An Incredible Day!

Today was one of my best days of my life! I finally met Yiseth and Sonia and it was wonderful! The day started off very slowly  because first of all I was up an hour before everyone else.. This was  because I misread the time on my world clock page of my mobile phone. The regular time does not show, so I was looking at this page instead. This is the reason why the cook looked at me kind of strange when I asked if breakfast was ready at 7.00 a.m. when it was actually 6.00 a.m. But he fixed something for me anyway, very nice of him. Then I had an hour to do something to my hair which is not doing well in this humidity at all. I was downstairs waiting for the CI van at 8.20 the correct time because I knew that they are usually right on time. Well, 10-15 minutes passed and the van had not arrived. This was very unusual so I thought that maybe I  had misread something. Just as one of the Don Pedro staff members dialed the CI number for confirmation, the translator walked in! I was so happy and relieved. They had problems getting down some of the streets due to road construction and were very apologetic. The translator´s name was Gabriel and the driver´s name was John.

The plan was that I was supposed to meet Sonia at home and spend time with her, and then meet up withe Yiseth at one of the community centers. Well the plan changed because Sonia was supposed to meet us at another center to show us the way to her home. Then as we were going to the center, Gabriel received a phone call, that Sonia had spent the night with her auntie in Cartagena and was returning to the center just as we were driving there. The ride was unbelievable, again as everyone was driving so aggresively down the streets, honking horns for people to move out of the way. Motorcycles weaved in and out of cars and pedestrians strolled down the streets with no regard for the vehicles! We took a very long dirt road full of pot holes to the center that had been built in 1980. It is way out in the country and as we passed the roads, I began to see the horrible poverty that most of these people live with every day.

When we arrived at the center, we waited for about 45 minutes in a very hot room, no air conditioning but families were sitting down being serviced. Gabriel explained much of what took place in the different parts of the center and also tried to find me some bottled water. I must have looked like I was in bad shape from the heat because they insisted on going to a nearby store to buy me some water!

Any way after waiting and waiting, Gabriel asked if I would know Sonia if I saw her and I said that I most definitely would. Maybe about ten minutes later, she came through the front door and I am not kidding, she ran into the room and grabbed me, hung on for about five minutes. I think that she was crying and I was too because she held me so tightly and I felt her strong sense of attachment. This was so amazing to me because from her videos that Steve had taken, I knew that she was very reserved and wasn´t too sure if she would feel comfortable with me. But she was holding me so hard, and I know now  that having a sponsor in her life means so much more than I could ever imagine. She is a child who has been moved around from house to house and I found out that her mom is staying with man that Sonia does not like. They say that there may have been some kind of neglect or abuse there but the families can be very secretive about these things. She held my hand as we walked out of the center with Gabriel, the driver, her aunt, and another lady, not sure who she was. I have never seen this aunt in any photos, but she was very talkative and nice, very open and willing to share.

When we arrived at the home, the house was in a little better shape than most, with a couple of hogs walking around in yards. They are treated as pets.  The area is very poor, just like you see in the pictures.I believe that Sonia is staying with her aunt until school starts back July  28. I will post photos as soon as I can get the upload to work but it may take awhile.

Sonia seemed to very happy with her gifts and especially liked a watch which she immediately put on her arm. It had her favorite colors, purple and pink. Sonia also received a top, necklaces, bracelets, sweet smelling lotion, a play set for swimming, a flip book photo album which everyone loved, a journal and pens, along with a few other things. Her aunt mentioned that Sonia does not like to wear girly things, is more of a tomboy and I shared, that I was also like that growing up. Sonia is sooo quiet and reserved but she was very affectionate and wanted to hold my hand most of the time we were together.

I asked Gabriel to see if she knew that I had another sponsored child waiting for us to go to the mall together and she seemed to know, but I emphasized that they were both my sponsored children and both are special to me. Her aunt chimed in that Yiseth would now be her sister! She seemed to like this.

Back a little later hopefully with more info. to share on the day.