I spent the morning with Petra. She got out of school early because of exams so she came to greet me. The sisters at Bishop Asili took care of Petra for awhile, which is how I came to know her. We are old pals from back in my Peace Corps days. She is a double orphan and HIV positive. She has come to visit me a few times since my return to Uganda. She comes to color and play, while I work. Today we sat down and read a children's book together about some small mice and a fairy godmother. I was shocked at how much her English has improved. She was able to read some very difficult words with ease, but I'm not so sure her comprehension level is very high.
I guess it's a good thing that most of the book we were reading could be translated easily into my hodgepodge Luganda. We decided that I will now be her personal library. I'm allowing her to take a book home to read with the promise that she will bring it back. When she returns it in good condition then I will borrow her another. We will see how it goes. This entire exchange took place in my broken Luganda and her broken English. The sign language used to supplement was pretty comical. We laughed a great deal while coming to this consensus about the books. 
I'm glad that we've been able to pick our friendship back up. She's a great language teacher. Since leaving her brothers care and going to live with an HIV positive woman who is dedicated to taking extremely good care of her, she is looking healthier than I've ever seen her. In fact, she is now the number one pupil in her class. It just goes to show how important a child's environment and health is to her happiness and success.
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