Life at Miryante

One evening, after spending the day in town shopping and charging our devices at a local store, Claire and I arrived back at Miryante Orphanage to the sound of drums and singing. It turns out the children had prepared a performance for the two of us. Billy,  the social worker at Miryante, told Clarie and I that the kids were annoyed at the managers for keeping us busy with work and wanted to treat us to some local dancing.

We entered the church that was situated on the grounds of the orphanage where most of the children were congregated. Two chairs had been set out – clearly for the two of us – in the middle of the room pointing at the gaggle of kids. Both boys and girls of all ages were gathered. Many of the girls were wearing grass skirts and some of the boys were wearing maraca-style instruments wrapped around their lower legs. Two children were off to one side sat at a giant set of drums.

What followed was an amazing hour of singing, drumming and dancing. Not shy at all, the kids were showing us all the moves and before we knew it, they were approaching us with their hands held out. It was our turn to join the dance. Claire made a better dancer than I did for sure – at least she was able to wiggle her backside in time with the others. But even though neither of us were up to scratch, the kids didn’t mind. Eventually, it got dark and we could barely see what was going on. However, before the festivities were to be concluded, the children had one more dance for us. Before we knew it there was one child dancing in the middle of the room wrapped in a dark blue sheet. We weren’t sure what was going on, but it was very entertaining. The kids sure loved this dance more than most, with almost all of them failing to contain their giggles. The hidden dancer slowly made their way closer and closer to us and the laughter hit boiling point. We still don’t really know what that dance was all about and must find out before we go. One of the things that impressed us most was the fact that the children seemed to have coordinated the entire thing themselves, with the older ones taking the lead.

Dancing in the church.

Another activity that I have particularly enjoyed since we’ve been here at Miryante is football. Most days end with a kick about with whoever is around. Both boys and girls play on the makeshift football pitch that also sometimes serves as grazing land for the cattle. The kids are pretty good, even on this horribly uneven and sloped surface dotted with cow manure. I took it upon myself to play bare foot in order to not have a shoe-inflicted advantage over the barefooted children. After an hour and a half in the baking mid-afternoon sun, which seems to be when we usually play, I am exhausted and my feet are roughed up. Still, it is great fun.

Whilst some of the girls do get involved in the football, it tends to be mainly the boys who play. Therefore, Claire and I decided to give netball a go with the girls. The day before, Claire told Doreen – the lady in charge of most of the goings on here at Miryante – and me that she had not been allowed to play netball at school due to the fact that she used to be unable to adhere to the rules of not running with the ball. Two minutes into our game of netball: one of the girls passed the ball to Claire who proceeded to dart towards the net, completely oblivious to the fact that she had yet again broken a rule she had spent the past 24 hours reminding herself of. After all the girls and me yelled at her to stop, the game was restarted and Claire got the right idea. In the end, Claire’s team beat mine 10-9 in a hard fought, energetic victory.

As well as sports – we had also played some volleyball with the children on top of football and netball – we have also spent time just hanging around and messing about. Claire did some crocheting with the girls hoping to teach them a useful new skill. However, the girls were already very good and refer to the craft as ‘hook’.

Whilst we were hanging around under a tree, Colin – the orphanage nurse’s son who stays onsite during the holidays – said: “Adam, do you like mango?” Claire and I both replied that we did and before we knew it, Colin and a couple of other kids were up the tree raining fresh mangos down on all of us. Not only do they enjoy helping us with our water collection, but they also seemingly want to bring us fresh fruit when we need it. Not that we’re complaining.

Colin getting us mangos out of the tree

The children are happy to spend time with us no matter what it is we’re doing. One evening I was sat out on our front porch reading my book as the sun was setting. Vincent, one of the older children who is around 14-years-old, came and sat next to me and asked if he could do some reading. He proceeded to take my book off me and started reading aloud. However, Shaking Hands with the Devil – Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire’s first hand account of the horror of the Rwandan Genocide was most probably not suitable so I darted inside to see if I had anything better. I returned with Oscar Wilde’s A Portrait of Dorian Grey – a book I had swapped with our Israeli friend Dor in Kampala. Turns out Vincent was a pretty good reader, though I doubt he knew what half the words meant, and he was able to get most of the pronunciations correct. Claire even overheard him mastering ‘Narcissistic’.

Two of the other children, Edwin and Erina, are brother and sister. Their parents, who are Rwandan, left them in Jinja as they were no longer able to care for them both. Due to them being from a different region of Uganda and only having been at Miryante a year; Edwin has struggled to grasp the local language. Only 6-years-old, he is a sweet young boy and his sister, who is one year younger, has a better grasp of the language and a real bright and vibrant character.  Claire and I have become rather attached to these two who are adorable.

Erina, who is incredibly intelligent and great fun to be around.

Edwin, Erina’s older brother.

A lot of the work at Miryante can be credited to Doreen Tigah. Our initial contact who arranged for us to come and stay, Doreen is the driving force behind the orphanage. She is in charge of all of the staff and most of the logistics at the home and the Technical School and she often works late into the night. Doreen also meets with the local Catholic priest, Father Erineo, and the local government officials to keep them updated as to how things are going. Her work is practically never-ending and we are going to do our utmost to help Doreen raise much needed funds that will make her job and the lives of the children here, much more bearable.

Fred, Edwin, Colin and Edwina