Beach Photos

Here are some of the photos of our trip to the beach on Friday. We left the casa at 9am in a large bus (former school bus in the U.S.) with everyone packed in. It was a little cloudy when we got there but the water was still nice and just about everyone went swimming. After a while the clouds went away and it was a very pretty sunny day. Lunch was hotdogs which we brought with us. After lunch more swimming. We ended up staying longer than usual and didn't get back to the casa until 6pm. Everyone was wiped out by then. Brian and Mary got to join us for the trip before returning to the cold winter of NY the next day.

Beach Video

These are some video clips of our trip to the beach on Friday.

Brian and Mary's Visit

Brian and Mary from New York returned to visit the kids again. They have been regular visitors for 10 years or more. One of the things they always do it take the older kids out to lunch in town, a great treat for the kids. We went to Pizza Hut. The kids always like Pizza Hut because they have a huge play area for them to play in. The three oldest boys and eight oldest girls got to go.


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Maynor, Mary and Brian . . . . . . . . Ester, Karla, Rebeca, Alba & Gigo . . Norma, Kenia, Escarlet, Mauricio

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Escarlet, Norma & Rebeca . . . . . . . Alba & Maynor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milton & Cindy with desert

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You can see the American commercialism here in the middle photo above, the kids are sitting in Pizza Hut with TGI Fridays out the window in the background.

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Hey Rob, Milton still has the hat you gave him!

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All of the kids are also very excited getting ready for our trip to the beach tomorrow.

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Christmas in January!

Thank you to Lauren and Mark Loboda and everyone at Saint Mary's Church in Hudson, Ohio who contributed to and sent four boxes of Christmas presents to the kids. The boxes arrived today and every child in the casa received their own individual present and Christmas card. This was very thoughtful of you all and it meant a lot to each of the kids to receive individual presents with their names on them. It was actually better that the mail moves at a snails pace to get here because they usually receive lots of treats from visitors the week of Christmas so it was nice having them a month later. The kids went to the office in groups of 3 or 4 for their present and card and then returned to the main casa to begin playing. They all had a great afternoon.

"Summer" break

The school year here starts in February and ends in November, so the kids are all on their summer break right now. Thus, it is busy during the days. The oldest girls, Sindy, Alba, Claudia and Fannie are helping out in the main house with the kids during the day. Today was play time in the park so I took a few photos.

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Kenia and Denia . . . . . . . . . . . . Gustavo, Dariani, Rebeca, Yohana . . Yohana, Jhony, Carlos, Escarlet

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Ester and Norma . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dariani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erick, Ater, Jhony, Ester, David

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Jhony, Juan, Ater, Norma . . . . . . . Ater, Jhony, Misiel, Estela

Just before I left in Dec., we received a new little girl, Maria Nicole. She is 5 years old and has polio, cannot walk nor talk. She came here because they thought she had HIV but she tested negative so she probably will not stay here long and will go to another casa that can care for her special needs.

She is in the photo with Roberto Josué who turns 3 years old today, Jan 6th. Yesterday was Mauricio's 15th birthday, but he is still at his grandmother's home staying with his family for 2 weeks. I took a birthday cake to their house, but he was off fishing with his grandfather and brother Isaac. He reminded me frequently last year that no one gave him a cake for his birthday last year (oversight because he had been here only 2 months and the birthday list was not updated) so I wanted to make sure he got one this year. I was sorry that I did not get to see him, but I am sure he was happy when he got home to find I had made the trip to see him anyway.