Sponsor a Child

The Wednesday after school discussion group that I go to decided that we should sponsor a child as a group just the other week, partially because of one of my previous blogs, "A Rant". It was decided that I would find out about the best way we could do this.

So I visited the Compassion UK website where I found a number of children in need of sponsorship. I printed off some information about the charity and we met in a cafe where we could access the internet to see which child we would like to sponsor as a group.

Initially everyone seemed to think sponsoring Pedro was a good idea simply because of his very cool name. Then someone decided to take it seriously, and eventually there was a group split between two children. After much pondering and discussion we decided that it would not be fair to settle it with the flip of a coin. So we chose one of the children. As it happened it was not the child I had chosen.

I was the one given the task of sorting out the sponsorship so later that evening I went online to sponsor the child we had chosen. I spent a while filling out the form, and then a screen came up:

PLEASE WAIT... LOADING...

Needless to say I waited. And waited. And pressed back. Then I tried to do it again.

PLEASE WAIT... LOADING...

And I waited. And the screen loaded.

We are very sorry but the child you are trying to sponsor was sponsored whilst you were filling out the form. Please feel free to sponsor another of our children.

Thus I emailed the group leader and asked whether I should sponsor our second choice (my first choice) instead. He laughed about it (over email) and said we should do that, although we'd be accused of not really trying because we both wanted the second choice child. (We were simply outnumbered eventually.)

So I sponsored the other child.

Thank you for choosing to sponsor Emeetai.

Today I was in bed when I heard the post clatter through the door. An envelope sat there (several did really, but this way it sounds more dramatic) inviting me to open it.

I did. The first sentence I read?

Dear Mr. Montoya,

Thank you for sponsoring Rodel and Emeetai (the names of the two brilliant children). Your sponsorship will make a huge difference to their lives.

I was gleeful. I had thought about sponsoring the one we hadn't decided on but wasn't sure. My decision was made by a blip in the computer.