I’m going to divert my blog from listing what I’m currently working on and share about a boy I met yesterday. His name is Davidson and he doesn’t know how old he is.

This isn’t an uncommon thing in Cite Soleil. Regular birthday parties aren’t a priority. Neither is documentation of home deliveries. Many children who don’t enroll in school are born, live and die, without paper record of their existence.

Which brings us back to Davidson. He is charismatic in a quiet way; among a group of children, his smile sets him apart. He wore a Scooby Doo T-shirt and nothing else.

I was waiting outside one elder’s home with the pastors, who were chatting with a group of children and adults in the neighborhood when he caught my attention by telling them he wants to go to school. A woman nearby chimes in that he has no mother or father. I asked his name. Davidson Nelson. I asked his age. “Mwen pa konnen”.

This phrase caught my attention because it is one I use multiple times a day and simply translates “I don’t know.” One of the neighbors said he was six. Whether they knew that, remembered him as a baby, or just guessed, I don’t know.

The pastors invited him to come to church and we moved on. I want to help him. I also have to be very cautious and work within the bounds the organization I serve with sets for me.

What do we do for one child on his own, who smiles like he doesn’t have a care in the world and dreams of attending school? How do we serve that one precious face in a sea of deserving precious faces?

Mwen pa konnen.