Tsehay: Summer 2010

My sponsor kids are very, very important to me. Especially Tsehay, as I have been sponsoring her the longest, and was able to meet her when I went to Ethiopia last year. I just got my annual update with a new picture of her, and I am always so excited when these come in the mail.

She is still wearing the pair of shoes I bought her 2 years ago. It is reported that her health is good, her talent is drawing, she helps at home by carrying the baby, and her best friend's name is Abayitu. Her favourite food is bread, her favourite sport is 'jump' (skipping?), her pet animal is an ox (I bought them the ox earlier this year, and she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

In school she is doing good and excellent in all subjects, which I was thrilld to read. Tsehay has sruggled with school, as many girls in rural Ethiopia do. She often doesn't attend as she stays home to watch the animals, and it took her quite a while to get through grade 1. She is now in grade 2 and is expected to pass to grade 3. Her favourite class is local language (Oromic).

This year, her family participated in a farming training activity. They benefited through World Vision by receiving a bed, an ox, books, pens, clothes, and a cow.

I send a package to Tsehay every month or two. Today I mailed her two pairs of leggings (in Ethiopia the girls wears pants underneath their dresses) and a backpack. I was sure, in the letter I wrote her, to make a huge deal about how great she is doing in school. That is my main goal with sponsorship; to encourage my sponsor kids to attend school and work hard at it, and continue to support them through secondary school and college.