How do you make your program more interesting to this potential sponsor than the tens of hundreds of other child-sponsor programs? How do you convince someone that the needs of your kids are great enough to warrant their attention, and their money?

The usual routines, which I’ve seen used, are to take photos of children when they’re looking especially woebegone, poverty-stricken, or sad. And offer those children up to be sponsored. You describe the economic climate of the area you’re serving, focusing on how desperate and without resources it is.

You emphasize how poor, and how without all-the-things-that-children-merit your kids are. You emphasize how important your project is to the future of these children.

I didn’t think about any of these things as I wrote my letter to my friends and family asking them to donate or become a sponsor. I just wrote about how hard life is for some families here in San Pedro La Laguna, especially for single mothers, or women who’ve taken in the child of another family member (daughter, sister, brother). And how appreciative the moms are for the relatively small basket of food we give them every six weeks; how excited the kids are to have new pants, shirts and shoes for Feria. I wrote about our classes to teach the children to draw and paint, encouraging their imaginations and creativity while increasing their self-esteem, as well as future potential earning-power in this town known for its artists.

I talked about the life these kids lead—helping their mom carry wash to and from the lake, where the family bathes; carrying firewood from the mountains to feed the cooking fire; living in one room with several family members. Very few kids in this pueblo use outhouses or fetch water from a community tap, as occurs in the nearby pueblo of my other project. But toilets can be makeshift structures behind a curtain off the kitchen or patio; water in the tap is cold and not really clean. There’s mold on the walls of the rooms in the rainy season, and leaks in the roof. (Heck, I have those in my rented house!)

I wrote about the things that touch my heart. And I took photos of the kids that delighted me: Romeo hunched over his drawing board seated on top of a rock by the lake; three girls sitting in a boat while they painted; a boy in rapt attention while our director showed him a drawing technique.

I love these kids. They are as bright and sweet and sometimes sad, or as pesky as any kids anywhere, and they deserve an outing at times, a refreshment, a chance to stretch their wings. They deserve to learn and be appreciated.

I hope that love comes across.

I hope it’s enough.

Mira Talbot-Pope is currently volunteering with Ayudame a Pintar Mi Futuro.  For more on her adventures, check out her blog. For a different take on the ethics of poverty marketing, read “Photo Project Puts Poverty Into Perspective.“

Being objective, before you make the trip, cocaine cartels and violence will pop into your head to some extent. You may not mention this and opt for a more pleasant, roundabout answer that doesn’t say much, like “Well I don’t know, I thought it would be cool, heard good things about the people, I want to learn about the culture, just came to check it out .. and I’m here.”

The media portrays Colombia as a war zone. Watch Law + Order, gangster movies, or even Modern Family on ABC and you will get that impression. There is some truth behind the stereotype. Colombia supplies more cocaine than any country in the world and a lot of violence takes place. But the vast majority of  the 50 million Colombians are friendly and peaceful; they have nothing to do with the illegal narcotics trade. This is what causes ire in a lot of Colombians when they see their portrayal in the media only addressing the worst citizens of their country.

On the reverse side, how do Colombians view Americans? Could some of them come to a wrong impression about us? One of the first channels on TelMex cable is MTV. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has never visited the U.S. and watch My Super Sweet 16. It would be pretty tough not to feel a sense of contempt for the girls complaining about receiving an Acura instead of the Mercedes they wanted. The reality is, while the U.S is the wealthiest country in the world, most teenagers in the United States don’t act like that. But this is all they see, if they haven’t had the chance to visit.

I have seen a lot of foreigners get worked up in purchases of food or other nominal items when they paid a little more than they thought. In a lot of cases, it was a gringo price. In others, it was an honest mistake. Most of these foreigners care about making a good impression of their culture to the people here in Colombia. However, they don’t want to get ripped off. Plus, there can be an ego/pride win/loss attachment to the negotiations.

On the other end, I can feel the justifiable anger of poor street vendors to the rebuttal of a rich tourist. They know you come from a lot more money and the difference of .50 cents is nothing to you, but a lot to them.

I am not arguing that all gringos should accept being ripped off with a smile on their face. But is important to keep in mind how you are perceived and the value of the disputed price to the buyer and to the seller. Or else you may very well fulfill a stereotype that you tried so hard to prevent…

For more about gringoes in Latin America, check out “Day in the Life: To Haggle or Not to Haggle?” and “Let’s Talk About the ‘G-Word’: Gringo” by fellow La Vida Idealist blogger, Dan Malin. For more about Colombia, check out posts by Rob Packer.