Babies, Babies, and more Babies!

Today, we visited the Sanyu Babie's Home, where orphaned babies are cared for until the age of 2. This has been by far the best experience. I went to the nursery and fed the newborn baby, Hilda. She was 2 and a half months old, but looked about 5 lbs. She was so fragile. The staff jokingly said I looked like I was afriad to break her, but I was! Each child had their own story. Some had been left in the bushes, trash cans, latrines, doorsteps, anywhere they could be abandoned. The worst story heard was Duncan's. This little boy had been abandoned by this 17-year-old mother, who had been raped by her brother. His mother refused to take care of him so they brought him to the home. I wanted to take all the babies home with me. There was a great deal of love in the orphanage, but once they turned 2, their futures would become uncertain. Most of the children were boys because in Ugandan culture, they were the hardest to care for. Poor families knew they could not afford the dowries associated with their impending marriages so they abandoned them. It's very sad that people could feel so hopeless that they abandon a child on the basis of an even happening decades into the future.
We also went to the slums of Namuwongo Zone B. It was bad. The area was overcrowded and littered with feces and other waste. As we walked through the projects a plethora of children joined our group and tugged on my white groupmates in hopes of recieving money. They had already been taught to associate whites with salvation and completely ignored me and the other black group members. They were also smart enough to realize that we were not physically equipped to deal with the extreme waste in their community. Whenever someone would accidentally step in feces the children would quickly run to wipe their shoes, even though they themselves were walking barefoot. However, beyond the squaller, poverty, and abandonedment these children faced daily, it was their numbers that was indigestable. Each family had at least four children and they continued having them despite their inability to care for them. The children were left hopeless and the cucle of hopelessness continued to transcend generations. My fervor for education has been renewed. At some point the children need to be equipped to learn to care for themselves and educate others in their community. Their environment is no way for children to live!