"... And People Need Help."

While touring through Kampala today, I found myself at the top of a mosque tower. From there, three young girls were waving to me. I waved back and gave a huge smile, it was an exciting moment. Then, the girls started running towards the mosque. I looked at Kaserra and asked, can we go meet them? He said of course and we spiraled our way back down the stairs. We met the girls and, fortunately, one of them spoke quite good English.

Her name was Elizabeth and she was with her two sisters. She was only eleven years old, the others being ten and three. After talking for a few minutes with the girls, we were invited to visit their home. From standing at the top of the tower, I knew that they had come from the direction of the slums. I waited for the nod from the driver and we began to follow Elizabeth and her two sisters.

It was a short yet rather difficult walk, up and down steep hills, past the wild goats, and into a different world. We passed many slums with several people walking out or looking at me and Kaserra. We walked down a long dirt path with slums on both sides until the girls stopped. Elizabeth, with a great smile, looked at me and said this is my mother. The woman turned and gave me a large smile, welcoming me to enter her home. The home was smaller then my bedroom at home, perhaps 8x8. Inside was a couch, some pictures on the wall, a television and two boys. Kaserra and I sat, as there wasn't exactly standing room, and we were joined by the family. The mother, Elizabeth, two younger girls, and the two boys.

We talked for over an hour. The two boys were 20 and 18, both wanting to become engineers. The father was at work (on Sunday) and the two eldest siblings, both girls, were 'away for school'. Elizabeth was unable to hide her smile when she told me about how she hopes to become a doctor. I learned a great deal about the struggles with money and HIV from the family, more then I have learned from reading over the past years in preparation for this trip.

To attend school, they explained to me, cost 47,500 shillings a term. As there are three terms, the cost is nearly 150,000 shillings per year. 1USD is about 1,550 shillings, so a year of school is, to round, about $100. Give or take on the school or level, this is a fair average from my understanding. Elizabeth and the 18 year old boy were in the same level of education, P6 (equivalent to grade 6) and I asked if I could see some of their work. Elizabeth was more then proud to open her book which was covered with check marks and scientific drawings. The most recent page on the boy's book had abbreviations of months in English, he was missing March and October. I helped him finish.

The youngest of the girls sat on my lap and played with my camera for most of the time. Her name was Soniya and was three years old. Kaserra and I drank the water the mother gave us, which was paid for an hour walk away and then boiled when brough to the home and refridgerated. While talking, we jokes as Soniya had my camera glued to her face and was taking pictures, not realizing her hand was covering the lens. The funniest part was that the camera has no view finder!

On the way back to the mosque, and to the car, the children joined us. Elizabeth was walking next to me and asked me if there are primary schools in Canada. I said yes and she asked, if I was there, would they let me go. I said yes and she asked, so will you take me with you? I had no idea how to react so jokingly responded, your mother would not be happy with me. She looked up at me with a big smile, "My mother would be very glad." I knew that she meant her mom would be glad that she had gotten out of this life, away from poverty, into a world of opportunities.

Elizabeth's smile will not leave my mind. Her smile can be seen in each and every picture that was taken with them at their home and during our walk. I have no doubts that she will, one day, be a doctor. She told me, "Doctors help people. And people need help."