Les Enfants de Dieu

      While working on the last blog entry, I realized that I had not yet described the school which is the location of all the massive events I've been talking about.  I chanced upon this place by the guidance of Moses, the wildlife guide I had chosen almost by random from the internet.  Moses and I bonded almost immediately in our exchange of emails, and from the beginning he was very accommodating in determining what I wanted from my trip to Rwanda and how he could help provide it.
     It was Moses who had heard about

The volleyball court and some of the buildings at EDD

 

Les Enfants de Dieu, and he made the original contact with the executive director there to see whether they could use a short term volunteer like myself.  On my end, I of course got on the web to learn as much as I could about the school.   There they call "the school"  EDD for Enfants de Dieu, so from here on out, so will I.  I loved their website; perhaps you will too.  Click  here.
    Two things jump out at you right away.  The school's name is obviously French.  Why?  Well, Rwanda used to be part of the Belgian Congo and had been colonized by the French-speaking Belgians, unlike all the other countries I've visited in Africa, which all had been colonized by the Brits.  For years since independence in 1962, French, not English, has been the second language  of Rwanda.  That is now fading, though, and more and more Rwandans are learning English and more and more Rwandan schools concentrate on English rather than French.  Interestingly enough, however, Rwandans do still drive on the right side of the road, whereas all the other African countries I've visited are left-hand drivers.
    

Sunday meeting at EDD

The second thing that even the most rudimentary of French speakers will ask is  "What is this 'Dieu' stuff?  Is this a mission school?"  The answer to this is no, EDD is completely secular, and is the home of both Christian and Muslim children.  They call themselves the Children of God in order to emphasize the importance of children to any society. 
    The Sunday morning I was there, I attended a discussion section at which Charles talked for some time to most of EDD's 160-some kids.  Their attention was rapt.  Of course, I couldn't understand a word Charles was saying, since it was in Kinyarwanda.  I was surprised when Charles told me afterward that it was mostly about safe sexual conduct and morality.
    EDD's mission is to provide education and a decent home for the street children of Kigali.  What are street children?  Well, Rwanda has had an extremely stormy recent history which has torn about the country's social fabric.  The 1994 genocide there decimated families and increased poverty immeasurably.   The result is that WAY too many children HAVE virtually no family, and even for those who do have a family, their family has means insufficient to sustain them.  WAY too many children have come to live on the streets of the country's capitol, Kigali, and sustain themselves by begging, stealing, scrounging, and prostitution.  Some of them wind up in police custody and eventually are transferred to EDD.  Some come by more voluntary means.  I was even sadder to hear that many of the children are simply the product of divorce--that a new stepfather just is not inclined to provide for another man's child.  Out they go.
    One former street boy told me that when he lived on the street, he begged to do dishes at restaurants.  He wouldn't be paid, but he could eat the food that diners had left on their plate.  That was a good deal for him.