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Published: November 7th 2011
Background Eleven years ago, Lorenza and I decided to sponsor a child through Child Fund Australia. We contacted the organisation via the phone and within a few weeks we were sent the details of a child they had selected for us in Indonesia. The details they sent us included a lovely photo and the following details:
“Maria Yensiana was born into a desperately poor family in East Nesu Tengarra. She lives with her parents, grandparents and one elder brother, in a small house with bad sanitation and no private bathroom. Her father tries hard to earn a living by working as a peasant, but he earns very little that it is impossible to meet the family’s needs.
Her mother, although resourceful at trying to make the most of the little, cannot do much with her husband’s low income. The family’s annual income is around US$195. It is painfully obvious that the child needs help if she wants to get proper nourishment, clothing and better attention. When we learn of her needs we are happy to welcome her to our big family. Yensi is her nickname. Her health condition is average and she makes good progress. Her hobby is singing. She will receive proper clothing and nutritious meals under your kind sponsorship so that she can grow healthily”.
We also found out from the initial correspondence that Yensi was born in 1997. In addition, our sponsorship would go via Child Fund to a local project, Wua Nesu Ndona, which is funded by Child Fund.
Over the coming years we exchanged letters and photos with Yensi about twice a year. We got to know a little more about her family, the village, her progress at school and her health. The project also sends us a yearly report on her schooling and health, with a photo and items like drawings or book marks that Yensi has made for us.
Though we live so far apart and communication is slow (takes about 6 weeks for our letters to arrive) we felt very close to Yensi and her family. We looked forward to the annual reports from the project, which normally arrived in the first or second week of the New Year. When it arrived we would eagerly read the report and then share it with our friends and family.
Helping us through a tough time One
particular year, our house was threatened by bushfires, we had been on edge for days and spent all our spare time getting our house and those of our neighbours ready in case the worst happened and we had to defend them from the fire. It was a very tense time. One morning the mailman arrived, bringing Yensi’s report. It arrived at a moment in time when we were very worn out and tired from bush fire fighting as volunteers and at home. To see a photo of Yensi’s smiling happy face and to read that she was progressing well gave us such a huge boost. All our neighbours shared the report and it lifted us all after so many days of hard work and tension.
Things we shared Yensi shared nice drawings and pictures with us through her letters. We also learnt of her ambition firstly to be police women and then a school teacher and more recently a doctor. No matter what she dreamed of we tried to do our little bit to encourage her to study hard and look after her parents and siblings.
We shared some sad things, like the death of Yensi's grandmother
a few years ago, even though we had never met her, Yensi asked us to pray for her - which we did. Also, we were concerned when she gave us news that her father had a car accident, but was not seriously hurt.
There was happy news also, when Yensi's mother gave birth to two new sons over the coming years. It was nice to share all this via our letters.
We also got news of how the crops were growing, what songs Yensi liked to sing and her liking for Iri Kiki dancing. We gave her news of our vegetable gardening, and events that went on in our family and daily lives. We sent info about uniquely Australian things, like kangaroos and koalas. Yensi told us about komodo dragons and mountains.
Time to visit Yensi is now 14 and in junior high school, Lorenza and I decided it was time we make the effort to meet her in person. So, that is exactly what we did. We made the initial arrangements with Child Fund in Australia. We had to get a clearance from the Australian Federal Police stating we were fit to work with children
and had no convictions as sex offenders. Then we began corresponding with the office in Jakarta. Our visit was then approved and the office in Jakarta organised a local contact for us, who in turn organised a hotel, a translator and a driver and car for us.
Getting there – Part 1 (18th October 2011) To get to Yensi’s hometown near Ende in Flores, we flew to Denpassar in Bali, where we stayed a few days and had a domestic flight organised with Lion Air for Tuesday, October 18th. The plan was to meet with Yensi on the following morning. On arrival at the domestic terminal we could not see any information about our flight to Ende scheduled for 13:35. We stood in a long check in line and eventually found that our flight had left two hours ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, Lion Air had not informed us of this change (obviously I should have checked).
Trying to sort this mess out was a test of patience, after much discussion at the check in counter we were taken to the Lion Air office (a grubby little cubby-hole in the back of the departure area) and were told
we would have to purchase new tickets. We protested that this was ridiculous given the circumstances and after about one hour managed to ascertain there were seats available on a flight in two days time bound for Ende.
We took a taxi back to Kuta and checked back into a hotel. We discussed the problem we had with the front office staff at the Best Western in Kuta and one of the guys working there offered to go to the airport and sort the mess out for us. We gave him an envelope full of money and our tickets and off he went. He returned two hours later and had secured us seats on a flight in two days time at no extra charge (except a small tip we paid direct to him). We were very pleased with how he sorted this out for us.
We then tried to contact a person at the local project in Ende to tell them we would not arrive for a further two days, but we could not get a hold of anyone. We phoned the office in Jakarta who promised to get the message through, which they did in the end.
Getting there – Part 2 (20th October 2011) Back at the domestic terminal two days later we were back at the check in line and could not find any notices about a flight to Ende that we had been told was scheduled for 11:30am. We asked about the flight at check in and after much discussion and tension Lion Air claimed we did not have seats on the flight. This was getting very, very frustrating. We found ourselves back in the grubby Lion Air office again trying to sort things out. It was 35 degrees and very humid, my internal temperature was rising rapidly. After much talking, phone calls and some pleading we finally had our bags checked in and a boarding pass issued.
Not long before boarding the plane I glanced at our boarding passes and noticed that the destination on mine was Labuan Bajo and on Lorenza’s it was Ende. We asked at the boarding gate and after much discussion in Indonesia that we could not understand we were told we could sort it out in Labuan Bajo at the transit desk as the flight was now boarding.
We touch down in Labuan Bajo
and tried to work out what was going on. We watched as our some luggage was unloaded from the plane but could not see if any belonged to me. Lorenza went to the transit desk and I waited at the luggage collection point. More confusion, Lorenza’s bag was on the luggage trailer but mine was not? At the transit desk we explained our plight and were told in no uncertain terms that I did not have a ticket to get to Ende, but Lorenza did. We showed the staff our original tickets but they were adamant that I could not rejoin the plane to go on to Ende.
In frustration, on the tarmac a few meters from the board area I slipped a large amount of rupiah into a guys hand and was allowed to board. Once seated I was fuming, I could not help cursing Lion Air and all its inefficiencies – they were now the cause of everything bad in this world!
We landed in Ende and by that time I had calmed down somewhat. We commented that at least we made it and were together. In addition, I was not stuck in Labuan Bajo trying
to work out how to get to Ende. At the luggage pick up area a woman in a Lion Air uniform approached me and asked “are you Mister Robert”. At first I hesitated wondering if I was about to be arrested for illegally boarding the flight, but to my surprise she handed me an envelope that contained the exact sum of money I had handed over on the tarmac in Labuan Bajo. I ate many of the bad things I had said about Lion Air on the spot.
We made it to Ende – at last At the luggage pick up area we met Firmus and Lentje from Child Fund who helped us claim our bags and took us by car to our hotel. They explained a bit about what was planned for our meeting with Yensi and we apologised for nay problems our delay had caused. That evening Firmus, his wife and granddaughter, plus Lentje and Ritchie took us for dinner to a seafood restaurant. The food was great; the grilled fish was some of the best I have tasted.
Over dinner Firmus told us a lot about the background of the Wua Mesu Ndona project,
the staff numbers and what they had been working on over the years. They are obviously very caring people who do a lot for children in the area. From memory I think he said the project helps about 2200 children in the Ende area.
We got back to the hotel and were very excited about what was planned for the following day; we had been looking forward to meeting Yensi for many months. Firmus told us that not only was Yensi very excited, her whole school were looking forward to our visit.
We reviewed the program of events for the day, which Firmus had supplied us, and tried to get some sleep.
Sporting goods Next morning our first stop was the local market area to buy some sporting equipment to donate to the school. We purchased a volley ball and net, plus some a tube of cocks for Badminton. Which Firmus told us were very popular sports at the school.
Child Fund & Wua Mesu Ndona Office Our next stop was the office of the Wua Mesu Ndona project, where Lentje and Firmus introduced us to the staff and showed us the financial and
other records relating to our sponsorship. They explained how the money was used and the many projects that the total funds were used for. We were very impressed with the professional way the project was run and the detailed records kept.
Some of the funded areas include a health clinic, equipment for the school such as science kits and some computers, musical instruments and ongoing training for the teachers, etc. They also managed projects such as improvements to water supply and sanitation in the villages.
Our morning at school From the office we went to the school, about 10 minutes drove from Ende. We climbed the steps to the school entrance and immediately recognised Yensi and her family waiting to greet us. Yensi and her mother started crying and we received the biggest, most heart felt hugs I have ever experienced in my life.
After some initial introductions, Yensi took my hand and led me to the reception area where a group of boys played musical instruments and a group of girls danced and sprinkled flower petals on us. We had no idea they had anything so special organised for us.
After some speeches and
formal introductions we were entertained by students of the school with many dances and songs. There were some formal speeches given by the teachers, Yensi read a welcoming prayer for us and both Lorenza and I got a turn to speak. We told them how blessed we were to have been given the chance to sponsor Yensi and that we felt that health and education were a big key to improving peoples lives.
Yensi and her class mates performed more dances and sang some lovely songs for us. We then donated the sporting goods. We did not get away without joining in some dancing and were introduced to all Yensi’s class mates, who told us their names, favourite school subject and their hobby.
It was rather overwhelming, we felt very honoured by the effort the school put into welcoming us. Many of the pupil’s parents attended, as did Yensi’s parents, siblings and an Aunty. We were told that the students had been told about our planned visit in about May and had been asking regularly “so, when are they coming?”
Village ceremony After the events at the school, we drove further into the mountains to Yensi’s
home village. We were met at the lower part of the village by a group which included the three village elders (one of whom is Yensi’s Opa).
Yensi and the village elders led us through the village, as we climbed higher up the hill passing the traditional houses and smiling waving locals. At the top of the village we came to Yensi’s house and were seated for more speeches and ceremony. We were told that the village elders and Yensi’s family intended to conduct a ceremony to adopt us into their village and their family.
This was very emotional ceremony for us. Her family dressed us in traditional clothes, for me a sarong and head piece and Lorenza a sarong and blouse. Yensi’s father dressed me and her mother did the same for Lorenza.
We then did some dancing, followed by more speeches. We were given coconuts to drink from and lunch was served buffet style in the house next door to Yensi’s home. After the food some Arak was offered around, which I had to try (it helped to improve my dancing).
More dancing followed, with many of the village folk joining in. We had
no idea of the steps but did our best and just gave in to the enjoyment of it all. We felt very welcomed and I think they in turn appreciated that we did our best to join in the ceremony and dancing.
We gave a few gifts to Yensi’s family, some simple things like T-Shirts with Australian animals on them, some caps and pencil cases with colouring pencils to distribute to some younger children. No matter what gifts we gave they would have been very insignificant compared to the love a friendship that the local people showed us.
Farewell It was time to go, the day had flown and we found it such a wonderful experience. Yensi took Lorenza’s hand and led us back down the hill form the village to our car. She cried again as we said our farewells – we gave her one last big hug and waved goodbye.
What a day! Some words from Yensi’s welcoming prayer summed things up nicely, my Indonesian is not perfect but she said words to the effect of “we are blessed to meet each other even if it is only for half a day!”
Where does your money go?
Anyone considering sponsoring a child who is wondering if the monthly payment will go to benefit the child or the community they live in I think can rest assured from what we saw that you money well be very well spent. A small amount per month can make such a big difference – in fact it is the price of a case of beer or half a box of wine each month – it really does change people lives and not just of the child you sponsor, the whole community benefit as do you as well.
Thanks Many thanks to the people who made our visit possible - Cassie Landrigan from Child Fund in Australia, Dwi Harjanto from Child Fund in Jakarta. Special thanks to Firmus Olebesu and Lentje Palapadi from Child Fund and the Wua Mesu Ndona project in Ende.
In addition, we owe a big thank you to Yensi, her family, classmates, teachers, the village elders and all who made our day so special. We will never forget this experience!
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littlewing
Cindy
Beautiful Blog
Thanks for showing what child sponsorship can do :) Btw - the fires your house was threatened by - were they the Roleystone fires?