Irawan, the son we never had.

With Mudjiono's acceptance of our sponsorship for his son Irawan and with the full support of his entire family, my communication with Irawan began on a regular basis. He would come to see me and stay at our home in Semarang when he could, mostly weekends and holidays. For 3 months after we met, we developed a good mutual "mentor - mentee" relationship. From the start, he called me Mama Irien for he had heard other kids in our family call me Mama Irien and later on he called my husband Papa Mitch, as did my nieces and nephews. It is not uncommon for young people in Indonesia to address older people as the age and gender may relate to people in their family, if they feel that it's appropriate. For example, if I feel that there is good chemistry, I would most likely call my friend's mother, Mom.

I sent Irawan to a computer school in Kendal for an intensive 2-month introductory course. The town of Kendal is about 30 miles from Gringsing, the town where he lives. The computer course was given every evening from 5 to 7pm 5 days a week. From January to March, he rode a motorcycle every day, a 45-minute ride each way, rain or shine .... but mostly rain. I was back in the States during that time, and called him once a week for about 10 minutes each call. His older brother reported that he only missed two classes because of the heavy rain.

Soon thereafter 18 year old Irawan graduated from high school in May 2012, after which he moved to Semarang to begin his college education at STEKOM, a computer college where he chose Graphic Art Design as his major.