Success!

Little Okema has definitely become my project. The kid is absolutely adorable yet SO naughty. This is rare for here. The kids are typically extremely well-behaved and respectful - I have yet to see a child disobey an adult. Until Okema. He pretty much does whatever he wants.

I found out that he lives with his elderly grandmother who is almost entirely deaf. When I heard that, everything made a little more sense...she can't hear half the stuff he says! We went and talked to her a few days ago about his behavior during school and our after-school program and that made a huge difference.

The day after we talked to her, I was outside with him and a couple other kids working on learning the alphabet. He decided he didn't want to work anymore and got up and left. I told him to come back (in Acholi) and he did not respond. So, I went and took his arm, sat him back down, and said "No" really close to his face. He stared at me for a couple seconds (I'm sure he was shocked that a mzungu was going to enforce the rules) and then got right back to work.

I've been teaching Gloria the alphabet too. Her parents are raising nine kids and can't afford to send her to school. I'm hoping to get her in the sponsorship program soon, but until then, we're working on the alphabet.

She was really struggling with writing the letter B. I showed her multiple times, had her trace the letters I had written, and guided her hand. Still, she wasn't fully getting it. It was an exciting moment for me when Okema looked at her blackboard, stopped what he was writing, took her hand, and wrote a perfect B while explaining how to do it! After he helped her write a row of excellent B's, she could do it by herself.

Of course, I made a huge deal about how smart and helpful he was and he was SO proud of himself. It was really awesome!




Okema and Gloria, working hard on mastering the alphabet!