Day 4 G of G Dec. 2014

Busy Busy Busy day….. visit to the Solola women's co-op, 8 home visits, one stove installation, delivery of a water filter and several food baskets and dinner at Penguinos. I am exhausted thinking back on it. Our first stop was at the women's co-op in Solola where they weave mostly with bamboo and use low impact dyes. Beautiful colors and soooo soft. Like the co-op in San Juan it helps the women in this area to make a fair wage for their work. Then once again in El Barranco to visit sponsored students in their homes. Since there are eight homes…you see some sponsored more than one student…. we split into two groups. I hate it when I have to make a decision as to what group to go with because I want to go to all of them. We had six new students sponsored. Steve was returning to visit his two boys he sponsors and to spoil them with gifts he brought with him for the whole family. There is so much joy in this day when each sponsor gets to have a personal relationship with the students they sponsor. They realize how important it is to give the gift of an education so these children can have a better chance in life to end the cycle of poverty. Silvia got a bit of travelers sickness so could not go with us but we visited her sponsored student and took photos for her. It's always so moving when these families are so incredibly poor and yet are so eager to give a gift of thanks to the sponsors. Very humbling for all of us. When we finished with the home visits we had lunch and awaited the stove parts to be delivered….however they were so late in arriving we decided to save the second stove for Fri. since it was going to be installed in Pana anyway. The reason for the delivery delay was that MF was suddenly down one driver…Juan Carlos's wife went into labor and he had to head to the hospital!! Stoves be damned. Back again in time for a shower and off to Penguino's for a traditional meal of Pepian and entertainment by the owner and his daughters. Everyone gets a try a making tortillas and Lorenzo won the contest. The owner Miguel tells the history of his people…with lots of humor…and his daughters play the marimba. His niece was also there to sing for us in Spanish and French. It was a wonderful end for a very full day.