Some of you may remember me coming home last summer talking about a girl named Joyce that I formed a special bond with during the two weeks that I was here. Last year when the team came she had only been living at Dorcas for a few weeks. She didn’t speak any English and she clearly felt out of place and uncomfortable with her new environment. For some reason she and I had an instant friendship and I spent a lot of time with her, sort of looking out for her and even teaching her a few things. She was not attending school and had not been to school previously. I taught her to write her name, in the beginning it was similar to a preschooler trying to write their name. It was written backwards and the letters were a mirror image … eventually she got pretty good at it and just the other day I saw her write her name on a paper. (I like to think I had at least a little bit to do with that!)

I can’t even describe how happy I was to see her when I came back to Kaihura a couple weeks ago. There is a picture of her and me hugging and crying right before I left last year. I remember telling her I would be back to see her. The look on her face when I walked up to Home Again and she realized it was me was absolutely priceless. We were both smiling from ear to ear; I just grabbed her and hugged her as tight as I could. We were both crying … again.

I heard part of her story last year but have been able to hear the full story and am able to understand things a bit better. I would like to share it with you so you can all get to know Joyce and love her as much as I do!

Kanyana Joyce was born in 1999. She is 12 years old and has been living in Kaihura a little over a year. As much as the staff have tried and based off of various and often inconsistent stories from Joyce herself, efforts to identify her parents and where she was previously living in Uganda have been unsuccessful. Apparently she is originally from Rwanda … often times you can tell where a person originates by facial features and bone structure. It is believed that Joyce’s mother passed away leaving her to stay with her father and grandmother. Her father decided to leave and left Joyce under the care of her grandmother for about 2 years. The grandmother began mistreating her and Joyce decided to go in search of her father. The Kyenjojo police found her wandering and brought her to the Kaihura police station where she stayed for a couple days before leaving. She was found again and brought to Bringing Hope by the Kaihura Police. She was placed at Dorcas where she lived until Easter time.

When I found Joyce at Home Again this year when I arrived I wondered why she was no longer living up at Dorcas. I thought maybe she had finally been moved so she would be around more children her age. One afternoon I went to the office where all the files on the children are kept … I was trying to learn the stories and backgrounds of some of the children I have been working with. I found the answer to why Joyce had been moved. She walked down to the town centre one day and was defiled by a rogue man staying at the trading center. After this incident it was clear that Joyce needed to be living in an environment where she would be given more supervision and guidance.

She is now attending school. She is in P2 … the oldest in her class but at least she is in school. Her English has improved since last year and I can actually talk to her a little bit without total confusion. I just got back from spending a couple hours with her. I was swinging with her and some of the other children after school. And one day this week I am going to go shopping to get her some new shoes and socks for school and a few new clothes and personal items she never received when she came here last year.

(Wish I could post the 2 pictures I'm talking about but will have to do it later. Can't upload pictures onto this computer. My computer is broken ... hence the lack of blog posts!!)