It’s 10:20 p.m., my husband has been fast asleep, I am still here waiting for my patch of Meringue cookies before calling it a day. I promised neighbor’s kids near my place that Miss Plum will have a gift for them on Christmas. It’s not a big deal, just some cookies I made for them, wish that I had more to offer.
Two days ago, I came to a neighbor to buy some corns to cook. Once I got into the house, I saw kids crawling on the floor, covered in dirt and playing with each other. Their clothes were torn and in pieces but their parents can’t afford buying anything more decent. It was sad looking at them like that.
I even talked to some women nearby, who were peeling beans, wondering if they are not employed. They are not. I asked when did they have dinner? They replied as it could only happen if their husband came back from work with wage, then they could go buy something for the dinner. If they got home early, they got to eat early. If you have beans, corns, potatoes stored inside your house, it is considered as upper class here.
These families are very crowded, with 4 children each family on average, but they are very happy even without money.
When I was on the way to collect names for Christmas gifting list, Plum also stopped to chat with them. One of the people around, a dad holding a kid in his arms asked me if I would like to buy a baby, they could sell kids with some money. I could only make an awkward smile to this question. Not having enough money to survive makes them offer their own kids as a goods, what a tragedy. It seemed like they thought that making a child is easy so giving one away is not that hard. Money truly has driven people crazy. But in a poor neighbor at the center of Kigali capital, they can just do anything to make some money, even selling away their own child, right? Or it’s just a funny teasing from locals?
(Emma giving away fired corn to children))
It’s Christmas! I have made gifts for 60 kids (that’s just a few families nearby my place since the number should be hundreds if I enlist them all) each of them should receive a packet of cookie with some types of cookie: butter biscuit, sugar biscuit, meringue cookies and a small muffin. After that, I and two other friends hosted a game show for about 2 hours so the children of the neighborhood should have a Christmas just like other kids.
(Frying corns with Eric)
( Children asking for water)
Finally, I have had a wonderful day with the children of the neighborhood. Looking at them eating cookies that I made, playing, singing, dancing… It’s wonderful. I was surprised to see some of them can speak English quite well at the age of 2.
Just some grains of salt happened as some of them cried at the beginning. I asked one and be informed that their parents have nothing for them to eat.
But everything was OK, 4 hours being with them really made me happy. Thank you so much Ezic and Valentine for making this day more special to all of us.
