Arriving at Miryante Orphanage

Miryante Orphans Home is situated about 80km from the tourist town of Fort Portal in Western Uganda. Claire and I arrived at the home on the 1st February and were greeted by a couple of the caretakers – the people employed to look after the children and cook the food – at the gate. After receiving a very warm welcome we were then on our way up the dusty path into the orphanage itself. Halfway to our destination we bumped into a bunch of children who had come running down to help us with our things. We felt guilty that kids half our size were lumbered with our extremely heavy bags, but they refused our protests and insisted on helping. If there is one thing that these children are, it is delighted to help. There is a well in the middle of the grounds and whenever Claire and I require water we stroll down with our jerry cans only to have them snatched from us by whichever children are the quickest to react. They then proceed to pump the well, filling the cans for us, before straining hard as they carry them up to our little house on site, often in pairs sharing the load.

Built on the hillside overlooking some breath-taking scenery consisting of huge hills, gigantic boulders and rocks, and luscious green tropical forests, Miryante Orphanage is peaceful at this moment in time. Though this is most certainly not usually the case as the orphanage is home to 122 orphans on a normal day. However, during the school holidays those who do have some extended family or friends who can care for them are sent away. The extended holidays that we are currently in the middle of, due to the upcoming elections, mean that there are only around 30 children on site right now. Most of the children at Miryante have lost their parents to a range of things from HIV and other diseases to violence, however, many have simply been abandoned by parents who could no longer offer them the care and safety they require. How hard it must have been for these parents, desperate and distraught, to have left their children for good, knowing they’d be better off at the Orphanage than in their care.

Owen and Gadaffi helping us at the well.

Despite their tragic backgrounds, some of which were particularly saddening to hear, the 30 or so children that are around seem happy on the surface and love to play games. The younger boys are particularly playful, with one rather snotty and dishevelled four-year-old lad called Fred taking a liking to Claire – he can be seen helping Claire hand wash our clothes in the top picture on this page. Fred is small and scruffy, often accompanied by a few flies, resembling Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoons. But Fred with his perennially runny nose, is always up for a laugh and is constantly falling over. Whenever the older kids are playing football, Fred will come charging in to try and win the ball, missing it entirely and crashing to the ground, before bursting into laughter. I have a feeling we will miss him when it comes to leaving.

On the day we arrived Claire and I met Joseph, a local man and retired teacher who is the manager at the orphanage. Constantly smiling and with many stories to tell – some of which the other members of staff think he may embellish slightly – Joseph showed us around the compound. We were shown the kitchen with its giant wood burning fires and huge saucepans, before being taken to the food store, the library and then the children’s dorms. Tatty bunk beds and not much else made up these living spaces where the children sleep. We were told not to enter as the mattresses have bed bugs.

After seeing the orphanage itself we were then taken to the Technical School that is also on the grounds. The Technical School was set up by the orphanage as a means of helping the children who didn’t make it to secondary school to learn some useful skills. And, in a clever move, the Technical School is also open to children from the local village who have to pay a small fee, raising some much needed extra funds for the project.

The final stop on our express tour of the grounds was our little house which was located at the vey top of the compound. On our way we walked passed freely roaming cattle, pigs, goats and chickens. The orphanage is attempting to be fully self sustainable, with a range of animals and a huge variety of fruit and vegetables being grown onsite. The children help with the farming and you often see kids as young as 10 acting as makeshift cattle herders with their sticks, moving the entire herd out of the centre of the compound into the surrounding grassland.

The house that Claire and I were allocated was rather quaint. We were pleased to have our own space after living out of bags for the past month or so. We had three bedrooms, a large living space, a kitchen with a gas hob and two bathrooms. We also discovered that we had no running water and no electricity. But with torches, candles, paraffin lamps and a water well nearby, we were sure to be fine.

Claire and I settled into our home for the first night and before going to bed we took a look out at our amazing surroundings. After the madness of Kampala over the past week or so, we were incredibly releived to be somewhere so green and so perfectly peaceful.

Our little kitchen

Lounge