Day 7 - Meeting Cassandra

Today was an exciting day - I finally get to meet Cassandra our sponsored child. We were taking all the kids that the group sponsored for a fun day out at Cebu Ocean Park which is a giant aquarium which also has some other animals such as snakes, and birds. As we were arriving at Cebu Ocean Park we saw the kids waiting with their a relative (most kids had their mum with them) and a CDW (Child Development Worker) from the church project they attended.

It took me a moment but I managed to pick out Cassandra in the group of kids. I was both nervous and excited. Excited to meet her, and to have the chance to chat with her and her mother about their lives, but also nervous that it wouldn’t go well, the fact I was a guy meeting a 12 year old girl and not being able to connect etc.

I walked over to say hi to Cassandra and her mother - Cassandra was quiet and shy. After I had said hi, and briefly chatted to the CDW I had the opportunity to give some gifts that we had purchased. The majority of the gifts were practical things such as clothes (we went for NZ size 12), pens, pencils, paper, etc but there were also a couple of fun things too, such as a bracelet making set, colouring in book, a word find etc.

We had also purchased some things for the family such as a light blanket, basic kitchen utensils, oven mitts etc. As we had purchased quite a few things the bag was quite heavy so we put this in a locker so that we didn’t have to carry it around the aquarium.

After chatting some more we headed into the aquarium and we were able to see lots of fish, some land creatures and at the end we saw a bird show where we were given lots of info about some specific bird species and they did some games where the birds did Maths, played put the ball in the basket, and put the rings on the stick. Some of the birds also flew around the area we were sitting in before returning back to their keepers.

The highlight of this trip was an extended period of time where I was sitting at the table with Cassandra and her Mother, and I got to have a long chat with them. The mothers English was pretty good so we were able to converse quite well, with the occasional input from the CDW required when we were struggling.

I learned simple things about Cassandra like:

• Purple is her favourite colour (the same as Christine)
• Her fathers line of work is a Motorcycle driver (he takes riders to destinations and gets paid for it)
• She study - While we were at Cebu Ocean Park she wanted to use her mothers phone to look at her lessons for the day 😄
• Maths is her favourite subject
• She’s one of the top two students of her class (I already knew that from one of her letters)

And so much more!

In the church that Cassandra goes to there were 3 kids that were sponsored by our group. I also learned during Lunch from the CDW that they were not aware that the kids were going to be meeting their sponsors that day, rather that they were meeting some sponsors from New Zealand who were representatives of their sponsors. I imagine this would be quite overwhelming for her, being in a strange place, meeting strange people, randomly being given some gifts and then being told that I was her sponsor. Over all we had a good time and although Cassandra remained shy I was able to connect with her, she or her mother answered any questions I had. The best way I found to connect with her was to show her photos of family etc in New Zealand, and point to people there and explain who they were. I also showed her some of our favourite things to do such as some photos of the donkeys that we like to visit semi regularly.

When the time came to leave, we left first, then the sponsored kids and their parents left. It was sad to go, but I was happy to be visiting her church the next day, and to be able to see her in an environment that she was accustomed to.

What a blessing it was to meet Cassandra and her family, to connect with them and to be able to chat to them. It was a day I will never forget.

Below are some pictures of Cebu Ocean Park

That evening after dinner I printed off some of the pictures from Cebu Ocean Park, and added them to the photo book we have been creating for Cassandra.