October 23, 2006

Our container is ready to be picked up. Praise the Lord, now we can get on with the important work. Unless there is a ditch in the road that we do not know about, the tax, tag and tip is less than what we feared. I spent two years researching the shipping process and despite a few delays, it has gone rather smoothly. I don’t think we could have overcome the few problems we encountered. The only glitches were that the container failed to get on the ship (Crowley’s fault) and, the Port of Limon was on strike. Our broker Mike Rappaport rappmike1@aol.com has done a fine job so far. I will keep you posted.

We have been helping the poor rural school children at different schools for the last few years. Many never go past 6th grade because they have no way to get to the next level or their parents can not afford to send them. Some do not see the value of education. I have had children say that even if their parents could afford to send them, what difference it would make; there are no jobs for them anyway. Perhaps the seeds of hope are the most difficult to plant. But we shall plant them and nurture them with kindness and respect.

We still need supplies, donated laptops, with which to tutor children, story books and educational material as well as pencils, pens, notebooks and navy blue uniforms. It costs about $100.00 dollars a year to send a child to school and more than that after the 6th grade. If you would like to help in some way, please contact us at ginnee@gmail.com . We hope to inspire teachers to join us at our location to work with the children. We could use the talents of a shop teacher, home economics, English, and a Business 101 teacher. We are interested in hearing from interested candidates with an adventurous spirit wanting to make a difference in the lives of others.

We have been Community Service volunteers all of our adult lives. Phil and I were also host parents to foreign students and would host, house and feed as many as 16 students at a time. We have many fond memories of our “kids”. Our new country and our new neighborhood have many needs. Simply teaching a child to read will take them to lands they don’t know exist. There are no books in poor rural schools, none. When you can barely feed your family enough beans and rice, and the skeleton of a dog is on his own, who has money for books?

How can we (you and me) change lives? Education, real life skills, language skills and technical training will not only put more food on the table but change the destiny of families for generations to come. Ask me how you can help, ginnee@gmail.com