News From Constanza in Chile

I was very impatient when it came to waiting for Constanza's first letter! I began sponsoring Constanza because she reminded me a lot of my friend Betsy, a wonderful person who passed away from cancer at age 20. In the time between when I sponsored Constanza and when I received her first letter, I had kind of constructed this personality for her in my head...I know that sounds strange, but I was like "Oh, I'm sure she's -insert personality trait here-, just like Betsy was!" Which is, of course, ridiculous. Constanza is her own person with her own personality, and when I received her CW letter, I was reminded of that. I think it's a very human thing to do and a natural mistake to make, though. We assume that because someone reminds us of someone else, they will be just like them in all ways!

Anyway, here is what Constanza wrote in her welcome letter to me.

"Dear Sponsor,

I want to thank you for having sponsored me. I do more or less well in school. At my school there are grills every Thursday. On September 18th we had a great time since my family and I went to the hills and beach. Today is a holiday so we took a walk and went to the beach. I would like to ask you for a reply and picture. I have a lot of friends at school such as Javiera, Claudia and Constanza, we get along and go out together; we help each other with homework. I send you a big hug. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours, your sponsored child,

Constanza Nicole C. S."

This is one of those cases where I'm glad I have a background in Spanish! (I used to be fluent, but I'm not anymore.) At first I thought the part about the "grills" was a typo, and Constanza meant that she attends a girl's school. But I looked in the Spanish that she wrote and no, it definitely says "grills", like to barbecue on. Also, in the original letter it says something about Thursdays that wasn't translated, so I checked it out and what I think she's trying to say is that at her school, every Thursday they cook on grills.

I also received Constanza's Education Report the day before her letter, so I got to have that fresh in my memory while I was reading her letter. Constanza attends a school with new facilities. About 14 sponsored children go there- I don't know if that's the number in just her class, or the number in the school total. The report doesn't say how many children attend the school in total.

Constanza takes public transportation to school, and it takes her about 30 minutes to get there. She is in the 8th grade (she's 13), and her progress is normal. Her grades are fair, and she is not receiving any special help with schoolwork. Her favorite subjects are math and social studies/history. Some of the educational benefits she has received from CI include school shoes and a school supply kit. The report actually lists every item in the supply kit, but I won't bore you by describing each item.

Lastly, Constanza does plan to continue her education, which is, of course, exactly what I hoped to hear!