All Other Projects

As for updates with all other projects things have been progressing quite slowly. I fell ill for about five days within the past two weeks. This means I have not had a chance to get everything completed that I had hoped for. I have already extended my trip from the 27th of June to the 2nd of July. I hope this will give me enough time to get a little bit more work done, before I have to leave. I would love to stay and complete everything however, I must return to the states to finalize things there as well.

With all the donated clothing I collected prior to my travels, I have finally been able to walk through the entire village and get the names and ages of the children in the poorest families. These families include single mothers, large families, and families where neither parent is able to work. I have encountered a total of 48 families in the most need. Tomorrow, I will spend the day walking the village with these bags of clothing gifting them to the families. The bags of clothing include one article of clothing for all children, a stuffed animal for children aged 4 and under and two extra outfits for children under one years of age. All extra clothing will be left with the community leader of Los Zorros, another impoverished village to the north, to be distributed accordinagly. Nathan Yue, of Rancho Esperanza, and Doña Francisca, the local health promotor for Jiquilillo, have been an immense help in the walking of the village and creating the gift bags themselves. I owe so much to both these individuals. Without them it would not have been possible.

As for the vehicle to be used as an ambulance Nathan and I have looked at several others in Chinandega with our friend and mechanic, Mosies, only one of which he feels is worthy, however, we still have to negotiate a price. They are asking $6,500 which would be reasonable, with the exception that the truck will need new tires. Good tires in this part of the country are expensive therefore the truck will not affordable if they do not lower the price. We are still working and hope to have this finished before I leave on the 2nd of July.

Sponsoring children however has been an entirely different problem. The teachers have decided that it is best to wait and do the sponsoring in January when the new school year starts. This way a child can be sponsored in the same grade for the entire year. So now I will be creating attendance charts and discipline charts for the teachers to use until January. These charts will keep track of how often the children attend classes as well as what their attitude is towards learning. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to add a comment to this post.

The picture associated with this post was taken Friday the 22nd and was taken during Kid´s Club which is held at Rancho Esperanza. Nathan and I decided a reading day would be appropriate since it was a really hot day. Nathan, and our two volunteers Stephany, from Boston, and John from Southern England, our chef Jacqulene, and myself all laid out on sheets with the children under our shadiest tree and read with the kids for two hours. The children were so into the books we acutally extended kids club. It was great to see them all so interested in the books and learning in general.