And Samuel Makes 9

 
Now that my mother is living at Covell Gardens, I was able to cancel her LifeLine, which was costing me $50 a month, as Covell has its own system which is included in her monthly fees.  The idea of having an additional $50 made me think that maybe I'd see about sponsoring a 9th child.

I've done this before but nobody ever leaped out at me as needing me. 

It took about 2 seconds for me to choose Samuel from Kenya.   With his oversized head and his bloated stomach, he looked like a little Yoda...

...and also looked like he probably has a lot of health problems that being a sponsored child could begin to address.

Besides, I want to see how his appearance changes as he grows up.

Samuel lives with his father and mother.  He is responsible for gardening.  His father is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother is sometimes employed as a farmer.  There are 5 children in the family.

Soccer is Samuel's favorite activity.  In kindergarten his performance is average and he also regularly attends church activities.

He lives on the plains of Kasyalani, home to approximately 3,000 residents.  Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and thatched rofs.  The regional diet consists of maize, millet and cow peas.

Common health problems in this area include malaria and typhoid.  Most adults in Kasayalani are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $25 per month. 

So Samuel joins the rest of the family.  

I also let Compassion know that now that they are needing correspondence sponsors (people who write to sponsored kids whose sponsors don't want to write to them).  They previously had a limit of 3 children to whom you could write and I don't know how I actually got four, but I did say I was willing to write to more than four and so they sent me Lovson, from Haiti.  I don't have any information about him yet, but was able to get a copy of his photo.  When I have it, information will be avalable on my Compassion Kids blog site.

* * *

I meant to mention in yesterday's entry the two girls who came in in the middle of the afternoon, asking if I had a book called "something like 'a dream in the middle of the night in summer.'"  They told me it was written by "a guy named William Shakespeare."  When I asked if they meant "Midsummer Night's Dream," they brightened and said "That's it!"  I directed them to the Shakespeare section and they were disappointed at not finding what they wanted (after about 15 minutes of looking and whispering).

 

They showed me a book of the complete works of Shakespeare and asked if there wasn't a book like it with just "Midsummer" in it.  I directed them to the new books store (meaning it sells new, not used books) in the next block.  While they were gone, I checked the shelves again and sure enough, there was a paperback copy of "Midsummer" and when they came back, I showed it to them, but apparently they wanted a hardback copy.  I told them I thought they would not find it.

Then they picked up the complete works again and asked me if this was the text as it was originally written.  I said I was sure that it was.  They finally decided to buy that instead.

These girls looked like they were from a different country but they spoke impeccable college-ese Engliah and I was surprised that they seemed to have zero knowledge about Shakespeare!  But I did make the sale, so it wasn't a total loss (and I had something to share here!)