Writing Contest Entries and Giraffes :)

I wanted to write a poem that was written by Apio Lynette Ogwang Aine. She attends St. Mary's College, Namagunga and is 16 years old. This is her poem entered in as the AIDS topic. She is one of the two winners from her school.

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TONIGHT.

A woman cries tonight,
Her only son, dead,
Her only daughter cries,
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman weeps tonight,
Odious acts committed by a depraved mind,
Upon her daughter,
Her only daughter defaced,
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman wails tonight,
AIDS has sunk its teeth into her family,
Ebbed it away-one member after another,
And now they all lie in the shackles of the eternal sleep.
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman moans tonight,
Cursing the life she did not ask for,
The only momento left of her loved ones
Is a few dreary graves.
She cannot sleep tonight.

A woman sobs tonight,
Repentant to her creator,
Psychologically disoriented by her guilt,
And looked upon with scorn
By those around her.
She cannot sleep tonight.

The woman is silent tonight,
She sheds no tear,
She weeps not,
Wails not.
In an inaudible whisper,
She fades away.
She sleeps tonight.

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That is just one example of the entries we've received for the writing contest. These kids aren't afraid to tell it how it is. I'd love to write some of the stories but they are longer so i'll have to do that when i get home.
Here is another poem written by Opio Denis. He attends Parents International College, which is a secondary school. He is in grade Secondary Six.

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THE RITUALISTIC CORRUPTION IN UGANDA

Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!
Why do you exist in our society
making the youths to suffer.
When I turn around and
look at each and every angle,
I just see life full of corruption
leaving the economy of Uganda
in a desperate moment.

The poor are taken advantage
by the rich class.
The dull are taken advantage
by the clever people.
The nonmaterialistic are taken
advantage by the materialistic people
making the Ugandans to
live a misery life.

Corruption,
You are found everywhere
at schools, homes, hospitals,
churches, places of work and
everywhere I don't know.

Neither lawyers nor members of parliament,
neither teachers nor doctors,
neither sheikhs nor pastors,
are corrupted people.
Making Uganda to be like
a desert-drought stricken
yet not a natural phenomenon.

If corruption can be
managed and combated,
then Uganda will
rise and shine from
Genesis to Revelation.

Yes, fellow Ugandans,
corruption is a combated issue
Therefore, my comrades
outside there,
let's get united, join our hands
together and combat
this social evil, corruption.

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That boy is probably around 15 years old. Many of the stories we have received tell of personal experiences with disease, corruption, lies, teenage pregnancy, rape, etc. It's been almost shocking sometimes to sit in the office reading about these things. But of course, there are positive ones as well. Many students wrote about the things they love about Uganda. The range of entries we got was quite large. I'm so excited to meet the winners from each school! We're planning on writing up a bio of each winner and take their picture to put in our book of stories that we'll try and publish when we get home.

Well, my weekend was really awesome! We went on a SAFARI! After 6 hours of traveling to get to Murchison Falls, we made it! The waterfalls were incredible!! So much power and erupting water. Crazy cool. Early the next morning we got in a legit safari jeep with no roof and drove right through the grasslands! It was really cool to get to see a different landscape of Uganda. I've said that Lugazi and everywhere else I've been in Uganda is a lush, green tropical jungle. Well, the best way I can describe where we went on a safari was how it looks in LION KING with the cool trees and savanna land. So cool! I saw tons of giraffes, elephants, warthogs(aka pumbas), african cobs, antelope, baboons, fish eagles, water buffalo, crocodiles, hippos oh my! pretty much the ONLY african animal we didn't see were lions. But one of the other jeeps in our group did! their pictures and videos are so cool! jealous, but really glad they got to see them.

Tomorrow we are heading up north to GULU! Its the war torn region of Uganda where the LRA were a couple years ago. There are tons of IDP camps for children that were abducted. Ever seen the documentary Invisible Children? Go to youtube and watch it if you haven't. That is where it took place, up in Gulu. The youth need a lot of counseling and we're going to do a lot of service up there until Monday. It'll be a 10 hour bumpy taxi ride but it will be worth it in the end! I just decided today that I'm going. Thats whats nice about Uganda. You can just up and go take sporadic trips to anywhere in the country without prior planning.

Talk to you all later! Bye!