I don’t know about you, but for me, “jovial” is not a word that is commonly used in the vocabulary of people around me. If someone asked me for the definition of jovial, I would probably have to tell them that I didn’t know. I could try to make a guess of what it means if someone used it in a sentence for me. But, basically, I’m telling you that I wouldn’t know what jovial means. But then I came across the word when reading information sent to us from our partner, Fanuel, who helps direct our student sponsorship program in Mathare, one of the poorest regions in the world, home to a collection of slums in Nairobi, Kenya. This information was about a girl in the region named Abigael.
I was reading Abigael’s bio. From the instant I read that “Abigael is a jovial girl,” I became intrigued with this word and what it meant about Abigael. I knew the word must mean something positive about her, but I didn’t know exactly what. So I did some digging. I took a visit to dictionary.com, where jovial was defined as “endowed with or characterized by a hearty, joyous humor or a spirit of good-fellowship.” Synonyms for jovial include cheery, jolly, pleasant, delightful, companionable, lighthearted, and good-natured.
This was striking to me. Jovial was the only word used to directly describe Abigael’s demeanor. Abigael, being described as jovial – cheery, pleasant and joyous – even when I knew that Abigael came from one of the most disadvantaged situations in the world was astonishing. In Mathare, where she lives, the living conditions are horrible. The sewage system is poor, with waste flowing down the streets, there’s garbage everywhere, and families live crammed into shanty houses, which are built from materials like wood and mud. Not many kids who grow up in the slums are able to get an education, because their families don’t have money to pay for school fees. This means they can’t get a good job later on in life, and they will likely also have to raise their own kids in the slums.
Abigael grew up in a family of five with a single mother taking care of all of them. Her mother had a small business selling tea, which brought in some income for the family, but not a lot. It was hard to pay for food, and especially for school fees. Her mom would often have to go borrow food from a nearby shop just so they could survive.
These circumstances are the reality of Abigael’s life.
And yet, she is still described as jovial. Jolly. Delightful. Lighthearted.
Abigael aspires to become a surgeon. She wants to save lives, especially the lives of those in her community. She hopes that VineYard, a hospital in Kenya, will start a branch location of the hospital in Mathare, so that she can work there. She wants to inspire her community and transform it through her work as a surgeon and through all she is able to accomplish. She doesn’t want her community to stay as it is. She wants improvement.
Abigael’s aspirations and her jovial personality were inspiring in and of themselves. But yet again, we are brought back to the circumstances of her life. Abigael wasn’t able to attend school because of the financial circumstances of her family. This meant there would be no way for her to even have the opportunity to work towards her goals. Without a high school education, there is no college education, and no medical school.
However, Abigael connected with our partner, Fanuel, who was able to help her get a student sponsorship. This sponsorship paid for all her school fees, and now, Abigael has access to an education. She is able to go to high school, which opens up opportunities for her to work towards going on to college, medical school, and becoming a surgeon.
After learning all of this about Abigael, I can see that “jovial” is a perfect word to describe her. I can see it in her desire to transform her community, in her incredible work ethic, and in her heart for caring for others as a surgeon someday. I can see that her hope comes from within her, rooted in her relationship with Jesus, so that not even her circumstances in life can take away her joy.