Leaving Miryante Orphans Home

Our time at Miryante has, sadly, finally come to an end. In a couple of days we will be leaving the orphanage and moving on to the next step in our journey. During our time here we have met some interesting people. Doreen Tigah, the driving force behind the orphanage, is a wonderfully energetic and inquisitive person. Kind and caring, Doreen was always working night and day for the children. She was always keen to ensure that Claire and I were occupied and having fun and even cooked us a lovely meal one night of pork and rice. Doreen’s partner Silas was also there that night and showed us how to make chapattis, the Ugandan way. They were delicious, even if Clarie’s was a rather odd shape.

We also got to meet Joseph, the manager, at the home. Talkative and full of stories, some of which we had heard more than once, Joseph taught Claire and I enough Ortorro – the local language here – to get by and also gave us our Empakkos or pet names. Claire was Abwali and I was Amooti. There’s also Billy, the social worker here at Miryante who knows all about the individual children’s situations and also works hard for the home. Always game for a laugh, he was a cool guy and was fun to hang out with. As well as these guys we also got to know some of the care takers – Lucy and Acholi – and we also became acquainted with Douglas and Bonventure, the two friendly security guards.

Claire and Fred

And whilst the staff here are very friendly and made our stay enjoyable, it was most certainly the children at Miryante who made it truly memorable. Fred Bougere, the scrappy little chap, always laughing and seemingly indestructible. Fred is always falling over, but never seems to get upset. When playing football with the older lads, we often ended our game with a penalty shootout. Fred would always run over, call my name and then mime taking a penalty. This was his way of asking if he could take one. We would always move the ball forward about 10 yards until it was practically on the goal line, but I still think I only saw him score once. Still, we are most certainly sure to miss Bougere’s joyfulness and recognisable chuckle.

Then there is Gadaffi, or Neema, as the staff have named him. He was found by a priest sleeping beneath a car in the street one night. It transpired that he had been sleeping rough for some time and apparently had no family. He was brought to the orphanage where the staff asked him his name. He told them he was called Gadaffi. They were pretty sure that wasn’t what he was Christened as, and gave him the name Neema, however, everyone calls him Gadaffi still. Gadaffi has always been the first one to greet us in the morning, no matter where he is. We always hear a loud “Hi Adam, hi Claire” and turn to see him waving. Kind and considerate, Gadaffi does, at times get frustrated and can lash out though I have seen him picked on a little bit by the other boys. I think that perhaps made my sympathy for him grow. Good fun though, Gadaffi is always up for playing and when he is enjoying himself he always lets out a high pitched squeal, which is rather unique. According to Joseph he often falls out of trees.

Adam and Erina

Rwandan brother and sister, Edwin and Erina, are another two who we will most certainly miss. These two are quite possibly the most adorable children we have met and they are great fun to be around. They have spent a lot of time playing game with us and Erina in particular is very clever. Especially when you consider she is merely six-years-old. Despite there being an obvious language barrier, I feel that whenever we are together she seems to understand what I am saying. I have a feeling she will go far in life, so long as she gets access to a decent secondary education, that is unfortunately costly. If the children are able to get sponsored by donors, or if the home can find the funds, then decent education following primary school is an option., but only if the money is able to be found from somewhere.

As well as these younger children, I have also spent a lot of time playing football with a number of the guys. Vincent, Nathan – who is great fun and always making everyone else laugh, Alex, Joseph, Richard, another Vincent – referred to for some reason as ‘Chairman’, Abel, Peter, Owen, Colin and Sadam were all decent players and thanks to them I got to play football pretty much every day for a month.

Claire playing cards

Miryante Orphans Home cares for children who are in need. And we were reminded of this on our last full day. Doreen came in to speak to us about a child that would most probably be joining the home the following week. Young, only six-years-old, the child was walking to the local cinema to watch films. When his father found out where he was he ran down and brought the child home. He then proceeded to tie his feet together with banana leaves and burnt him with fire to exact a horrid punishment. The boy was in hospital and the father was arrested and put in prison. Doreen was going to go and see the child in hospital when she got a phone call saying that a police official had been bribed meaning the father was released from his cell. Therefore, Doreen needed to leave right then to check on the child and make sure all was well. It was a horrible and saddening reminder of the reason that this place exists. We hope that the children here are able to have some success when they are older.

We may have struggled at times having no electricity and drinkable running water, especially in the first week of our stay, when our morale flew up and down. But come the end of our time here at Miryante, Claire and I were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We got to cook for ourselves, with ingredients that we’d bought ourselves at the local stores and markets. We also got to do an awful lot of reading, most of it by torchlight, meaning we were able to get through a LOT of books. Claire even read The Stand and enjoyed it to my delight. Entertaining ourselves in the evening was also, at times, a challenge, due to the lack of resources we had available to us. However, with some scissors, cardboard and different coloured pens we were able to manufacture our very own chess set. We have loved our time here. Peaceful in the evenings, as the sun set behind the mountains and trees, we’d often sit outside as the sky turned orange eating fresh pineapple, or washing our clothes by hand in a bowl of soapy water fresh from the well. We are sad to leave, though excited about the next step on our trip, and feel that Miryante will always feel like a little home away from home.