Necklaces for your CUS sponsor kids!

A sponsor Heather, who sponsors 12 CUS children, has taken on the project of making some adorable braceletes and necklaces for her sponsor kids. The necklaces are made with the school colors and the bracelets can have the child's name added. The best part is, Heather is willing to make and ship a bracelet or necklace(or both) for your sponsor child! She will be shipping everything out on Saturday.

More more information, please go here
http://childrenaretheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/christian-upliftment-primary-school.html

All of the money raised through sales will go towards an IGP(Income Generating Project) for Heather's sponsor child, Jonathon. You can learn more about Jonathon and how this IGP will help him live a better life. I think rather than continually helping poor children and their families with one time donations of food or clothing for example- "educating and employing " are really the way to go!

Please take the time to check out Jonathon's fundraising page below.
http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4jonathan

Tis' the season, for the flu

I've been down for the past few days with the flu. Sore muscles, headaches, fever, the works. With all the H1N1 hype i'm hoping(and think?) it's just the regular seasonal flu. From what i've heard, it's not much more dangerous than the regular flu except if you have a low immune system. But now there's cases of healthy people getting extremely sick. It's all so confusing! And i'm split between getting the vaccine. What are you and your families doing?

Before getting all flu-ish, I was busy getting some Christmas gifts together for my sponsor kids. For the Dominican kids i'll give them to them when I arrive a bit after Christmas. For Nelanda I got her a pair of jeans(need to get a top), hygiene stuff, a doll, and hair accessories. For the six I sponsor with Dove, I got underwear, hair accessories, hygiene supplies and a few outfits. I'm hoping to plan a day to be able to bring them swimming at the hotel i'll be staying out for an outing. For my Ugandan kids, I'll be buying them each an outfit which Hellen will have the tailor make, and then i'm sending them each a card. The dollarstore has these adorable small cards, 4 in a package, and they come with mini envelopes. I'll put them all in one envelope and then they can be distributed.

I have some great Uganda related news that is so hard to hold in, buy i'm trying to until in official! It really is great:)

Visiting Nelanda&Other DR news

Even though Nelanda is my newest sponsor child, it will be great to meet her in person this winter. I sent in a request to the visiting coordinator, and received a reply back today. I wanted to meet her on her birthday, but it lands on a Saturday or Sunday and they are closed on those days. I can also only visit for one day for a few hours, which is a bit dissapointing. With my Ugandan kids and my other Dominican kids that I sponsor with Dove Missions, I can visit them as much as I would like and volunteer with the programs they take part in. Not that I plan on continually stopping at their house or anything, but it's nice to not have time constraints and get to know the kids personalities, go shopping for things they need, plan some activities, etc. I would like for them to see me as their friends rather than their sponsor. Asides from that, I am excited to meet Nelanda and spend some time in Santo Domingo as i've never been before. My plans are still all up in the air but, i'm thinking of spending 3 days in Santo Dominigo. Most likely January 3-4-5. The rest of my time will be spent in Puerto Plata, which I am really looking forward too! I sponsor 6 kids with Dove, which is a family fee that goes for food vouchers. I've started collecting their Christmas presents, and seeing as it's Christmas and all i'm planning to get them each a nice outfit. The 'problem' is 4 of them are boys! I always find a million cute girls dresses, skirts, blouses, the list goes on and on but not for boys. Maybe it's because i've never really looked? And what does a 12 year old boy want besides clothing? Help!!!!!!!!!!!!

The joy of booking a flight

I have become a bargain hunter when it comes to booking flights. The tax is SO expensive, it kills me! But as I was playing around tonight, I decided instead of booking a round trip to look at seperate tickets. It turns out it's a lot cheaper and there are so many better options. I also found a great return ticket with$ 1 tax? How is that even possible!? The only problem is it has a layover in Toronto, and my dad who's in the flight industry says Toronto is known for really bad flights(delays, cancelations, snow storms they shut it down, etc) I'm going ot search around a bit more, and if I don't find anything better I think im going to go ahead and book it and just hope i'll have a good experience in TO!

Nelanda

As I was leaving the house this morning, I received a package from Children Int. with information on my sponsor child, Nelanda! Isn't she adorable? They mixed up some of the information, and often called her "he" but it was great to learn more about her family, and ofcourse receive her beautiful photo.


She is 4 years old and lives in Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic. I was hoping she would live in Santiago, which is closer to Puerto Plata where I spend time doing volunteer work. After I looked into the distance, it seems Santo Domingo is only 4 hrs away which is managable. Montreal to Toronto is about 8 hrs. It will also give an excuse to also try and explore more of the DR.

Nelanda has one sister who is 8 years old named Neli and she lives with her parents. The father is a daily worker and the mother is a home maker. Her birthday is January 2nd, and I will be in the DR at that time so I am really hoping that I could arrange to meet her on her birthday!

I'm off to send her a letter along with my Ugandan kids!

The Land Fund

Life has been very busy, but that good busy! I'm off to painting class, but I have to share some amazing news first. Last night, we received a donation of $2,500- enough to make a downpayment on the piece of land that we want to buy next to the school!! This land will be used to build a children's home for the orphan and abused children in the community, especially the current students of CUS. Part of the land will also be used for income generating projects, such as farming and gardening. The actual cost of the land is $8,000, which will be payed as we fundraise for the rest. I am hoping that we can raise an extra $500 to make the first payment at $3,000.To achieve this, we need your help!!I have started a pledge to collect $9.30 from 50 people. If there was ever a time you could spare $9.30, this would be the moment! This will help us get one step closer to buying off the land, which will bring us another step closer to opening the children's home.(For some of the most amazing kids you can ever meet, I should add!)

For more details please go to,
http://www.cuschool.blogspot.com/

Please help spread the word :) THANK YOU in advance

Dominican Republic

I have been waiting on announcing the news until it was certain, but it looks like I will be spending some time over the holidays in the Dominican Republic! My plan was to go to Uganda for Christmas, but that wasn't possible. So it looks like I will be there for the majority of next summer! I knew that after I visited the Domincan last March, I would be back. I was able to volunteer with a great organization called Dove missions, and I absolutely fell in love with the children they work with. They work in a few different communities, or "barrios" that are very poor. Most of the houses are tin shacks with no running water. Sewage is a big problem when it rains.

I'm really hoping to find two shoe shining boys I met on my last trip, William & Jimmy. They are not taking part in the programs available to them with Dove, but it would be amazing to see them. I spoke no spanish on my last trip(and can now only say a few things!) So William acted as my translator. He is origionally from Haiti so he speaks creole, and somehow with my broken creole we managed to get by!

I am SO excited to meet my Dominican sponsor children for the first time! I sponsor 6 of them with Dove, and in the family there are 17 children in total! All being raised by their grandmother, Lola. I'm trying to collect some stuff to give them, like sheets, clothing, hygiene supplies, and food(peanut butter!) A new store opened up in Puerto Plata called "La Sirena" which is like Walmart. It was under construction while I was there but now it's open and apparently a big hit. I'll probably do some shopping there for the family. I will also get to meet my sposnor child with CI, Nelanda! I wrote her letter yesterday and i'm going to send it out today. I'm not sure where in the DR she lives, so it may not be possible to visit her on this trip, but i'm crossing my fingers that it can happen! I bought the cutest pair of jeans at winners that I have for her. I just need to get her a cute matching top!

I have also been in contact with a Canadian woman who rents out apartments in a community called Munoz. The majority of the community is Haitian, and they have a few church run classes for the children. They ahve a lot of needs, especially teaching the children english, french, and ofcourse spanish which will open up more doors of oppurtunity. I'm hoping to do some english teaching in the mornings and learn more about this community.