Unjust

Over the past couple of weeks we have befriended a couple of boys; Zack, Amis (ah-mees), and Abadoo (ah-bah-doo). Zack has been a special friend of the Fishers for a little while now. The first time I went into Jinja town I met Zack when he came up to our van window to say hello. Zack and his friends cannot be older than 13 and they live on the streets. They survive by making as many friends as possible. No matter where we are in town, they spot our van. We ofen joke that Zack probably has a 6th sense, a sense that specializes in finding muzungus (white people). Since we have been spending a lot of time with these boys lately, we have realized that all of their friends are white or of a different color, never Ugandan. Here in town, the people of Uganda look at these street boys as if they are scum. Many times I catch store owners or other people of Jinja giving the boys dirty looks. So you can see why Zack, Amis, Abadoo, and many others are drawn to everyone else except for other Ugandans.

The past couple mornings these 3 boys have come to our gate, before we are even awake. Our guard, James, told us that sometimes they come around 6 am. Depending on what we have planned for the day, we usually let them in to play for a while. After all, they are young boys who just want to play. They don't want to be on the streets, it has to be exhausting! 

Zack riding around Noah and Josie in the pool.

Abadoo riding the ripstick 

Zack and Amis being silly

Abadoo, Zack, & Amis. I tried so hard to get a nice picture of them, but they kept cracking jokes.

 Since these boys are younger, the older street boys take advantage of them. We have seen both Zack and Abadoo with red eyes where they have obviously been beat. They come to our gate with torn clothes and not always are they wearing boy clothes. They wear what they can find, and they keep what the older boys don't steal from them. 

The other night we went to dinner at The Keep, one of our favorite restaurants in Jinja. When I walked out to the van with Trayton, I heard my name being called through the dark. It was Zack, Amis, and Abadoo. They must have been walking the streets and found our van, so they decided to wait for us. Zack told me they were hungry. Here I was, stomach bloated because I was so full, and Zack told me he hadn't eaten all day (which probably wasn't true, but I'm sure he hadn't eaten much). I told them to wait till the rest of the family came out and we'd find them some food. There was a meat-on-a-stick stand right by the van, but Zack said it wasn't a good one. He would take us to the 'goody one, goody one' as he likes to say. You've got to admire their persistence. They may not get food often, but when they do they want it from the best place. So, 10,000 Ugandan Shillings later (about $3.80 USD) all three boys had a chicken on a stick and a chapati for dinner. A chapati is kind of like a thick tortilla, when they're fresh they are very tasty and very filling. Not a bad dinner if you ask me. Kidist was very jealous she couldn't have chicken on a stick too, that is her favorite! After we got them food, we asked them to show us where they sleep. Turns out they sleep right next to a wall on some cardboard. They sleep next to an older mad man. They call him their scurry, or their gaurd. They say he protects them, and will beat whoever crosses them at night. 

The other morning the boys were at our gate again. James let them in for some jack fruit from our tree in the back. While they were eating, Zack informed us that during the night soldiers raided the streets and picked many boys off the street. Zack, Amis, and Abadoo said they had to run, or they would have been caught too. We're not sure exactly where the soldiers take the boys, but we want to find out. James told us it's somewhere outside of Kampala over water, possibly on an island. We also heard it could be just outside of Jinja. We're pretty sure they are taken to a place that is similar to a prison. There is a problem with the prisons here in Uganda. There are many many people in these prisons and many of them are unjustly put there. Most of them could go years without a trial. It's so hard to think about how unfair these innocent boys are being treated.
As for now, we are trying to hunt down a primary boarding school for the three of them. We want to find a school that will help them be as successful as possible. Having a warden and head master that understand where the boys are coming from is very important too. We hope we can find a school soon so we can start preparing them.
Please pray for our new friends. Pray that we can be a light unto them and that we can be a good example. They know that we want to help them but they have a huge issue with trust, and I don't blame them. They have told us many stories of people that started to help them with something then they had to go back to the states and left them in the dust. We want them to know that we will do all we can to help them, but somedays things don't always go as we plan or language translations are wrongly interpreted so it makes it hard.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers. You guys rock!

Grace & Peace
Kendall