A visit from my sponsored family

Last year, Plan shared a touching story about Fatu Bangura – a former sponsored child from Sierra Leone. When Fatu was a child, Plan connected her with a family in the Netherlands whose sponsorship enabled her to attend and graduate from high school. 25 years later, Fatu located and visited the family that had made such a difference in her life.

After their visit, Fatu and former sponsored family Ulbe and Djoke Pauzenga, decided that 4 days together wasn’t enough. So, a year later, Ulbe and Djoke flew from Amsterdam to New York City to visit Fatu, their sponsored child from 1981 – 1987, and the rest of her family.

Here is Fatu’s account of their visit…

On Saturday June 5th, Ulbe, Djoke and I took a bus to Times Square and while we were in the Lincoln Tunnel, Djoke saw a limousine driving by. She said to me “oh look… a limousine; I have always seen it on TV and today I am able to see it for real”. When we got to Times Square, the Pauzenga’s were amazed by the amount of people walking around and the tall buildings of course.

On June 6th, Dr. Kathryn Forlenza - a psychologist at my place of work who was very instrumental in helping me locate the Pauzenga’s - and her husband Bill Forlenza had a nice dinner at their home for us. Ulbe and Djoke were very happy to have seen a “real American home” as the Forlenza’s home is beautiful. Before we got to the Forlenza’s home, we went to the Board Walk at the Staten Island Beach and took some nice photos. The weather was beautiful on that day and the company at the dinner was great.

Stephanie Pangia, another instrumental person in helping me locate the Pauzenga’s (Stephanie and Kathryn are best friends and Stephanie had translated my email to Dutch and emailed it to the Pauzenga’s), invited us to dinner at her house at the Jersey Shore. Stephanie and her husband Bob have an “unbelievably beautiful home” according to Djoke and Ulbe and I agree with her.

Stephanie was kind enough to get us tickets to see the Lion King on Broadway and that experience for the Pauzenga’s and myself was fantastic. We enjoyed the show and had a nice dinner after the show.

I took Ulbe and Djoke on a tour of New York City - Central Park, The Intrepid, Ground Zero, Battery Park, China Town - and we drove around Times Square at night time. Djoke must have said “unbelievable” about a million times during their trip.

On Friday June 11th, I drove Ulbe and Djoke to Maryland to meet the rest of my family which includes my daughter, Michaela, my mother Maya, my 2 sisters Yainkain and Marian, my brother-in-law, Momodu and my 8 nieces and nephews.

In Maryland, the Pauzenga’s had lunch with Nate Pauzenga (a family member they had located through Facebook who resides in Washington). Apparently, anyone with the last name of Pauzenga is related to Ulbe and he was very happy to meet with Nate who is 26 years old and does not know much about his family history. Of course, Ulbe was happy to fill him in showing him a drawing of a family tree going all the way back to Ulbe’s great-grandfather.

My sister Yainkain arranged for a tour driver to take us around Washington and we were able to see a lot of places. Ulbe and Djoke were excited to have taken a photo in front of the White House.

Saturday evening we had a large family dinner and Ulbe and Djoke enjoyed eating African food although it was a little spicy for their taste. Sunday morning we took Ulbe and Djoke to church and it happened that the Pastor of the church, Dr. Adbul Sesay was also a sponsored child when he was a young boy. On our way back home, we drove to Philadelphia to see some close friends of mine and went to dinner at a Chinese Buffet.

On our way to their airport on Tuesday June 15th, I took Ulbe and Djoke on the Staten Island Ferry so that they can see the Statue of Liberty because I thought a visit to New York City is incomplete if you did not get to see the Statue…

Overall, the Pauzenga’s had a lovely time. It was important that they meet the rest of the family and see firsthand the benefits of their sponsorship. They probably thought they sponsored just me but in reality they sponsored my entire family. Without their sponsorship, my family and I would not have the opportunity to find ourselves where we are today and the many opportunities being enjoyed by ourselves as well as our children would not have been possible. Ulbe and Djoke arrived safely home and they have a lot to tell their friends and family about their visit to the USA. Everyone in my family agrees with me that the Pauzenga’s are very nice people and we are grateful to them and love them very, very much.

I would also want to say thank you to my boss, Dr. Patricia Neary-Ludmer and to everyone else who helped me make the Pauzenga’s visit to the USA a memorable one.