Ajok, Esther, 45, has been a widow for 16 years. Her husband was killed by government soldiers who burned down their village. Esther escaped by running into the bush and hiding with her son. Her house has two rooms and ventilation windows and is impeccably neat.

What Esther is doing with her bead money is buying back her grandchildren! Her son had four children with a woman he did not marry. She later married another man and took the children with her. It seems in Acholi culture that children move through their father’s family line. So that Esther’s grandchildren had no status with their mother, who offered to sell them back to the father. Esther has gotten the three grandsons returned and they live with her. She is saving up now to secure her granddaughter too.

One of the grandsons does not speak but has not been evaluated as to why.
Esther has managed to buy a quarry lease and hires others to work for her with her bead money so that she makes a small profit. She says she can no longer work in the quarry herself as she suffers from back pain. She has recently been making necklaces and bracelets specializing in beautiful colors of the earth