G-boro to Ft. Lauderdale

Inside of one of the planes descending over Charlotte, NC, I think

This photo of Fort Lauderdale is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Wednesday

Yesterday, my sister, Carmen, and I returned from Ft. Lauderdale. This trip was a trial to help ease my reservations about traveling by plane. It was great because I was able to take four flights and experience turbulence and everything. So now I know that I will definitely need earplugs and gum! Seriously, I am not a person who likes planes, but Carmen helped a lot along with other friendly passengers and my sister, Cheryl, was encouraging in her phone calls. Thanks also to CI sponsor, Barbara, for her support.

So now I have to figure out how to do the baggage because Spirit Airlines charges for one carry on bag. I was hoping that I would not need to take more than 3 bags so I am repacking again. Ellen's gifts also came today. I know that Francisco will love them. I also found more cute postcards for the kids and will try to pick up some more when I get back to Ft. Lauderdale.

Tomorrow I plan to do all confirmations and do some letter writing to some of my other children.

Sunday

Things Left to Do!

Call the Cartagena and Barranquilla offices to confirm the visit 2-3 days before leaving
Laminate or frame collage of sponsors for Francisco
Call  or email Don Pedro Hotel to confirm reservations again
Confirm van pickup and tour with Dora the Explorer
Finish packing one suitcase :)
Pack Ellen's gifts for Francisco when they arrive
Make sure that I don't forget anything!!!

Article

Here is a good article on Wikipedia on Children International that I came across today for anyone interested. It gives a history and overview of the program. God bless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_International

Saturday

This has been a day for cleaning up around here. I am also trying to get accustomed to using this notebook that I plan to take on the trip for emailing, updates, uploading photos and video hopefully! It is taking me awhile to learn how to get around on this Don Pedro has internet connection so I hope to  be able to post while I am there!

A cute bear puppet for Melani, Yiseth's sister

(first photo uploaded onto the notebook :) ) 

Thursday

Today I did the last hepatitis shot and also obtained pesos, very colorful Colombian money. The few major things  left to do are drop my doggy off at the vet for boarding, visit the optometrist tomorrow, and  get my hair done right before leaving!  I saw a very fun  bubble activity that Mack did when she want on a visit. If I can find some like hers or similar to hers, I would like to do that w/Francisco and his siblings/cousins, since I will be spending more time there, so I'll check to find some cute wands. I am also waiting for Ellen's gifts to arrive hopefully in time. She is one of Francisco's sponsors and is sending a soft football, stickers, and other items.

I think that I am just about  planned out now and will write everything down again in a notebook that I am keeping. Also need to call all hotels and email Dora the Explorer one more time about the van services and the tour on the last day. I also have to call the CI office in Cartagena and Barranquilla a few days before leaving. God bless.

Wednesday

Today was the day for finishing up at school and after that I was able to get the pages done for Sonia's  flip book. Some of the original photos did not come out very well through Snapfish, so I redid some on my own computer and they came out a little better. Unfortunately, the background is not the same because I did not have the same kind of paper that Snapfish used. I hope that the kids like the photos, which included very young photos and older photos. Each book has 10 pages except for Sonia's which has 11.  Each child will see the first CI photo that I saw and decided to sponsor them from, except for Francisco who was not listed on the CI site.

Tomorrow is the day for the last hepatitis shot-yes!

 Flip Books

Trip Advisor

A Photo of a Peacock for Sonia

Sonia

This week I also heard from Sonia and she writes:

"Dear Sponsor,

I hope that your family and you are well. I pray every night to your family and you are well, thank you for the beautiful letters that you send me and that you remember me, always giving me affection and love, I'm grateful with you, my sibling and my parents are well, the thing that makes me happy are the jokes that my friends tell me, I'm happy to met (you?), my favorite animal is peacock, I would like to know what is your favorite animal, I love you so much,

Sonia

Yiseth

This is a letter that I received from Yiseth this week, thanking me for recent birthday gifts. I thought that she might like the colored pencils because she enjoys drawing. She says:


Dear and appreciated Shana C.,

I hope that you and your family are well. My family and I are well. I liked you(r) gift and the letter a lot. I just wanted to thank you for thinking of me. I received: a box of pencils color, a notebook cover, a card, two folders, a pair of ponytail holders, a calculator and a blouse. Good-bye. Be well. I love you so much. Thank you so much for the letters.

Yiseth

This is the back of one of letters. She loves to draw and write "I love you"on her drawings :)

Pennies for Pancho

This year my first graders collected pennies to buy bricks for home improvements for Francisco's home. We call him Pancho because this is a name given to boys named Franciso. They learned a little about Francisco and his country and they collected $18 in pennies. I plan to show Franciso some of their photos. He will get to see his special friends from the USA. One of my kids asked me Friday, if I could bring Pancho back to the USA to visit them!

A big thank you to another teacher at my school who also contributed to Pancho's penny box. Thank you, Mrs. Bartell!

Gifts

Dishtowels for families (75 cents) at grocery store, lotions donated by Mrs. Conahan (teacher) at my school

Goodies left over from my treasure box at school

Gifts I forgot to post earlier

All gifts are bought at the dollar stores or discount racks at Target and Roses. Most are between 25 cents and a dollar.

Sunday, June 12

For someone who rarely takes trips, packing and trying to decide what to take and not to take based on the changing airline regulations can be a headache! Thanks to my sister, Cheryl, for some of her tips and thanks to my sister, Carmen, who will travelling to Florida w/me June 20, to get a feel for the plane rides.

Today, I was able to find 2 little USA flags for Francisco and Bleidis, for 50 cents each, get my Xanax refilled (yes, for the plane ride), work on Sonia's flip book which I hope to get finished tomorrow at Staples or Office Max, get more plastic bags for the treats and goodies to give to individual kids in Francisco's family and my other children and their siblings, found some cute dish towels for an aunt, grandmother, and 2 mothers, bought batteries for radio/cassette. I plan to tape some of my fave songs to listen to but I am trying to get acclimated to some of the music of the country. I do like this sound by this group that I found on Youtube:



I remember that Sonia told me the name of her favorite group in one of her letters. Maybe I can find the letter and post it or and ask her about it.

Today I was able to get a new cell phone which I won't be using in the country except to take extra photos, which I can upload to my Verizon account, in case something goes wrong with uploading camera photos from the notepad. Posting pictures later.

Today

Packing and repacking!!

Updates

The kids at school are finally out and now I have more time to concentrate on what else I need to do before the trip. Some of these things are taking one more shot on June 18, getting currency for the country from my bank, getting pretty and interesting postcards for the children, finishing up Sonia's flip book, getting my hair done and getting some more walking shoes. I have a large container which my kids call the "Treasure Tub" at school which contains sweets and treats, so after they selected what they wanted on Friday, the last day of school, I brought the remaining things home. I can divide this up between the Cartagena kids and my other sponsored children.

This week I heard from Sonia and Yiseth. Yiseth sent a thank you letter for her birthday gifts and Sonia sent a letter. I was so happy to hear from both of them! I will scan the letters a little later and also scan a photo of Yiseth with her birthday gifts.

More Updates

Cartagena
Well, today I was able to get the typhoid and yellow fever shots from Passport, which is a travel clinic which does all kinds of vaccines. It wasn't too bad and yesterday I was able to confirm the airport shuttle to Barranquilla for only $28 roundtrip. That is a good deal! I just had a hard time trying to understand the contact person's English in the email :)