On Sunday, we visited St. Jude's orphanage. Even though so many children in Gulu have lost their parents either to the war or to HIV, aparently orphanages are pretty rare around Uganda. This is because the culture of the people is focused around community, namely family, so if a child does lose his or her parents, it is common that he or she will be taken up by a grandparent or aunt and uncle, that sort of thing. It kind of makes me wonder about the stories of the children at St. Jude's. Part of me doesn't want to know their stories because I'm sure many of them have lost their parents to HIV, the war, or were the product of rape, which is pretty frequent here with young girls. There were so many kids there...from 3mos to teenagers, and they were
basically one giant family. It took me a little bit to get settled in, taking in my surroundings...so many of the children had distended bellies--indicating malnutrition, but eventually I started playing with some of the kids...helping them slide
down slides. showing the girls how to curtsey :) and teaching them how to say "whatchu talkin' 'bout girl?" in the most ghetto of tones...it was hillarious. Oh...and I got to hold the tiniest little baby, about 3 months old, and one of a pair of twins whose mother couldn't care for them. It was strange, though, I was really nervous about going to St. Jude's because I thought that it would be really hard for me to see so many children without homes, but I wasn't sad because they weren't sad...they seemed so happy--almost as if they didn't even know they were orphans because as they saw it, they did have a family---a really big one and not traditional, but a family none-the-less. So resilient!
On Sunday, we visited St. Jude's orphanage. Even though so many children in Gulu have lost their parents either to the war or to HIV, aparently orphanages are pretty rare around Uganda. This is because the culture of the people is focused around community, namely family, so if a child does lose his or her parents, it is common that he or she will be taken up by a grandparent or aunt and uncle, that sort of thing. It kind of makes me wonder about the stories of the children at St. Jude's. Part of me doesn't want to know their stories because I'm sure many of them have lost their parents to HIV, the war, or were the product of rape, which is pretty frequent here with young girls. There were so many kids there...from 3mos to teenagers, and they were
basically one giant family. It took me a little bit to get settled in, taking in my surroundings...so many of the children had distended bellies--indicating malnutrition, but eventually I started playing with some of the kids...helping them slide 
down slides. showing the girls how to curtsey :) and teaching them how to say "whatchu talkin' 'bout girl?" in the most ghetto of tones...it was hillarious. Oh...and I got to hold the tiniest little baby, about 3 months old, and one of a pair of twins whose mother couldn't care for them. It was strange, though, I was really nervous about going to St. Jude's because I thought that it would be really hard for me to see so many children without homes, but I wasn't sad because they weren't sad...they seemed so happy--almost as if they didn't even know they were orphans because as they saw it, they did have a family---a really big one and not traditional, but a family none-the-less. So resilient!
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