office to my home, I met our child Anek Gloria who was on the side of the road trying to look for the lost five hundred shillings that her grand mother gave her for grinding the millet. So I had to stop and she told me while crying and having fears that her grandmother may beat her for loosing the money. I had to sympathize with her and gave her the five hundred shillings and she went back where the grinding machine is to collect the ground millet and immediately she received the millet flour, she started smiling and I was very happy that Gloria's fears went off and she said, "Uncle, thank you very much and God bless you Uncle." This is what our daughter Gloria said to me today in the evening when I was coming back."

One issue that Tonny and I are always discussing in our letters is the matter of the quality of the local schools, which is not very good. For example, the nearest school to the SOVCO office, where several of our children go, has about 1000 students, and eleven teachers. Each classroom can fit about half the students at a time, and even then, it is crowded. So at any given time, half the students are at recess.

Tonny would like to begin sending some of the children to town schools, so that when it comes time for them to take their entry exams for secondary school, they will do well. Trying to make up for lost educational opportunity is difficult.

Transportation to town is expensive , so we have talked through several options (one, renting a house in town where the children could live together with house parents, and another, sending some of the children to boarding school). At this point, we have decided to choose a few of the children whose home situations are the most difficult, because of mistreatment or having a very old or disabled guardian, and send these children to boarding school in Gulu, the town where Tonny lives. He will continue to visit them to follow their progress and give them a sense of connection to their homes.

At this point only two have been accepted, Aaron and Hamis, both of whom are very bright, sweet young boys. Aaron's mother has to work far from home, and usually leaves him with neighbors. Hamis is living with a woman who is about 100 years old and blind. The boarding school tuition is higher than local school tuition, but we think that our $20 a month will just about cover tuition, room and board, and putting a bit aside for medical care, but not the extra gifts that they have been getting each month.