The meetings of friends and family of Ebralie certainly gave personalized insight to the issues facing Rwanda, current and past. We also visited a variety of places in Rwanda that punctuated the stories told and lessons learned. The first of these visits was to a program founded to help the street children of Kigali, called CPAJ. CPAJ is the acronym for Centre Presbytere pour L’Amour de Juene, or Presbyterian Center for the Love of Children. CPAJ was started after the genocide as a place to help the orphaned children of Kigali. It was built near the largest dump in Kigali, as so many of the street children would go to the dump to scavenge for food. As the street children issue caused by the genocide subsided, it was replaced with a wave of street children due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic faced by Rwanda.
The role of CPAJ is not so much as an orphanage. Rather, it provides educational and spiritual support for the children it serves. It also gives them a place to shower, eat, and generally escape the issues of street life for a period of time. Not all of the children it serves are orphans. Some are children of the poor neighborhood where it is situated, and the children use the resources of CPAJ because they cannot have these needs met at home.
The morning we visited CPAJ, the director Cyprien came to pick us up at the guest house. Cyprien was a relatively large, jovial man who appeared to be about 30 years old. We learned that he had enormous energy and passion for his job, and he seemed to do great things for the kids he served. He drove us down the main roads of Kigali, and then turned down the rutted dirt side roads of the city to the fenced compound that was CPAJ.
When we got there, there were about 100 or more children scattered about the compound. Most of the children appeared to be ages 8-18. We arrived during their free time, so the kids were divided into several large groups. Many of the younger children were in a large classroom, watching Shrek. The movie was in English, but the kids were still glued to the small TV screen. Most of the children were on the large playground area below the class buildings. The older boys were playing a spirited game of basketball, while others played volleyball and still others played soccer. Cyprien gave us a tour of the facility, including the dorms to the left that housed the newcomers for a short period of time while they learned the ropes. Below the dorms were the showers available to the kids, and then back up to the right were rabbit pens and pig sties. The children helped in the raising of these animals, which helped supplement the meals served by CPAJ. In the middle of these areas was a garden, which also helped with the meals. When we got to the kitchen area, we met the “house mom” of the facility. Ebralie looked at her for a moment, and then called her by name. It turned out that the CPAJ house mom had served as the school nurse where Ebralie had gone to secondary school, and the two knew each other.
After the tour, Cyprien had the children gather on the cement area that served as the basketball and volleyball courts. The kids began to clap, dance and sing, and seemed to really enjoy it. This was their way of welcoming guests. They formed a large circle, with those forming the circle singing and clapping in rhythm. Others were then invited into the circle to dance. After a few turns, Andrea and Ebralie were invited into the middle along with a couple of the older girls. Ebralie was familiar with the traditional dance that the girls performed, and Andrea joined in gamely. The children got a big kick out of watching their guests join in.
Cyprien then told the children that we had some gifts to share with them. One of the gifts was about 70 shirts we had brought from the YMCA. We did not have enough for everyone, so Cyprien said the shirts would be used as prizes and rewards for the children, which they would earn for accomplishments and good behavior. He was excited to have them, and showed them to the children. We then pumped up a couple of soccer balls we had to add to their collection, and gave them a couple of Frisbees. They did not seem to be familiar with Frisbees, so we showed them how to throw them.
The kids were most enthralled by the bubbles we had brought. We began blowing bubbles, and they were fascinated by them. At first, the kids liked chasing and popping the bubbles. Soon, they all wanted to try blowing the bubbles themselves. They would line up and take turns blowing the bubbles, some with more success than others. Everyone had a great time and it was quite fun. The smiles of the children and the joy they showed was something that I will remember forever. Here were children that by American standards had virtually nothing, but their smiles and laughs were as joyous as any I had ever seen.
The fun with bubbles was soon replaced by perhaps even more fun posing for pictures. As we were taking pictures of the events with digital cameras, the kids loved seeing themselves in the pictures. They were soon competing to get in a picture. One of the kids asked in English “pick me”. When I then took her picture, all of the children were then shouting in English “Pick Me! Pick Me!”. It didn’t take them long to learn that English phrase.
One of the funny things about taking their pictures was how they would pose, especially the older boys. They would all have beaming smiles on their faces as they shouted for their turn. However, as their picture was taken, their expressions would turn serious and they would flash hand signs like gangsters. Once the picture was taken, their smiles and laughs would return as they squeezed together to see the small picture on the back of the camera. I learned that they picked this up from the music videos they had seen, and were simply emulating the stars they had seen on TV. It just seemed so funny and out of place.
Andrea and I each had a camera, and we each had our horde of children wanting to have their pictures taken. It became almost too competitive, and the older children would push aside the younger ones. She and I both tried to make sure everyone had a turn. We did find one smaller boy who seemed to be quite shy. Cyprien explained that this child had been brain damaged. He pointed to a large scar on his head, and said that is where the boy’s mother had hacked him in the head with a machete. His mother herself had been a victim of the violence of the genocide, and her act was an outcome of the mental illness she now suffers with. This is just another way the genocide still haunts the country as it recovers.
Andrea particularly liked the time we spent at CPAJ. She definitely connected with the children, and she was a favorite of them. Whenever I looked over to find her, she was absolutely mobbed with children around her. The girls were particularly attracted to her, and they all lined up to have their picture taken with her. Andrea is a tall girl in America – she is particularly tall in Rwanda. And her long hair is also unique in a country where most of the boys and girls wear their hair very closely cropped to the scalp.
The children were all attracted to me for my hair, too, but certainly not for the hair on my head. When we were at CPAJ and the children were crowded around, I felt something rubbing against the hair on my arm as I was blowing bubbles. I looked down to see two of the children looking at my arm, fascinated by the hair on my arm. I then looked and noticed that the native Rwandans had little or no such hair. I guess the long dark hair on my forearms next to my white skin must have stuck out. Throughout the day at CPAJ I would feel both light rubbing of my arms to pulling of the hairs as the children wanted to inspect.
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