It was a smoothie day.

On the coldest day of the week, I decided to go for a walk around downtown. I stopped in front of a crosswalk and suddenly turned around on a whim to walk the other direction when instead I was halted by a 4-foot high plastic cart and a man in a matching cap and apron. I mixed "sorries" with the man pushing the cart when he, before parting ways, yelled at me, "Come by Cosi- FREE SMOOTHIES ALL DAY LONG!"

So I pointed my stomach-compass to the IDS building that harbored Cosi. Onward wayward soldier- even though it was freezing outside- this girl loves a free, frozen treat any day of the year.

A young man stopped me on the next corner wearing a Walmart-like vest, but green. He had a clipboard in his hand. My entire walk downtown I was instinctively aware of his existence and how far I was away from him.

But, he started asking me simple questions about if I knew the organization he donned on his vest, etc etc. The young man was nice, not overly verbose, just the right amount of normal conversation to sales man lingo. So I started to chat it up with this fellow, Dylan (with a Y and not an I like all the popular Dyans). Not only had I heard of the organization he represented, but as I cranked out my questions- he was well versed and charismatic.

The organization is ChildFund International. The information hit home with me because most of the work is done in Africa not to mention Mozambique. Also, the majority of the work is to get girls to school by buying off their fathers with gifts of goats and cows and fabrics. This may seem odd, but in a lot of third world countries still, girls are sold by the time they are toddlers to a man who can give the best dowry. So workers from ChildFund would go to these fathers and give them the dowry and make a contract with the family promising that the girl would not be sold off, but enrolled in school. And they make sure of it. I remember when I traveled to Swaziland, the worker of the mountain camp I stayed at told us the entire story of how courtship works there. I will never forget how uncomfortable and uneasy I felt during this story. I was at the bottom of a mountain, we were preparing to trek back up, sitting with this man knowing the graphic details he is explaining happens as ritual still today.
But that's a whole other blog post.

So I sat with this Dylan for a good 15 mins. badgering him with questions. And then I did it right then and there, I decided that I would sponsor a little girl from Kenya. My little girls' name is Jeburet. She is 12 years old. She lives in thatched huts similar to the ones I built in Mozambique last year.

After crossing my t's and dotting my i's- Dylan and I went to Cosi for a free smoothie. I made a friend today and gained a family member- meet Jeburet.
It was a smoothie day.


www.childfund.org