June 30, 2006

Welcome to my zaadz blog.

I am 38 f and in a relationship.

I love Mr Brown iced coffee, the beach, cool people.

What I miss the most about Canada right mow? Mr brown ha ha, friends and family.

Took a chance on creating a dream this January and moved with my bf from Canada (away from snow) to Belize. Land of sunshine and  palm trees.

We landed a great apartment with a really nice land lord.

It was here that the sun warmed up our brains opened our creativity and envision-e-magazine was born.

It has been quite a journey but I would not change any of it.


Side note - reply to comments

Alexis Peace.  

Wendy   I have always said Just say no to snow. That is one thing I prefer to appreciate from afar. I would love to cruise alaska though but have mixed feelings on cruise ships lol.

 Joy Thanks for the welcome.

 FenixRizing If you are ever out this way holler.

Thanks for your vote. EarthEnergy I pledge to do my best to keep an interesting blog going. I really do enjoy blogging. Now I just have to figure out how to earn a living from it ha ha.

July 3, 2006

Well thank you all for reading my blog. I have a lot on my plate and so I cannot always write as much as I would like. I guess I am going to have to budget my time more ha ha.

Island life and envision-e-mag sure are keeping me busy lol.

What I enjoy most about being here is seeing people drive around in golf carts. I also enjoy seeing the Caribbean sea when I am doing my errands. Also the flowering tree outside our front door which we always have open to catch a breeze.

We get our mail general delivery here and  I feel like a kid in a candy when I go to the post office and they are checking the boxes with our alphabet letter of our last name. Right now I am waiting on some crank flash lights that I ordered from eBay and a memory card for my camera so I can get more than 25 pictures before having to empty it how frustrating is that.

I need a new camera  and a faster lap top. (can't escape consumerism here but you can snlow it down greatly ) If the God of manifestation is reading this please send help in what ever way you see fit.

Paul my bf and I share between a fast lap top and a slow one. He has been very generous and given me a lot of time on the fast one to get zaadz going. But I know he has to have his turn to create our lovely e-mag.

Ok I have to go around the corner an order garlic shrimp pizza for dinner now as I am not in a cooking head space right now. That is another great thing about Island life almost everything is a stones throw away.

After thoughts

EarthEnergy, if you ever make it to Belize I will share a slice with you. It is different here because we are on an island everything gets shipped in by barge and that drives the price up, but we have found if you know where to eat it can be as cheap as groceries and cookind. That pizza doe example I think we get a 12" and that is dinner and a slice for lunch for $10 usd. You are right about getting awya from consumerism. I have slowed down for sure. But when on the slow lap top trying to work I do get frustrated lol. It is a good reminder to me that I should not always be multi tasking lol and just focus on one thing at a time.

Big thanks to  MsCapriKell for the memory card. I have one coming from ebay (I hope lol)  I wrote her back and thanked her for generous offer but that I had already ordered one. The surprize of her email did as much if not more for me that her sending me a memory card. I was very touched that she would pay it forward to me in such a nice way. We have developed a friendship as a result and that is so cool. Aparently she found me tthrough one of her friends reading my blog.

Here on the island I found a memory card for $75 usd that is just too much. So I got a decent one coming from China for $20. The only troubles is they kept insisting I was in Hondouras when I told them my country was Belize. I had to explain nicely please do not put that on the package and that Belize has not been British HOndouras since the 60's lol. That is where the hope comes in on getting it in the mail.

It is getting late here 12:35 am cst

I cannot sleep yet I am sitting here swatting at mosquitoes there seems to be a lot of them tonight and I need a snack lol.
 
Earlier tonight while Paul was working on the e-mag I went for a walk. The carnival is still on in the soccer field but half the rides have been taken down.

I knew I was going to take the plunge and ride the ferris wheel. It was a scary prospect as they go quite fast here, but tonight the operators seemed to be a little milder than on the weekend.

I got on and the ferris wheel moved 3 places and stopped for someone to get on. I had butterflies in my stomach and I totally wanted to get off and put my feet back on the ground, but I stayed on. After going around once, they stopped and put a kid on with me I was glad for that. I could have got off but I decided that I was going to stay on and enjoy the ride. It sped up quite a bit, and I chatted with the boy beside me. He was really nice. We laughed about how some people swing the seats and that we would never do that as we would not want to flip. I told him I was glad he came on as the ride was not as scary because I was not alone when it sped up.

Interesting about how someone you do not know can come along in your life and help you move past a fear and take that leap.

We went around 3 times and I was glad that I did it.

Afterwards I played the lotteria game. For a dollar you pick a rolled up piece of paper from a big plastic container. All the papers have Spanish lottery game picture on it and if your picture matches select prizes hanging up with same pics on them  you could win.

The funniest part is that about 75% of the prizes were plastic buckets, and bowls for the kitchen. I did not win tonight, but when I played the other nights I won some bucket two a package of  3 med size plastic bowls. They are great for storing vegetables and fruit in or leftovers. The next night I won a bucket with a lid on I think it is supposed to be an iced bucket.  Their game had the biggest line ups too and a lot of women were walking around the carnival with bowls, buckets and containers lol.

When I got home I noticed the prizes I won were made in Guatemala and El Salvador. No wal-mart rubber made at this carnival lol

 

Side - note reply to comments

EarthEnergy to right on mosqioto nets. I was checking them out on ebay but I am trying not to impulse buy lol and as it turns out we did see some at a hardware store on the island, but so far we have stuck it out without buying one and it is not so bad. Although it just rained so I hope they do not bug us tonight.

WordFire thanks for the compliment. A big part of us being here is to help show people to go for whatever their dreams are. I had a few good role models when it came to getting off the 9 - 5 grid and travel.

MsCapriKell  The whole experience has been great even the hard parts lol because they pushed us past our limits. We really did have the opportunity about how much our thoughts and feelings create first hand.

Zoe  That is great you watched that documentary with your kids. Loved what you had to say about the carnival too.

Today I am blogging live from Pedro's Bistro with my vodka cranberry. I am not really a drinker, so I am making this one last lol. They tend to get refills to you quickly here.

We are sitting her watching the football game between France and Italy. People are very excited and cheering.

I must confess I am not a huge sports fan. I can however enjoy and appreciate the excitement that is filling the room. 

Secretly I am cheering for half time (along with Italy) when we will be dining on lobster and salad niciose (sp?) 

 Italy just scored bringing it to a tie game of 1-1. The room went wild. The crowd is a mixed vote. There are a coupe of women who are very pro france lol.

They have one big sized tv with a ceiling mount and then they are projecting the game right on the wall as well. 

We do not know may people here on the island, so I was very happy to have this invitation to the game party.  Now the france woman is singing.  The room is definitely in good cheer and that is nice to be a part of.

So which team am I cheering for you may be wondering? I am hoping for Italy. The reasons for that are because My brothers girlfriend lives in Naples and also if we were back in Toronto Canada there would be the biggest  part going in in little Italy. Adfter a win people drive around honking their horns and there is one massive streey party.

On a side note, please excuse any typos lol. I do not have my word program to write this in ahead of time. Anyone who knows me well knows i am dyslexic and can't type very well.  

It is half-time now Yum.

Ok I could not wait to post the lunch review I have taken one bite only and wow. Nothing like a good meal to excite a person ha ha. I swear I have a hollow leg andI think  it runs in the Family my brother is the same.

Italy won yay. They looked so happy. Those poor french guys.  The game went overtime and into a kick off.

Since consumerism and lack of has shown up in previous blogs of mine and a few people commented on it, I felt that Wal-Mart was a good topic to write on. I mean who has not been to a Wal-Mart right?

When we lived in Toronto there was a Wal-Mart that was less than 5 km away from us. We did go there sometimes for major things like dvd player and tv because the prices are so good. We also bought some clothes and food stuffs and even our beach towels came from there at a summer sale.

As most of you know from reading my previous blogs, Paul and I now live on an island off the coast of Belize. There is not much shopping here you can get groceries and anything you might want from souvenir shops and hardware stores but nothing even close to a Wal-Mart. To get to one of those we have to go to a different country, Mexico.

My Mom step dad and step brother were coming to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico in April as Norm won a trip with his company. Since they were so close we figured we should take the bus from Chetumal to Playa and meet them. I was searching on the internet to see what hotels and prices were like and I came across a picture and caption saying Playa del Carmen now has a Wal-Mart .

I have to admit that it got me excited as I knew we could be able to stock up on some things cheaper than we could get here and also find things we could not get at all.

After we had arrived and lucked into a hotel across from the bus station, we got a phone card and called their hotel. We arranged to meet in the Wal-Mart parking lot as it was convenient close to us and easy for a cab driver to find. Note the Wal-Mart ended up being a 5 minute walk from us lol. We saw it as we drove into town on our Big Bus.

We got there early and Paul wanted to get smokes so we went up the moving ramp to check it out. All I can say is wow. At the top of the ramp there were 2 guys with a big bbq grill cooking up some food and stepping inside was like culture shock. They had loud music playing and clown at the front making balloon animals. Off to the left were all kinds of beach toys higher up on the wall and underneath them were stacks of beer lol. It was like a big party.

Over the 4 days we were there we went to Wal-Mart a few times. (We also shopped at Mega and San Francisco Asis sp?) Here is a list of items we purchased at Wal-Mart … One digital watch so we had an alarm for our hotel room (originally in packing for Belize we did not bring a watch from Canada or a clock lol) Caned iced tea (hard to find here on the island until recently) A Lasko standing fan (½ the price of what we would pay here and very valuable item), 4 round cushions for our kitchen chairs (not seen any on the island and with sitting being on pc a lot butt padding a must) one fry pan, 3 pairs water shoes and a 3 pack of round neck t-shirts and pastries for our day trip to Tulum and Xel ha with my mom. We all needed protection from the sun at the water park. My mom was glad for the foot wear and tee’s as she had not thought of that. Fruit of the loom tank tops for Paul and a 3 pack of v-neck t-shirts. I got some cute girly boxer shorts a pair of underwear.

Well we did not go too crazy in what we bought and we did go for practical stuff. The 2 best things we brought back were the standing fan, and a free standing laundry rack (purchased at mega) I was hoping to find one of those expandable wood kind but I was happy to find one at all. Funny how on an island were 80% of people have laundry lines I cannot imagine why they do not sell laundry racks lol.

Below are some excerpts from a conversation I had with a friend in messenger who has worked for Walmart for 13 years. She has seen 7 Wal-Marts open, and that is within a little over 50 mile radius form her house. She is the one who sent me the statistics posted below. I asked her if she though they were accurate, and coming from someone who works there she thought they most likely were. Here is what she had to say on Wal-Mart .

Even in the movie sales, I have 4 stores and they all sell over a million in a yr, two close to 2 million.

Its remarkable, but now walmart are going thru some big changes. Downsizing on their management levels, trying to do away with paying insurance, you know everyone being part time. Seems funny, when they seem to being doing so well.

I don't know how they expect people to live. Walmart got where they want to be now they are back peddling to catch up as they have opened so many stores. They have been around so many years that they have so many people who have been with the company a long time. I think they will start weeding them out now.

Have you seen the new store they have built in either Dallas or Houston? Its a more upscale store. Name brand clothes , better house wares, sushi bar. I think they are trying to compete with target.

I mean they figure if you want a nicer wedding gift or xmas gift you go to a more expensive store you aren't going to buy a lot of clothes at walmart for xmas gifts. Electronics, yes some hardware. But you know the groceries will be bought. They used to have a clothing line by Kathie lee and it was a little better product.


Just how big is Wal-Mart?

90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart , Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day. This works out to $20,928 of profit every minute!!!

Wal-Mart will sell more by St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.

Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.

Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).

Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the United States of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store ( Earth's population is only 6.5 billion)

In regards to this blog and low paying jobs in America which so many are stuck working at, the book called nickel and dimed is a great read by Barbara Eherenreich Where a well established writer goes undercover taking low paying jobs all across America to document how people can live like that or not live as some barely managed. Her last job was walmart in women’s wear.

I also recommend catching the South Park cartoon episode where Wal-Mart comes to town, it was very well done.

Side note - reply to comments. Love all the comments. :)

Kudos to you Trudi . I think it is great that you made the conscious choice to show there. I have heard also  what you said about them forcing manufacturors to low ball on their prices and causing some to go out of business even as a result. Trudi your seccond point is a very valid one. In canada where Pauls parents live a walmart came in and litterally all the small town shops dried up, so it has made it very hard for people not to shop there. 

WH  That is very cool. I like how you put it making political choices with your money.

Why is it that sometimes it is hard to stay away from things we know are bad in so many ways?? 

Zoe I am checking out An Inconvenient Truth Website now thanks for posting it. Unfortunatly we do not have a movie  theater here, so If we are lucky we will be able to rent a copy at the local video store eventually.

Thanks for your comment  David I solved the walmart problem by moving there are none lol. Even on the mainland Belize so far there is only one subway fast food place. It is still relatively untouched.

Michael big business is so hard to get away from. It took moving to an island for us to do it lol. Seems a bit crazy when I think of it lol. Not that I was a shopaholic in canada but we did get stuff sometimes. My hardest to avoid store was old navy (bad I know)

July 12, 2006
12.22 pm cst

Today is overcast and I kind of feel the same. Not bad really but just low key and very quiet. I woke up as usual and got to checking my emails, then moving on to my daily’s at zaadz and myspace., while at the same time doing some magazine business.

I started not to feel so great. No real reason I just felt a bit down and my energy really shifted. I closed everything up that I was working on. I did not want to send out my current energy with the emails I was working on sending. Those of you who have seen the movie Like Water for Chocolate know what I mean.
In the movie the eldest sister sends her emotions through her cooking and it affects those who eat it.

I thought a minute about what I should and I decided to go lay down and have a good cry. Not the sobbing hysterically upset kind, but just a nice easy release. I read that crying releases endorphins into the blood stream it also helps the body release toxins and this is why many people feel better afterwards.

Paul my bf came to see if I was ok, as I do not usually have a lay down at this time. We talked a bit and I assured him nothing major was wrong. Sometimes the little things can build up and you just need to let them loose.

When my cry was on it’s way out, I got up for a few minutes and started something productive to add to my  feeling better. I got the laundry bucket out and started to wash  our curtains.  When we do not do laundry at the laundry mat here (which is a 10 minute walk through town) we wash our cloths or what ever is being cleaned in a big plastic basin. Dust is really bad here so we really have to work to keep on top of it.

After starting the first curtain, I went back to bed and was reading my current book Communion by Whitley Strieber.  This also made me feel better. The topic of the book is about Whitley a non-believer coming to terms with his Alien abduction. I was reading away thinking that I really have nothing to worry about by comparison. Around the time I finished his first session with a well respected  hypnotist and then I grew a bit tired so I put the book down for a cat nap.

Upon waking up It hit me sometimes you just need to give yourself a second chance to wake up and start the day again. Even it is only from a short  time out. So here I sit having my (2and) morning iced coffee. Got my second curtain washed and hanging on our cloths rack on the veranda. Oprah’s Debt diet show is on  and I am going to post this and go watch it. Nothing like hearing stories about people who are far in debt and getting out of it to make you feel better about your own drop in the bucket.

Great comment WhoAmI nice to know others are of the same mind on waking up more than once a day lol.

Breeze  Thanks for sharing the film. Interesting how it takes some people a lot to cry and others nothing at all. I wonder why that is?

EarthEnergy Well said.

Boxed milk.

I never though to much about it till recently but we buy “Boxed Milk” . It is very common here. I got to talking to a friend one day in msn and she pointed out that UHT milk is not the healthiest choice. So we googled it and found out a few interesting facts.

UHT milk is a process where the milk has been heated to very high temperature for a short period of time then put into a multi layered box to keep the light out and keep it sterile. Doing so can sometimes affect the flavour, but I have not really noticed it in my iced coffee for the regular brands that we buy.

The shelf life of a UHT product can be up to 1 year at room temperatures.

UHT milk was introduced by Parmalat an Italian dairy company. This type product is more common in Europe and other countries like Belize and Brazil where many people do not have full sized refrigerators.

Many of the stores here on the island stock this kind of milk as it is well suited to the tropics. If there is a power out the milk will not go bad because it is shelf stable. This also makes for good storage of hurricane supplies although more so for smaller sized tetra packs as once it is open the product still does need to be refrigerated.

My friend concluded that it is healthier for us to buy regular milk.

We were doing that for a while as all the boxed milk was sold out on the island ( that is a whole other blog story in itself lol) We soon found out a big jug of regular milk tends to go off before we can finish it, and it does not curdle right away either. So one morning Paul I woke up in a sleepy haze reaching for our coffee‘s (he drinks his hot and me iced of course) We both got a sour taste in our moth and realized the milk was starting to turn. So after this experience we decided to go back to boxed milk.

The other thing if you want to get nit-picky about it is that the regular milk comes in plastic containers and I have heard more and more how plastic seeps into what ever is stored in it. I know this to be true after using plastic water bottles and I switched to cooling my water in glass jars instead.

Dilemma’s dilemma’s lol we are almost out of milk and now we have to make the choice box or plastic bottle.

WhoAmI Love what you had to say. Your teacher is so right.  This day and age it is so hard to determine what is truly healthy, so a good state of mind sure goes a long way.

EarthEnergy  Thanks for the tip. Have to keep an eye out if they sell soyabeans here, although I am on the lazy side to attempt such a project lol. 

David That sounds like a nice treat to add to iced coffe. Kudos to you for migrating to eating healthier let me know hoe it goes.

Earth and David, I do like soya milk but there is a lot of contraversy over it being healthy or not. Do you have an opinion on that?  What do you think of soya vs reg milk?

It is a hot one here today. Our net was down this morning, so I wrote my blog in my notebook, then took off to do laundry in town. I had to do the sheets and towels and did not feel like washing them in our bucket lol.

I thought since people have been so responsive to our adventure I would make a few lists to help people out on their own great adventures.

Now if you have read my blog before you know that my bf Paul and I packed up a few suitcases and headed for Ambergris Caye which is an island off the coast of Belize.


Here are a few of the most important things I have learned on our great adventure.

Do not have set expectations. No matter what people tell you. Life is about change and the same experiences are different for everyone.

Be prepared. Always have a back up Plan B or the ability to make one fast.

When life throws you a curve ball go with it, and keep focused on winning your game.

Your intuition is a huge guiding force and it will lead you to exactly what it is you need at any given moment if you are open and allow it.

Thoughts and feelings can travel fast and far, always pay attention to how you are feeling and what you are sending out.

What ever situation you find yourself in, take a look inside for what you are meant to learn from it.

In this next section I have a list of some the most useful things we brought. For a long while after being here we were joking around about our packing craziness because at the last minute we found out a big duffle bag we had bought was over the size limit and so we had to restructure everything. Of course that happened to be the first bad we had packed thinking we would get a bit ahead of the game ha ha. Having these items from home greatly helped us in starting up an apartment. Most places do come furnished here so with all our extras we were well set up from the get go.

Good cutlery from Ikea ( we got 2 boxed sets from our friends Pat and Bart’s yard sale. )

5 Pillowcases (always good to have extra. I ordered a memory foam pillow from eBay once we got settled.)
Duvet cover
4 towels ($2 each and giant tiger that store rocks)
Girl stuff ( Alex advised me on this and said that guaranteed it will cost more there than at home)
Zip lock bags (my cousin Erin’s recommend)
Router
2 Rubbermaid containers.
Assorted crafting supplies and basic and stationary stuff like small stapler hole punch olfa knife
A whole bunch of vitamins

Here are some items I got in china town. That was one of my favourite places to go for walks.
2 Expanding mesh laundry hampers
4 plastic hanging shoe holders (these are so great to store stuff in)
1 small laundry thing with clips hanging from it.
1 bag cloths pegs. (We use them for closing bread and chips stuff like that)
Wooden chop sticks


A trip to dollarama was invaluable. There we got wooden spoons, a 3 pack of rubber spatulas, colourful magnetic fridge clips, mesh laundry bags in a hanger ( we use them to store socks and underwear) Plastic plates and bowls with palm trees on them. 2 pack

My mom brought some things we missed when we met them in Mexico. Our cereal keeper, mp3 player ( our cord made it but not the player itself.) Finding Nemo dvd, some books, the bowls to match our dishes that never made it.

A few things we missed out on packing that would have been appreciated.

Digital alarm clock
Pilates dvd’s
Dvd player
Extra flip flops
Backgammon game
Fitted sheets
Theramrest expanding mattress ( we would have needed to buy a couple)
Wooden folding laundry rack ( I had no idea this item would be so hard to find or I would have made sure to bring a couple)
A few cans of Mr. brown iced coffee ha ha I am trying to find someone to send me some by mail. (no joke)
A good pot with a lid. ( we did find a great pot here with no lid though but it is a hard item to find believe it or not, as most of them come in expensive sets and the quality is not great)
A good fry pan. (we had to buy a cheap one at first to make due and that ended up rusting out pretty fast Rust is a big problem here enough that we had to get some clr to help keep our cutlery in good condition)

Thanks David. If I had the chance to pack over again ha ha. But life does not always give you seccond chances. My friend Roy always used to say this is not a dress rehersal. We are having a ball. I so needed this experience to shake me up and wake me up.

Pay it Forward.

Today is a great day here. It is Saturday and very hot and sunny. For some reason our apartment seems bearable as usually when it is that hot outside it is cooking in here.

Saturdays we go get bbq from down the street at fantasy restaurant it is cheaper that we could make it ourselves and very tasty. Today while we were there I went across the street to buy a lottery ticket. The pot is big and I hope for some good luck to come our way.

I decided since I was thinking abut luck and wanting to attract some I figured I would pay it forward in the financial area specifically.

So a while after we got home I took this cute kids clock I was going to pass on ( it is blue shaped like a foot and has a bear with a surfboard on the face.) I put it in a clear plastic bag with about $9 Belize in it which is about $4.50 usd and dropped it off in the soccer field beside the goal post. In the bag I also left a note saying you have found lucky money.

I got the idea from an article on Judith Orloff that was in body and soul magazine. She said she likes leaving money such as $5 bills around for people to find. She commented on how it is good to spread that lucky feeling of finding money. Since money is an area I am working on over coming obstacles in, this idea resonated really well with me. I have found money before and I totally enjoyed the feeling, so I am happy to pay that feeling forward and help others feel the same.

If you are reading this and the idea appeals to you, give it a try and will be amazed at how good it makes you feel.

Out of curiosity, I just walked over to check and the bag is gone so someone found it, there were a few kids there maybe it was one of them.

David  That is so cool. So nice to pass things on. Back in Canada we used to put a box of things together and leave it in front of our house with some plastic bags so people could pick through and take what they wanted.

Let me know what you think of doing it  WhoAmI I am working on making this a regular habbit myself 

Wonderful Zoe  There are endless ways to put this into practice. I like what you said about the magazines. We send our local news papers to people as there is no recycling here so at least they get a seccond read and make it to a recycling bin lol.

July 25, 2006

I just found out through a local message board that they are opening up a new school on the Island and will need help. I emailed the contact woman right away and said we would love to help. She wrote back and said she could use our help and that she would keep in touch. She invited us to come and say hi during the registration this weekend.

The interesting thing about this is that before we even came here, I had a vision/thought about doing arts and crafts with children here. I told Paul about it and said that was something I would like, but did not think to much more about it.

Now it seems like that thought may be unfolding in a way I never would have anticipated at the time.

Last year on Ambergris Caye over 120 children weren't able to attend school because there was literally no room. There are almost 90 students (ages 5 to 8) who have no school to attend so they are working very hard to get the school underway.

If you are reading this message and would like to help in any way it would be greatly appreciated. Just drop me a line and I will fill you in.

A trip to any dollar store could get color pencils, erasers, paper, stickers, glue, small kids books, for the price of a jumbo latte. The children that will attend this school come from families that struggle to pay rent, eat and be clothed.

Children become our future and it is so important to give them a chance to learn and grow.

Wonderfull MsCapriKell  Any help is appreciated.

Hi Debi anyone who wants to send something can contact me for address. We have no postmen here so all mail goes to post office and we just walk over and check occasionally if we have mail. Thanks to all those who started sending packages for the kids, I am about due to go see if any have arrived.

Paul and I went to the school yesterday for registration day and to meet
Francis and her husband Vernon and a couple of others who are involved.

There is so much needed and so much work to do to get these 3 buildings up and open by September. The only help coming from the government is getting the swamp land (they are still trying to get a title to it before putting up concrete buildings) and teachers salaries being paid. All else is coming volunteers and anyone who is willing to help in any way (prayers included)

Anyone  interested to make a difference in kids lives, please contact me and I can give you a mailing address to send school supplies, or the school bank account #

They are in the process of reclaiming swamp land to build the school. There is not even any type of basic sewer system there at the moment. This is happening
for kids who would otherwise would get little or no education. There are a lot of kids here in poor families who slip through the cracks and they are trying to prevent this from Happening. They have about 90 kids on the list but estimate it could be at least a couple of hundred who need the help and have to be found.

Someone donated $$ so they could buy 3 prefab temporary buildings. I saw them all stacked up waiting to be put up once the land is filled in more as much of it is wet and a but squishy when you walk on it. If it rained big right now it would be very muddy there and the already existing mini lake (due to rains) would take over more so. I sent pictures so you can get an idea.

Right now they are doing kindergarten to grade 2 and then hope to get enough facilities to go to grade seven and put in a special ed for those who need it as well. They are also looking to have a free lunch program so the kids can get at least one meal a day during school hours, and hope to be able to expand that to breakfast as well.

Vernon also mentioned things like electrical outlets as cost can be .79 cents stateside versus $5 usd here. I guess light switches could be included there too.

Just a few ideas for people that want to send some donations.

Chalk, color pencils, crayons, markers, pens, regular pencils and erasers, rulers, stickers, pencil sharpeners, anything for arts and crafts, glue sticks rubber stamps/ink pads, paper, notebooks, paper, elastics, any library books ages 5 - 12 or so.

Beyond just school supplies to things like

Fist aid kits, band-Aids, topical ointments, children’s vitamins, tooth paste, tooth brushes, drinking cups, as all that stuff is much cheaper stateside.

Anything that school kids and teachers would need back home they can use here. Francis said the difference is here getting note books for school coming from a poor family, could mean the price of dinner.

Thank you so much for your help.

Laurie
www.envisionyourfuture.com


Please pass this along if you know anyone who would like to help.