A Castle in the Sky… (July 1st)

What is your castle in the sky? That thing you hope and wish for that always seems a little out of reach. I can only imagine what that castle is for 8 or 9 year old Adong (we don’t know her birthday or age) who I met yesterday and who is staying with us over the weekend.

I arrived home last night after picking up Melissa, an American friend of Jolly’s from the airport, to discover that although I had not yet gone to Gulu, Gulu had somehow come to me. Mummy and Daddy Gulu, my Ugandan parents, had come back from the burial with Jolly and Emmy and it was such a surprise and joy to see them. With them, they had brought Adong and her 2 year old twin siblings – Achen and Opio, who Melissa has been supporting and who are now living with Mummy and Daddy.

The story of how Melissa had found Adong, Achen and Opio broke my heart. Their mother recently passed away from HIV/AIDS and while their mother was sick, Adong was heading the household. The state Melissa found them in was shocking and they were extremely malnourished. For the full story, you can read Melissa’s blog at http://www.myjourneytogulu.com/.

The twins are very cute and quite talkative, a big improvement due to lots of TLC. They are also very affectionate and love being cuddled. Adong, however, seemed quite reserved and was staying in the background.

It was the first time the children had been to Kampala and so Melissa wanted to do something nice with them and I gladly joined her. We took them to Garden City, a big shopping centre in Kampala that has a bouncy castle on the second floor. While the castle proved to be a bit too much for the twins, it was amazing to watch Adong transform from a shy, obviously traumatised young girl, into a happy, smiling child as she gained more confidence and asserted herself amongst the other children. I had been struggling to get a smile from her earlier in the day, but on the castle she suddenly began to laugh and the smile rarely left her face. It’s difficult to describe but I felt like I was witnessing someone who must feel the weight of the world on her shoulders, forget all of her problems and just be a child.

It seemed that Adong had found her castle in the sky, both literally and figuratively. How simple it seems – to just be a child. I do believe that now she has the assistance of Melissa, Mummy and Daddy, and Jolly, that she can dare to build more castles in the sky and strive for them, and now has a future to look forward to.

Here are some pictures of Adong and the twins around the house plus Adong on the castle.














Adong




















Achen tastes icecream for the first time.















Opio




















Adong on the castle