July Compassion Letter to N. in Bangladesh

I wasn't really in the letter writing mood today to be honest, but it felt like something I was supposed to do. For one thing, I knew I needed to tell my sponsored girl about my trip to Colorado before I forgot too many of the details. When I sat down to write I felt no enthusiasm. I wrote "Dear N., How are you?" and no more words would come to mind. I realized what was wrong. I had to picture my sponsored girl as the real person she is, getting my letter in the middle of a real day in her life. It's hard to write to someone when you don't understand how they live and can't imagine the context in which your words will be read. Then I did a search in YouTube and found these videos:

 

 

 

I caught a few Bengali words in the first video ("khub bhalo"), and couldn't get enough of the everyday scenes of Bangladesh in the second. (That YouTube user has a whole bunch of shorter clips from her trip too). I loved seeing the footage of the Compassion Bangladesh headquarters and the room where the letters are translated. My letters have been there!

 

What did I write this time? I greeted her as always and told her I hope her family is safe and well. I told her I hung her picture on the wall by the door and that I remember her every time I go in and out. Then I told her all about my trip to Colorado (well, select parts of the trip.) I wanted her to be able to picture where I was, so the three pictures I included were of the mountains and cacti, and I explained what was in each picture, pointing out how the cactus is prickly and how the dirt in Colorado is red. Then I shared a few of the things I did with my grandparents- like learning to play the Native American flute with my grandpa, and receiving heirloom handmade blankets from my grandma and going to church with her. I have some photo prints of my whole family including my grandparents, and us with our cousins, but I'm sending those separately. I'm a little disorganized this time around, but I was too impatient to wait to send everything together. So there will be a July letter #2. I remembered after I submitted the letter today that I had wanted to tell her about the way God kept my family safe as we drove home in a terrible, tornado-producing storm. That story has to go in there too!

6th Birthday Card for my Sponsored Child

 

 

My child's 6th birthday is coming up... in September... but the translating and mailing process takes so long I had to time the birthday card 3 months in advance. I'm pretty proud of myself for remembering! Also patting myself on the back for that pop-up rainbow. There's this pesky requirement that items being sent through the mail be no thicker than 1/4 inch; otherwise the rainbow would have been fuller. I had so much fun making it; love little creative challenges like that. Anyway, I think it's a very bright, cheerful (hopefully not too babyish) birthday card without references to cake and presents and western, material motifs like that, which I try to avoid. It even says "Happy Birthday" on the front of the card in Bengali. At least I sincerely hope that's what it says. I didn't want translation and all that messy stuff done on her beautiful card, so I started with the Bengali version right off the bat.

 

I put a message on the back:

 

Dear....,

 

Happy 6th birthday! I pray that the next year of your life will bring you lots of new experiences and opportunities to grow more into the young lady that God created you to be!

 

You are a jewel and a treasure, and you're worth more than you can imagine.

 

With love in Christ,

 

Miss Emily

 

As a present, I'm sending her a sticker sheet and play scene that I cut out of a Mickey Mouse sticker book. (Appropriate and small sticker activity books are so hard to find! I've searched high and low. Even Dover didn't have anything I really felt was right. When my sister was 5 or 6 years old, she got a Little House on the Prairie sticker book, which I loved even more than my sister did! I wish there were more innocent, unique options out there such as that.) I thought the outdoor garden scene in this one was something my little girl could recognize and relate to easily enough. Of course, being Disney, they had to put an amusement park scene on the reverse side. Oh well. Even if she has no idea what it is, at least it's not a pink Barbie castle filled with big screen TVs and four poster beds. I've decided one little present is enough, even for her birthday, so that's it for this package.

 

I wanted to put confetti in the envelope, but I've since thought the better of that. The people in the mail room at Compassion would get a nice surprise, but the confetti would end up inside a trash can or a vacuum cleaner before making it to Bangladesh.

 

Even though I didn't blog about it, I did send her a letter last month. In fact, I wrote her a note using Compassion's online letter writing tool. It was a breeze, and the letter is saved in my account online if I ever want to reference it again. There was space to include three photographs on the bottom of the letter, which I did of course. I told her about my job and what I do in very simple terms, the picnic I had for my birthday, and about my upcoming trip to Colorado. There are lots of templates (although many of them are clearly for Christmas or birthdays), but since I don't have any pretty stationery, I'm definitely going to use the online writing tool again.

Compassion Letter from Me No. 3

 

 

 

I went a little over-the-top on this package. Next month's will be scaled-down and simple, not much more than a letter I think, especially since I'm going to put together a special birthday edition for her in June.

 

I started by writing a letter to my sponsored girl, telling her first of all about how I was home educated as a child. The first form letter I got from her was about the school she'll be attending next year, so I thought I'd continue the school conversation. Then I told her about ice skating with my sisters last week. Something current. Telling a 5-year-old girl from rural Bangladesh about ice skating though presents some problems. Has she ever seen pictures of someone ice skating before? Does she even know what ice is? (I mean really. It's a warm country.) For all I know, she's never been in an air conditioned building or had food right out of a freezer. So I didn't know how much to explain. Thinking visuals would help, I sent a photo of us on the standing on the ice (there are some small, blurry people skating in the background), plus two coloring pictures of children ice skating. I wanted a variety of activity sheets and not just coloring pictures, so I managed to find one appropriate (not to difficult) maze that featured some ice skating. It was a polar bear on ice skates. Then while I was at it, I printed off three more cute mazes that I found while browsing the internet.

 

I told her that I like quiet games better than sports and active games and asked her what kinds of games she likes to play. A couple games that I could share with her came to mind: memory game and tangrams. Both of those I loved as a child. I was onto the ice skating theme now, so I tried for a loooong time to find a printable memory game that featured ice skates and that I liked, i.e., all the objects in the pictures she would more or less recognize or identify with. Didn't happen. I should have made my own, but that would involve a lot of decisions about what objects to include, and I'm way too lazy for that. Then I tried to just find a polar animal themed memory game... ice, you know... and I did find one, but in the end I didn't feel satisfied with it and looked for tangrams instead. And I found a pdf file containing a set of tangram cards for children. These cards are so fun- the tangram is incorporated into a cute or silly illustration, so that a child can easily recognize what the tangram is supposed to represent, and the way the difficulty level progresses teaches the child how to solve the puzzles.

 

I ended up with a bunch of pieces to send to her, so I put it all in a pocket portfolio, even though the portfolio is larger than the 8 1/2 x 11 size we're asked to limit ourselves to. I don't know if the portfolio will make it through; I'd rather they toss the portfolio and send the letter without it than for the whole shipment to be rejected, so I asked God to give the people at the Compassion mailing center wisdom! I personalized the folder with a wallet sized photo of my sponsored girl, origami paper, and lots of stickers (Easter themed but they're the cutest ever, and she doesn't know).

 

I wish I knew whether she'll appreciate any of this. I had to tell myself as I worked on this package, it's okay if the mazes are too hard or too easy or if she just colors the tangrams pictures and never plays with the puzzle pieces or if they get rained on and become trash the first day. I made it out of love, even if it doesn't mean anything to her. But really, next month's is going to be simple!

End of the school year party

 

 

Kayley recently finished 11th grade, so she planned an end of the school year party for us. That's how it goes around here. If it's your special day, you throw a party for everyone else! We played a trivia game covering the topics she learned in school- history, Greek and Latin, and health and nutrition.

 

For dinner we ate gluten-free baked macaroni and cheese. The noodles were gluten-free, of course, and the roux was thickened with cornstarch instead of flour. The topping was made of slightly crushed crispy rice cereal, mixed with more cheddar cheese, parmesan, and melted butter.

 

I don't know what to call the beverage we drank for dessert. It was ginger ale, filled with fresh berries and bananas, and topped with a scoop of lime sherbet. More suited to eating with a spoon than a straw, I must say. Really refreshing, and not overly sugary, it was quite good.

Black Beaded Bracelets

 

I made these bracelets using black beads and an old spare button from a dress. I put the rougher, organically shaped beads on the back side to weight the bracelets down, but now I realize they're the best feature. I should make more, but with alternating sections of seed beads and rough beads.

Car Baubles

 

There's a luau party in my car right now! I made these baubles for my rearview mirror to use up some Styrofoam balls and silk lei flowers I've had for ages. (Put a bead on a straight pin, then insert it through the center of the flower and into the Styrofoam ball.. and that's about it for that tutorial.) This will make going to work at 6:15 a.m. a little more fun tomorrow!

First Compassion Letter From My Child

 

 

I've received several pieces of mail from Compassion, and each time I thought "It's a letter from her!" and each time I was disappointed. This time it said right on the envelope : "A message from your sponsored child." I tore into it! One side of the paper was a form letter about what her school will be like when she starts. She will begin school next year and she wants to learn Bengali and English. The school is 1 km from her home, and she'll take the cycle van with her father (assuming whoever filled out the form was not just checking off boxes.) The flip side of the paper was a handwritten letter from her caregiver telling me that N. hopes I'm doing well and that she's thankful for my sponsorship. She asked me what food I like and said that she likes eggs. At the end she asked me to pray for her. On top of the page was the best part- a pencil and crayon drawing of a multi-color flower made by my little girl. Flowers must be quite spectacular in Bangladesh! I can't decide what the yellow cross shape is supposed to be- the sun? a bee? a bird? Anyway, it's my closest connection to her, and I love it!

 

I didn't get pictures of my response letter; I assembled it in the car in front of the post office after getting photos developed, and I forgot to bring my camera. I used the colorful stationery Compassion sent me, decorated with lots of Bible motifs like Noah's ark and Joseph's coat of many colors.

 

Here's the text of my letter:

 

Dear N...,

How are you? I hope you and your family are well. I just got my very first letter from you, and it made me very happy! The picture you drew of the flower is so pretty. You must be excited to start school next year! Since you're still too young for school, what do you do when you go to the project right now?

You asked me what food I like. I like chicken and rice. One of my favorite dishes is tacos. It's spicy meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes wrapped up in a tortilla. A tortilla is a very flat piece of bread made of corn that we fry.

God loves you, N..., and even though I've never met you, God has put a special love in my heart just for you. He created you and made you just who you are for a purpose, to do good things, amazing things, which He planned for you even before you were born. That's what God says in the Bible: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10. I'm praying that you will feel God's great love and have hope in your heart.

Love in Christ from your sponsor,

Miss Emily

 

I had to cut it short since that's all I had room for on my stationery! I sent her three photos: one of my whole family on Christmas (though my dad was wearing his Santa hat... now she's going to think men wear those all the time here, haha), one of my bunny eating a carrot top, and one of my with her letter. I thought that would be exciting for her to see for herself that I really do get her letters. For a gift, I printed out this cute paper doll for her. I cut out all the pieces for her but left them blank for her to color. Also, I traced the doll onto heavy paper to make her sturdy, and then filled her in with pen lines. I put all the pieces in a small envelope and on the back drew a little picture of a girl on a swing hanging from a tree. The last gift I gave her was a few scratch and sniff apple stickers. I still remember all the little things that brought me joy as a child, and I love giving her a share of those things too.

 

 

I mentioned that Compassion sends me mail frequently. One thing they sent me was a newsletter concerning my child's region. It was rather vague, especially since I don't know how much applies to my child. But I appreciate it anyway. Just the pictures give me an idea of what her world is like. I keep all the informative newsletters and the personal letters from and about my little girl in a folder on my bookshelf.

 

I just discovered that Compassion has a page about Bangladesh and a page just about Northwestern Bangladesh on their website. (They do the same for all the other countries and regions where they work.) There are some photos there, tidbits about the culture (and recipes!!!), prayer requests, and links to other articles on their site and on the blog about Bangladesh. This is why I sponsor through Compassion. Not only is my child getting an education and gaining a global perspective, I am too.