Meeting Our Sponsor Child Joyce!

The high point of our entire trip was meeting a 6-year old girl named Joyce, whom we began sponsoring this past spring.  Before we arrived, we had a picture of her and had received two letters from her.  We really wondered though what it would be like to meet her in person. Her picture was very.....reserved.  Would she be very shy with us?   Would she understand any English yet?  What would she think of us?  Would our visit seem like the longest day of the entire trip, or would it go quickly?

We arrived at a cultural center that Compassion had rented out for the day.  Our children and their chaperones were waiting for us there.  They introduced the children to their sponsors one at a time - we were first.

It took about 3 seconds - maybe not even that - to totally fall in love with this litle girl.  She was dressed in a dressy dress, covered over with a hoodie that was torn down the front (and resewn).  She was wearing those same socks she had in the intial sponsorship picture.   We found out later from Margaret (the woman on the right, who works at the child development center Joyce attends) that Joyce has very few clothes.  She is normally seen in town wearing her school uniform or her Compassion uniform, because she doesn't have too much else to wear.

Before I go too much further, I should tell you Joyce's background, which we learned that day.  Joyce's father abandoned her mother, and Joyce has never met him.  Joyce's mother could not afford to raise her, so she gave her to the grandmother to raise.  Joyce's mother eventually married another man.  BUT - he would not allow Joyce into his house, because she is another man's child.  So Joyce continues to live with her grandparents, and 3 aunts/uncles.  Joyce rarely sees her mother, as she lives a distance away.  She has a dog named Jack, who just recently had puppies.  We asked what normally happens to the puppies, and she matter of factly said that they normally die (whether from worms, or because Jack doesn't eat enough to provide nutriton to the puppies, etc., we don't know).

Joyce's grandparents are subsistence farmers - they grow maize, potatoes, and ground nuts, but they are only able to grow enough for themselves - they don't grow enough to sell.  (The average income in Uganda is quite low, but in the plains area where Joyce lives, it is extremely low.  Because the farmers are not growing enough to sell, the typical income is $4/month).  They live in a mud house with a dirt floor and metal roof, with no electricity or running water.  As normal in Uganda, the cooking area and pit toilet are separate from the house.

Back to the visit.....

I had prepared a photo album to help Joyce get to know us better.  It's a pretty big album, but it still has alot of blank pages left.  In the front, we wrote a note telling her the remaining pages were for pictures we'd keep sending her over the years, so that she could continue to get to know more about us and how much we love her.  (We have already sent her the photos of our visit, so that she can share it with her family.)  In the album, we put pictures of Eddie and me when we were her age, our families, our friends, animals that live around our house, and what it looks like in the different seasons.  She had never seen deer or  squirrels - but she reacted immediately to the pictures of the wild turkeys, which we also saw running around Uganda.

After going through the album, we went for a snack.  Joyce was enjoying herself, but she was still pretty shy.  So Eddie decided it was time to loosen her up with some funny faces!  At this point, Joyce had our camera.....in retrospect, it was amazing how many of us turned over our expensive cameras without a second thought to these children who would do who-knows-what with them.  I think all the cameras survived....

Eddie's funny faces worked, and we were off and running!  We had passed the awkward silence phase, and could now officially be silly!










Our favorite photo of Joyce - she was one happy girl!   

The cultural center had provided an inflatable castle for the kids (and adults) to play on.  Joyce went over there and had a blast.  She was a non-stop jumping bean, bouncing everywhere. 

 It went on and on and on.... 

And on and on...

And on and on.....

And then just as suddenly as she had turned into this Energizer Bunny, she stopped and declared it was time for a rest.  WE were ready for a rest, so we thought that was splendid.  She went over and sat down and rested for a while, and then she was ready to do something else. 

And so she decided to draw us some pictures.  She spent alot of time on this - it was like we were going to get a Picasso.....  When she was done, we had the same exact stick figures she had drawn in her earlier letters.  She likes to draw people, cars and buses.  Apparently cars and buses are virtually never seen where she lives, so it's a big deal when you see one.  One of her letters had said she wanted to learn to drive a car someday, so clearly she likes cars!

It was then time for lunch - so we all went inside to have....potatoes, rice, and plantains (see my earlier post What's For Lunch?).  There were also a few meat selections, and some uncooked vegies - we skipped those in the interest of not getting sick :-)

After lunch, it was time for gifts.  We had brought Joyce a backpack filled with various gifts.  The first item out of the backpack was a teddy bear I had started making decades ago, and finally got motivated to finish just a week prior to our trip.  We also gave her some toys, and a BIG bag of candy.  In the interest of teaching her a life lesson, I told her that she could share the candy with her friends.  WELL - she immediately started talking to Margaret, who then told us "she has decided she is NOT going to share the candy!"  There were some other gifts later on that she said she would share - we laughed - we know what's up high on her priority list, and it's spelled c-a-n-d-y!  So it was good that we also gave her toothbrushes and toothpaste....she told us that her current toothbrush is very old, so she was happy to have that.

We also gave her a shirt, which she immediately said she wanted to try on.  If we had known her clothing situation, we would have brought her many more!  After we got home, we found out that some money we'd sent for a birthday present had been used to buy her some more clothes, so we were very happy about that!

This is how Ugandan children say "Thank You".  They get down on their knees and bow their heads.  This occured a few times during the day.  We found it incredibly uncomfortable, and felt very unworthy of having a child bow in front of us.  We really hadn't done much - most people when confronted with a child like this would do whatever they could for them.  We count ourselves blessed to be able to help her - what seems like just a little to us means so much to her.  

As we neared the end of our visit, the sponsor children went up on stage and did a presentation for us.  They each introduced themselves, and some of the children sang a song or recited a Bible verse.   

And then it was time to go.  Joyce put on her backpack and we all headed toward the entrance of the cultural center to wait for the buses.

While we were waiting, it was time to play jump rope - another gift that was an unexpected hit.  We knew Joyce liked to jump rope, but what we didn't know was that jump ropes as we know them can't be found in Uganda.  Instead, the people at the child development centers MAKE their own ropes from locally available materials.  We saw some of them - they wear very easily and don't last long.  To have your own jump rope is unheard of, and to have a REAL one that won't wear out right away is quite something!  Later on, Joyce started jumping rope without us - she was jumping away and singing a song, seeming as content as a little girl can be.

Our bus finally arrived and it was time for final good-byes.  I hate good-byes!  But who knows - someday we may yet see Joyce again.....



We got on the bus, and Joyce continued to wave until we were out of sight. 

And so that was our visit with Joyce.  It was only one day, but our sponsorship will (hopefully!) last years. 

What do you do after a visit?   How do you top that?  This is when the less glamorous part of sponsorship happens.  This is when you write letters faithfully, you consistently remind the children that you love them, that you're proud of them, and that you're praying for them.  You work to give them hope of what they can be as they move beyond physical and spiritual poverty.  You remember that you are the adult, and that sponsorship isn't about getting warm letters from your child - it's about making sure they know there's someone in the world who has chosen to love them for no apparent reason at all, and that they have someone on their side no matter how difficult their situation may be.  That's what sponsorship is.

And as you do this, you find out that your sponsor child isn't the only one who is changed.....that you are changed as well as you open your heart to this child.