So I have been meaning to write a blog post on my Zambia blog for the past two weeks and just haven't found time. Then today something really important happened that I wanted to share with you all first. It is some bad news, and some good news. I am only going to tell you the quick version because it is really late and I am pooped!! But I promise by this weekend I will give you more details and keep you very updated.
So as you all know, we sponsor Catherine who was in 2nd grade. Well when I first arrived it took forever for me to finally meet her because she wasn't coming to school because of family issues. Well when I finally did meet her, and gave her the wonderful scrapbook Chrissy put together, I never saw her again. Which I thought was kind of strange, but she seemed really shy so I wasn't expecting her to say hi to me every day. We also were on vacation for the whole month of December. So now that school had started, it had been on my mind and I wanted to check in on her. Well just today, as I was about to go and put in the order for the sponsorship food, I checked to see if she collected her food in January. It turns out she didn't, and she actually wasn't on my list of 2nd or 3rd grade students.
So I sat down with the principle and she looked into why she wasn't in school. It turns out that when her father died, her and her mom moved into her mom's, best friends house. Then when her mom died, she was still living there. But in the past few months, the relatives of her father, having known that her mom had died, started to look for her. It is a big part of Zambian culture to care for family, and friends of family. So when they found out that her mother had died, it now is the responsibility of the closest family member to take care of her. So a relative who lives in the village came and moved Catherine to live with them. This is sad, because we all were really excited to have her, but also because she probably is not going to school now. Unfortunately this is apart of the culture that we have to let be.
The reason I have been wanting to write a blog recently is really because of a boy named James. James is a boy that has really tugged at my heart since my last visit in 2009. He has been apart of Chikumbuso since the beginning, and because he is a really high need student, he has been sponsored from the very beginning. (If any of you remember the black and white picture I had of me and two boys hanging in my room, that is with James) So just since I have been here, James' sponsor dropped him. There was no real explanation as to why, but it was so heartbreaking to watch him come to collect his food to be turned away because his sponsor no longer was sending money. And in the past few months he has also been getting into a bit of trouble in the compound. Which we think is because of the stress in his house hold and how he is dealing with the loss of a sponsor.
So the good news is I asked if we could sponsor James now since Catherine has moved away, and James no longer had a sponsor. The principle was thrilled because we all have been worried about him, and he really could do great things in life if he stays in school. So I hope that is alright with you all. He is a really special kid! I told him today, and I told him that now I am going to be expecting a lot out of him. And that we are going to be a needy group of sponsors so he will have to write us a bunch of letters and do well in school. He was so thrilled. I even saw him skip a bit after I told him and sent him home to tell his mom.
xoxo
