Muscleman Kalim (Kiwanga Kids)

BTW: I am not sure of some of the spellings of these names, as I rarely see them written down. If some volunteer is reading these and knows of a correction (of names or any facts), please leave a comment and I will fix it.

I don’t know as much about Kalim as I’d like to. He was a street kid they found and brought into Kiwanga a year ago. He’s one of the nicest, most helpful kids at Kiwanga and is quite strong for his age, hence the nickname above. He was certainly more helpful in clearing out some bed frames from some rooms being converted to visitor quarters than I turned out to be (I arrived late for the work). I arm wrestled him, letting him win, though it was not as much of a stretch as I thought it would be. The kid’s already at 80% of my strength (from years in the gym); I figure in 2 more years, he may have me licked. He really enjoyed the arm-wrestling and got his buddy involved, with Bedda (who I’d nicknamed ‘Candy Mooch’ last trip) looking on.

Sir Charles

Charles Mugarura I met on my first trip to Sabine, A nice young man, very interested in music; he ended up with my MP3 player most of the time. He always went out of his way to be helpful; I nicknamed him ‘Sir Charles’.
Charles was a surprise on my second visit after 2 years; he’d gained at least 9 inches in height and was by far one of the biggest kids. Still very much a ‘country boy’, though, and that’s part of his charm. He seems to have done very well; he’s the school’s librarian. Like Irene, I didn’t get to spend enough time with him. Next time I go back (it definitely will be for a school break), I’ll get him to come to Kampala and let him stay at Visitor’s village for a weekend. That would be a real treat for him. I need to make sure his school is covered, even though I can’t help. I specifically brought a cheap MP3 player so I could leave it with him; he was very touched.