Counting Stars

MSC archived stories - October 1, 2020

The meaning behind “Counting Stars” is basically that money can't buy happiness – we never can satisfy knowing how much out there, yet a group of children in Ecuador attempted to do just that!

Keeping up with the children is daunting at times when you have a full-time job as well as multiple sponsorship running at the same time, so this July I wanted to try something different – 'group letter' meaning all children regardless of their age receive the same letter, but even that took me a week to sort out and send.

It was about getting them to try some 11 activities during the lockdown or school holidays, and over the past 3 months I've been receiving their responses on how they did it. But this one in particular from Evelin (age 18), which I just received today is worthy of mention.

BIO:   Evelin is an active youth in CI Quito, participated in events such as leadership and assembly. She received help with schoolwork throughout her sponsorship and has just graduated to college. She is interested in fashion and also wants to be an entrepreneur – now that’s my type of girl 👧

It's wonderful to see Evelin getting her younger siblings involved in the tasks. In fact, my two Ecuadorians, Aaron and Evelin were equally fascinated by the challenge I presented.

Task 1:   Count how many Star jumps you can do in 1 minute.

First, counting the stars, with my brothers we went to the window, we looked at the sky until it got dark and the stars came out. My little brother says the numbers in disorder, that made us laugh.

(different interpretation of the task by trying to count stars in 1 minute!)

Btw, Aashiya (age 7) in Delhi managed to do 15-20 star jumps in 1 minute! Every jump took her around 3-4 seconds – a great form of cardiovascular exercise.

Task 2:   Describe each one of your family members in no more than 6 words, including 'My'. (e.g. My beacon of light!)

Second, I described my family, we all sat down in the living room and I started first, I described my mommy, she is my best friend, I tell her everything and we are very confident. When it was my siblings' turn to describe me, it was beautiful to hear what they think about their big sister.

Task 3:   Can you find 26 items that begin with every letter of the English alphabet in your house or Community Center?

Third, looking for things with letters of the alphabet, we did it slowly, since my little brother is learning the vowels, at the beginning he got confused and brought any object, he arrived first and beat my other brothers, it was very funny.

Evelin showed me that spending quality time together helps to form lasting connections between family members, thus reduces the chance of children getting involved in dangerous activities.

(Letter added to My Media)