“I would like you to thank me for eating your dinner.”

Ryan & I had our first dinner guest over last night.  His name is Latimer.  He is a close family friend to Nathan and works as the finance director to his projects.  We’ve been helping him with one of the projects (I’ll get into it in a bit), so we decided to have him over to finish the work and get to know him.  With Latimer’s translation help, we asked Pierre to join us for dinner.  (I’ve tried several times through my broken Kinyarwandan to invite him to our table, but I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m asking him to do the cooking, and then he gets offended when I take the spoon out of his hand and do something totally American -and evidently quite offensive- like put tomato in the beans.  And so he walks out of the kitchen and well, so much for my dinner invitation.)  At the end of the meal, Pierre told Latimer to translate 2 things to me.  

1: to tell me, in whatever the English way is, “thank you for the meal.” 

2: to tell me that in Rwanda, I am to thank him for eating the meal I have prepared for him. 

…you’re welcome?  …thank you?

As it turns out, the thank you comes from women standing over the cook fires preparing the meals for the men who are out in the fields.  The women are privileged to work in a place of warmth, light, and safety, so they must thank the men for that. 

Usually, I thank Ryan for eating my first-year-of-marriage-experimental-meals… but I have never thanked him for allowing me the privilege of cooking for him. 

So, Latimer’s current project is to find sponsors for 18 children to board and attend the Star School.  It’s essentially like one of those commercials you see on TV that “for less than $3 a day you can change a child’s life.”  I know.  You’re rolling your eyes.  But really.  For less than $3 a day, a child will be boarded on the school grounds, fed 3 meals a day, provided with safe drinking water, and will receive an education that would rival most American schools.

Once you meet the kids on those commercials, you don’t roll your eyes anymore. Ryan and I got to meet and take pictures of 18 children that are currently waiting for sponsorship through the World Help program (one of Nathan’s US partners).  Three of the children, sisters, are victims of a scenario far too common out here:  Both parents died of AIDS.  Their mother’s entire family (entire = mom, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc.) was killed in the genocide. Only her youngest sister survived. The youngest sister had to quit her job to move to Kigali in order to take care of the girls.  Now she has no job and 3 nieces to house, feed, and make sure they get an education (which is required by national law). Nathan had heard about her family’s trouble and chased her down, convincing her to bring those girls to his school and he would find a way to help them.

My heart is breaking in ways that I’ve never experienced.  The people of Rwanda are incredibly stoic.  I’m learning heavy lessons from the least of God’s people.  I should be thanking them for more than just eating my dinners.