Crying Syndrome

   There is never a dull moment in my days here in Tororo Uganda. Everyday there has been a new, exciting adventure awaiting me. As Julian and I walked to Smile Africa we listened to our music and just had a peaceful morning. As I was entering Smile, Michael was leaving. I stopped him to ask how everything was going. I was pleased to hear,

"So far the morning has been pretty dull. Everyone is behaving and playing with each other, so everything is just fine."

   That was wonderful news! I was happy to hear that the day might be peaceful. I walked into the babies room and hugged all my friends that were working there. Caleb comes running up to me with the biggest smile on his face. It was so cute! It was a great way to start the morning. I gave him a bath and just spent some time with him in the morning. After playing some games with Caleb, Bogere and Betty came into the babies room to say hello. It was so great to see them.

   I then walked to the office to say hello to the other ladies that I work with. We have truly become family out here. We fill each other in on our morning and try to solve each other's problems...typical girl stuff :) So far the day was running smoothly. I thought for sure that this was going to be a great day, a day with no issues...I was wrong.

   Just an hour after my "It's going to be a perfect day" thought, everyone, and I mean everyone, had an emotional melt down. I walked into the babies room to find every single baby crying, which to me was normal, babies cry. So I picked up a baby and Julian and I began to calm the children down. Literally 5 minutes later, Betty comes in the room and looks really sad. I asked her what was wrong and she was quite, then tears start streaming down her face. When she started crying, the babies started crying again. Just 2 minutes after that I hear a young boy crying very loud just outside the babies room. I opened the door to see what the problem was. He explained to me that Bogere had thrown a stone at his head. Sure enough, there was a large knot on this boys head! I told Bogere,

"You cannot hit people Bogere! You really hurt him. Say sorry."

   Bogere refused to say sorry. Saying sorry seems to be a really hard thing for him. I am not sure why, but anytime he is asked to say sorry, he throws a fit about it. So Bogere refused to apologize and I got frustrated. I knew that Bogere was acting out partly because his mother has just died. This is where I had a decision to make. Was I going to let him get away with this because he was hurting? Or do I stay consistent in my behavioral training? I needed to make a decision and stick with it. So I chose to be consistent. I knew that it was crucial that I stay consistent. Just because he is hurting, does not mean that he gets to hurt other people, especially for no reason at all. Bogere still refused to say sorry. He began throwing a tantrum and threw himself on the floor...then pretended to be hurt to get my attention. As I am dealing with this, Betty is still crying, the babies are still crying, then a teacher came in crying! Julian said,

"There must be a sickness going around here...its called CRYING SYNDROME!! What is happening?!"

   I had to focus on one thing at a time, so I decided to deal with Bogere and his refusal to say sorry. So I took him to the office and sat him on the chair and told him to sit there until I came back and got him. Finally, after about 15 minutes I went back and got him. Bogere realized that I was not going to play his game and he finally said sorry.

   When I got back to the babies room I just started laughing. Julian said,

"What could you possibly think is so funny?"
I said, "I actually thought today was going to be easy! HAHAHA!"

   And we both just laughed and laughed. At this point, you really have to just laugh it off. There is never going to be a dull moment here at Smile Africa. There are 400 children and about 5 teachers...there will always be something going on. Although there can be hectic moments, I love my job. I have the opportunity to spend my whole day with children. I get to show them the love of Jesus. I get to teach them good and positive words in english that mean something powerful and they don't even know it yet. God trusts ME with the lives of His precious children. I am so lucky, so honored.