Last month in Tanzania, I had the privilege of meeting the child I have sponsored through Compassion since October 2008. Without doubt, one of my favorite days of the race! His name is Eliwangu (which means "my God"), and he just turned 14 years old about a week ago.
The Compassion representative Frankie picked Katie and me up where we were staying in Moshi, and we drove about 50 km to Eliwangu's village of Mburiashi, situated between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro. When we first drove up to the Compassion project center, Eliwangu was sitting on the back of a motorbike waiting for us. I can't describe how awesome it was to see him for the first time in person after 4 years of correspondence through letters and seeing pictures of him and his family. Pretty sure I scared him a little with all of my excitement and hugging at first!
Me and Eli
We got to take a tour of the Compassion project center, where Eliwangu attends every Saturday for Bible classes and health education, as well as a feeding program with the other sponsored children. It was very encouraging to see that Compassion keeps a notebook on each child including all their grades in school, every visit to the doctor and what was wrong, each individual gift purchased with sponsor money along with the cost, etc. I also learned that Compassion has created a school program for students to attend during the interim between primary and secondary school, in order to keep them focused on their studies and help prepare them. Eliwangu is currently in standard 6, and exams to determine entry into secondary school occur after standard 7. Please keep him in your prayers – that he will be diligent and successful in his studies – as this is truly a make or break point for his future.
Eli's Compassion Project Center
The staff of the Compassion project center prepared some snacks and drinks for us, so we spent some time hanging out and talking. Eliwangu's favorite class in school is English, but he was too shy to practice much. The staff translated for us, but thankfully I was able to use the Swahili I picked up during my time in Kenya and Tanzania in order to communicate with him directly for some of the time. He is super shy and serious, so we spent a lot of time picking at him and making him laugh. He definitely loosened up by the end of the day. I learned that he prefers warm milk over tea. And water over Fanta. His favorite food is meat. He also wants to be a police officer. And he attends a Lutheran church. I love knowing the little details.
Snacks with Freddie, the Compassion representative
The best part of the day was visiting Eli's house and spending time with him along with his parents and little sister Hilda, who is 6. His brothers Enoch (16) and Eric (9) were at school, so I didn't get to meet them that day. Although it was November 23rd, I knew Eli's birthday was coming up on December 7th, so I figured it would be fun to be a part of the celebration. I pulled out the birthday cake we had purchased on the way, and they got me and Eli to cut the cake together which was quite funny, as we sang happy birthday. We were then able to present the family with gifts of rice and sugar, along with a pretty tea set I found in Singida. My favorite part was giving Eli his backpack of presents – I think the soccer ball and Tanzania jersey were the biggest hits. Now we are twins with our Tanzania jerseys.
Birthday celebration time!
Mama had a nice little table set up under the trees outside the house, complete with snacks and a case of soda. I got to ask any questions I wanted to, so I learned that Mama and Baba were both born in the community they currently live in, and they grew up next door to each other. They are part of the Meru tribe. Baba cuts timber and Mama sells vegetables from the family garden at the market twice a week. I got to see the 4 goats and some chickens the family had purchased with the Christmas money from the Christmas money I sent over the past couple of years, which was so cool.
Eli's whole family is very reserved so they didn't have a ton of questions for me, except for one really hard question from Baba! He asked why they must struggle daily to survive while we in America have most anything we want. It wasn't resentful – he just honestly wanted to know what I thought. And I did not at all know what to say. It made me realize just how many of God's blessings I take completely for granted. My heart really goes out to this family. They are fortunate enough to be able to send all 4 children to school currently, but it is a struggle to come up with the school fees for Enoch, Eric, and Hilda. They would also like to make improvements to their home, so they asked for prayer for provision for both of those things.
I absolutely did not want to leave when it was time to go. I know I get attached to everyone, but this was a whole different level. After so many years of getting to know this family and finally meeting them, they truly feel like an extension of my family. It was good to feel that while so far away from home.
Me with Eli and Hilda
The whole fam
I encourage you – if you have ever considered sponsoring a child (or even if you haven't), check out Compassion. God is using that organization to change millions of lives around the world.
