Visiting Mary

Yesterday, we went to Compassion's Nairobi field office out near Dagoretti where Mary lives. Mary has been my family's Compassion child for 10 years. She is now 18 years old, in Form 1 (about 9th grade), and wanting to attend University for medicine. I couldn't come so close to her home and her school and not visit.
We finally made it the office over an hour late, due to traffic and cryptic directions (a tourist would never have made it). I was so excited but more than a little apprehensive. I wanted the visit to be comfortable and natural, not forced or compulsory. That would have been rough if it had just been me going. But having Anna, Zach, and Justin made it so much better -- and of course, everyone loved Julia.
We met Mary at her old primary school and had sodas -- which are apparently something of a staple in Kenyan hospitality. After a quick tour, we drove to her house which sits on about an acre of cultivated land. The garden was beautiful. Unlike Korogocho, which is more brown than green, Dagoretti was very green and the hedges and the vines hide a lot of the poverty.
We visited for about an hour. I felt like we were just getting to know each other and it was time to go. For me, it was the first time I've really connected a real person with the pictures and letters we got periodically. It was truly a blessing of God for me to get to meet her, hug her, and talk to her, to see she is so much more than a face on a picture.