I'm a Streetwalker…
Yup. It's true. I am writing to let you all know that I am a streetwalker. There is an organization that we are volunteering with called Child Restoration Outreach (CRO). It is a NGO for street children that feeds them one hot meal a day, provides them a place to bathe and wash their clothes, and offers Christian counseling to the children in the hopes of reconciling them to their families (in cases where they actually have a family, which some of them do not). Yesterday was my team's day to volunteer there and we chose to arrive early so we could walk the streets and invite the children to come to the center. When we arrived we were asked "are you here for the street walking?" So, yes, I am a streetwalker!
It has been an amazing week here in Lira! Yesterday at CRO included streetwalking, having black ants (very painful) thrown at me by the children, a great conversation with a street boy named Isaac (who later gave his life to Christ when talking with Sarah and Jordan), a "roundtable" discussion with the kids about what their lives are currently like on the street, and finally, a moment of acceptance with the children as I got to address their group. These kids are pretty fantastic! But I want to tell you quickly of their living conditions. Sure the term "street child" sounds awful enough, and I'm sure you all realize that it means these kids are homeless and living on the streets, but that awful term simply doesn't do their lives justice.
The first place we stopped on our street walking journey was the equivalent of a dump. There was a grove of trees behind an area where many people were selling various items on the street and in their small shops. This grove of trees included a small cow pin complete with cows both inside and outside the pin lounging around in the trashy grove. In amongst this grove of trees, trash, and cows was a rather large group of young boys ranging from 8 to 22+ years old. In and amongst this group of rowdy boys was one girl, Zubella approximately 12 years old. We were told that many of the street children live and sleep there. In trash. On dirt. In trees. 30 or so boys…and one girl. In all of Lira, the street kids we spoke with are aware of approximately 8 street girls. The majority of street children are boys and yesterday we worked with about 40 of them.
Later on I watched one of the boys sleep. This boy is frequently picked on by the other street kids because they tell us his head is messed up. Our team thinks he may have epilepsy. As I watched this boy sleep on the dirty ground with black ants crawling all over him and flies swarming his face and the open wounds on his feet and legs (no shoes), I realized that kind of rest was perfectly normal for him. I first thought to myself that he must be horribly uncomfortable sleeping that way, and then I remembered that this is his life. He isn't uncomfortable because this is just the way it is. You have to wonder, does he even know what comfort is? He is maybe 10 or 11 years old. These thoughts caused my stomach to twist in knots.
I hope that paints a small picture of the conditions that these children call 'home.' I hope also that you will pray for them. When I addressed them as a group and tried to share a little bit of God's love with them, I got cheers and claps when I mentioned that I would tell people back home of their stories. Why? Because sometimes all they need is for someone to hear them.
For some fun photos, view my other blog at http://idwellinhope.blogspot.com!
