Friday, Aug 4, 2017
New Activity
My life has been very routine this week. Haven’t been out much, mostly due to weather, but also because of my coaching efforts taking up so much of my time. Heidi however seems to be the one on the go! She has been helping with some activities this week for the Olon orphanage.
After our visit there last week she came up with a project involving beach rocks and paint. She is getting brave, that is all I can say. She headed to the Spanish only speaking orphanage with a new friend who could speak both Spanish and English to help with an “art” project for 10-15 girls ages 2-11.
Colorful Chaos
Now what do you think happens when you put brightly colored paints in front of a room full of young kids? Well the rocks got painted with cute designs, but it didn’t stop there. Heidi said that the kids were painting their faces and even their teeth. It was then that the mom in her kicked in and she did her best to stop the chaos of these little girls changing their beautiful white teeth to shades of fluorescent reds, blues, and yellows.
Our friend Erwin Musper who introduced us to the Olon orphanage, was on hand to take these pictures of the art project.
Art Project in Process
What Should I Paint?
I Can Paint!
Finished 🙂
I Am Much More Interesting to Paint
The Roadhouse Thursday Night Dinner
The next event involving the Olon orphange was Thursday night at The Roadhouse . Darcy and Olga, who own the Roadhouse, provide a “dinner out night” for the kids every Thursday. The restaurant is closed to regular customers and is only made available for these kids. I don’t know the logistics of it all, but basically The Roadhouse feeds a group of about 40 kids from the orphanage every Thursday night.
Our friends Teresa and Shawn are usually there to help bring food to the tables, refill juices, and help the kids get seconds…or thirds if they would like. Since our friends had other commitments this night, Heidi and I stepped in to help serve the kids.
There is a big screen TV at The Roadhouse and it was playing popular Spanish music videos. The kids ate, sang and sometimes danced to the music videos while they enjoyed a good meal. Â All I can say is what a great group of kids!
Happy Campers
Meet Ups
Heidi and I were able to meet for dinner with Deborah, a woman we met at Casa Blanca Playa Cautivo last year when we were there with Keeper, and said our final good byes to our little dog. It is funny how “traumatic” events create a bond with people who are around when it happens. Deborah lives in Salinas and came to Olon for dinner with some of her friends. She gave us a shout out and we were able to meet up with her and check in with each other.
Life is really great when you can pause, connect, and share a meal together. Maybe that is all that is needed to create a really fantastic life, because in the end all we have are the connections we took time for while we lived.
Chau.
If you remember from Human Development if you took that course in College as we age good friends become as important as any family connections we have. Happy you guys have lots of those kinds of connections … smile
Hi Catherine,
The older I get the more valuable real connections become to me. It is a nice place to be in life. 🙂
As always, thanks for reading and your comments.
Todd
Dear Todd and Heidi,
We hope that you do not mind our contacting you for your assistance.
My wife, Vanessa and I will be visiting Cuenca mid next week to explore the area as a potential new home and we were wondering if we could speak or meet with you in order to hear your advice.
For your information, we are retired senior citizens, lived in several Asian countries (Japan, S. Korea, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore) and most recently in India for the last 10 years.
Thanks very much,
Lloyd and Vanessa Sanford (in transit in Salinas).
Hi Lloyd,
We would be happy to meet you! I will send you an email with my contact info.
Todd