maganda

[arisha]

~ Kiva! The loan I was a part of was disbursed quicker than the two weeks I was anticipating, so that was cool. It's an eight-month loan, and so far the entrepreneur has made her first scheduled repayment. Not much else to report there ... I'm a little disappointed that the repayment wasn't accompanied by an entry in the entrepreneur's journal, but oh well.

~ Birthday! Mercy's twelfth birthday is in early August and, according to the letter I received, Mercy will receive a sweater that is perfect to wear either at school or home. This comfy sweater is sure to keep children warm on cooler days. Zambian children rarely receive new clothes, so this present is guaranteed to be a special treat.

~ Special Hug Day! Yes, Children International created their own gift-giving day in mid-September, and to be honest this is my first time donating to it, whoops. :X For Christmas, Easter and birthdays, it seems CI usually gives gifts that are specifically for the sponsored child; Special Hug Day is meant to benefit the whole family. A CI employee already let slip on the Google Group what the families are being given this year (it's done by area, so every family in a certain area will receive the same thing), hahaha. So if there aren't any more changes to the list he posted, Keyly's family will receive three pots with lids, a frying pan, and a set of cooking utensils, Ma.Fe's family will receive 12 plates and 12 mugs, Steven's and Yesica's families will receive a set of two pots with lids, and Mercy's and Kelvin's families will receive new pots with lids and a frying pan. Hahaha wow I love that I have just the perfect combination of countries so that all my sponsored kids' families are getting DISHES. xD;

~ Annual photo! Here's a new photo of four-year-old Steven. :D



ADORABLE Y/Y

I just love this kid's smile. :D

~ Special Gift! This time it was Ma.Fe's turn, and I was very surprised because the report arrived two weeks earlier than I was expecting it to! BLEW. MY. MIND. (As usual, photos = badly scanned by me, nicely hosted by Photobucket.)



Ma.Fe lives in the Philippines, and I'd heard that the first Special Gift you send to a sponsored child in the Philippines is almost always used to treat them to a shopping spree. Nothing like that is mentioned in the report I received, but Ma.Fe did get an interesting mix of items, so maybe she did get to go shopping, I don't know.

As with Keyly's Special Gift, the first photo is of Ma.Fe and her new chest of drawers. :) And yes, she is wearing a shirt that says "Property of SEXY." I'm not sure what to make of that! ^^;



The reported list of items bought is a little vague, as usual: Clothes, Footwear, Groceries, Toys, School Bag, Umbrella, Drawer Box. So of course I have spent way too much time going over this photo trying to figure out everything she got. On the top shelf it looks like there's a backpack, two pairs of shoes and a pair of flip-flops, what looks like a fold-up checkerboard, a box maybe of the table tennis balls that are mentioned later, some clothing, a drink pitcher and a cup, and an umbrella. Then the second shelf is food (including two bags of coffee?) and the third shelf has toothpaste and soap and the like. I'm pretty impressed with the nice assortment of stuff they were able to buy!



I love getting letters from Ma.Fe for the most selfish of reasons: she writes a lot! Or at least she writes more than my other sponsored children tend to. And I wonder if it's maybe a cultural thing, because the questions on the report sheet, which in the past I've seen answered with one or two lines, this time were answered with whole paragraphs!

What were the child's/family's comments when the gifts were delivered? - Ma. Fe and the whole family were very much surprised after learning that her sponsor sent a special donation. Unexplained happiness was evidently seen on the faces of each family member most especially the sponsored child. They would like to extend heartfelt thanks to the sponsor for helping them much through the donation he* sent. The whole family is always praying for good health and safety of the sponsor.

* It appears CI knows something about me that even I don't know.



In this photo she's holding a bag of powdered milk.

How will the gifts benefit the child and/or family? - Clothing, footwear, school bag and umbrella for sponsored child will be very much beneficial in going to school every day. She will look more presentable and neat with the new set of items purchased. Some clothing for the family members may bring joy and happiness for them because though they are not sponsored children but they were benefited by the special donation. Drawer box will be used to organize their clothing and other things inside the house. While table tennis ball will help Ma. Fe become more athletic since she likes to play table tennis a lot. Assorted groceries will help augment family's food consumption.

I was really happy to hear that Ma.Fe's parents and siblings will be helped out by the Special Gift as well. And I was super happy to hear that they bought her something to do with her hobby! She does like to play table tennis, she mentioned it in the very first letter she wrote to me. :D So that's AWESOME!



Oh yeah, it looks like she got a little purse sort of thing as well as the backpack. :)

Here's a snippet from the letter she wrote that was sent with the report:

I am very happy when I received your special gift specially my parent they would like to thank you for all the things that we received. It is a lot of help to me and my family.

Clothing for me and groceries for my family. I have also ball for my table tennis racket because I love table tennis.

By the way here is another Filipino languages ... "Maganda" means beautiful, "masarap" means delicious, "mag-aral ng mabuti" means study hard, "matalino" means bright, "mataas" means tall. I am sending you again some languages in my next letter.

Again "maraming salamat" thank you very much.

She seriously writes the best letters. <3

More from me later, for now it's my bedtime. :)

Comments

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

That's so sweet! How much do you spend every month, if I can ask? You support so many kids, it's amazing to me. XD

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Well, sponsorship fees are $22US per child per month, and I sponsor six children, so I'll let you do the math there. ^^; And about every two months I've been sending a Special Gift of $100US.

I don't really like saying how much I spend on this for a couple reasons, but also because I don't want to make child sponsorship sound really expensive. It's not expensive at all if you only sponsor one, and everything besides the monthly fees is optional. But man, I definitely know that if I was living on my own and had to like, pay rent and stuff, I wouldn't be able to afford this. So it will be very interesting to see what happens when I do move out. ^^;;;

Okay I feel like a total dork right now so I'll end this comment. xD;

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

Okay. Yeah, I can understand not wanting to talk about it. And I was sort of feeling that you'd need to either have a well-paying job or not be living in an apartment to do what you do. But I like that you're taking the money you save by living with your family and using it for somebody else's good. ^^