Pedro and Anjali

Today I received a note from the project where Pedro was, letting me know that he "is being departed." I had to laugh...should I send flowers and a sympathy card? But it was nice to get a thank you for my sponsorship for the past 2 years.

I also had a letter from Anjali in India which reads:

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Anjali sends greetings to you in the Almighty name of Lord Jesus Christ. She says she is fine. She asks how you are? She asks about your health? She says she received your letter. She asks what kind of book you are going to write next year. She says she loves so much you. She says she is very lucky on behalf of you. She says she promoted to next class. She says she is studying well. she says she loves her project and project staff and children. She says she is praying for you and your family members. She asks you also pray for her cute future and family members. She says thanks for your love and affection

--on behalf of M. Anjali [name], sponsor relation assistant

(I had to smile about being asked to "pray for her cute future." I wonder what that means!)

Pedro

I was very surprised to log onto the Compassion web site today and learn that Pedro, from Brasil, has left the program. There was no explanation, but there was the name of a 4 year old Brasilian boy and an option to accept him as a replacement, or not.

I was at first very upset about how this was all handled, but others in Compassion have convinced me that Compassion always either calls or sends mail when something like this happens and perhaps I just happened to log in when the news hit their web site, but there has not been enough time for them to contact me more personally than just posting to a web site. I hope so.

I will miss Pedro. He was the second child I sponsored, but he also was one who rarely wrote, so I really know little about him. My one disappointment was that he expressed interest in American football and I found all sorts of information on the internet that would help explain the game to him, and had it all translated by our Brasiian son (now living in Canada), who translated it paragraph by paragraph and left the English to help Pedro see the words that were being translated. I sent that about a year ago and it was never mentioned. It was one of the things I was the most excited about sending.

Oh well, as I have been told, several times, by my son in other instances "It's not about you, Mom." And it wasn't about me. It was about Pedro. I hope his departure from the program means that his family is in better financial circumstances and don't need Compassion's assistance any more.

Now I have to see what I'm going to do about a new child to sponsor, to take Pedro's place.

Letter from Pedro

Hello, dear sponsor Beverly Sykes,

It's a joy for me to write you this letter in this special time. I'm doing well. It's summer here and Christmas is coming. It's very beautiful. Thank you for the Christmas gift of R$24.58. I got a shirt and a car and liked it a lot.

Now I'm on school vacation and I'm happy because I'll have lots of fun and play with my friends.

In school I hope to pass to 5th grade.

I got your letters and pictures of Russia and stickers. Thank you a lot. I'll answer your questions with love: I'm doing well, I have cousins and visit my relatives often.

Sponsor, I'll tell you something that you don't know. I use my right hand to write and use my right foot to score goals in soccer. I like to sing and love reading.

I got your post card from Sacramento and band aid.

I finish this letter missing you. I hope to write you again soon. Warm kisses from me and my family, until next time!

Love, Pedro.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2011.

New Picture of Pedro

There was a new picture of Pedro in the mail today.

But the interesting thing is that he's wearing the exact same shirt he was wearing in the picture I got of him last year!

2010 ----------------- 2011

To Pedro

I absolutely LOVE this poster I put together for Pedro today!

And I am thrilled with how this magazine cover turned out for Anjali.

The World Series

One of my kids -- Fred -- likes baseball, so I wrote to him about the World Series and my excitement, since "my" Giants are playing. I included a couple of newspaper pages which had color photos and there was one photo, life size, of a baseball, which I pasted on the back of sticky paper to give it some strength. I hope he likes it all.

I also got a couple of birthday cards that you can record yourself. Pedro in Brasil has a January birthday, so I recorded myself singing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese (which we used to do frequently, so I'm good at it!). I still have to decide what I'm going to record for Briana in Haiti.

Football for Pedro

Pedro loves soccer and says he doesn't know anything about American football, so I sent him this graphic I found on the internet. I also found very simple, basic rules for football and sent it to a Brasilian friend of ours, who translated it for me, leaving the English underneath each Portuguese paragraph in case Pedro wanted to try to see how to translate it himself. I also included a package of football player cards. I haven't heard yet if he received this and if he liked it.

Letter from Pedro

Dear Sponsor Beverly Sykes,

Hello. How are you? I hope that you're doing well. I'm doing well with my family, thanks God. Thank you for the pictures. I was happy to get your letter.

Is it fun where you live? How is your weather there? Here it's winter and it has been very cold.

Do you know what I got with the gift you sent me? (for his birthday) I got tennis shoes and I was happy because my other tennis shoes were old.

Here in school, we are getting ready for nations' party and our classroom will talk about Japapn.

I finish this letter wishing you many blessings from God. I send you a warm kiss.

Your sponsored child, who loves you a lot.

Pedro

Pedro - Birthdate: 1/12/01

Not long after I'd started sponsoring Anjali, I started kicking myself because with all of our connections to Brasil, I knew I should have sponsored a boy from Brasil. I did a bit of figuring of what I could afford and decided I would, in fact, sponsor a boy from Brasil.

Again, I flipped through the pictures and Pedro immediately caught my eye. He just had "that look" of all the Brasilian young men I'd known.

He lives with his mother and 3 siblings and he likes soccer, playing with cars, and art. He lives on the plains of Jose Pinheiro, in the north east of Brasil. His information says that typical houses are constructed of cement floors, brick walls and tile roofs. And, of course, he speaks Portuguese.

The regional diet consists of beans, chicken, bread, potatoes and rice. Common health problems in this area include yellow fever, parasites, malnutrition, and intestinal worms. Half the adults in this area are unemployed.

Pedro's letters are pretty brief and kind of cryptic, but usually incude a drawing of a car.