Everybody is going in the shop in the next few days for a little routine maintenance. We have scheduled doctors, dentist and eye appointments for everyone. We just want to make sure all the mechanics are working properly before we hit the road.
Its also time for the next round of shots to take place. This time we are getting the rabies shots. I hear they taste like strawberry. Too bad they get shot into your arm with a needle. Its gonna put a damper on the Grey Cup party. We will all feel a little better about them when the Riders win the big one.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the opportunity to donate to the cause thus far. If anyone missed getting a letter, let us know and we can email it to you.
Just Leave It On.
So with all the needles being poked into everyone in the family for H1N1 and the 8000 or so we need to go to Bolivia, the younger kids have been wearing a lot of band-aids on their arms recently. Today, I offered to help Logan take his band-aid off to which he replied "I think we should just leave it on and they can just put the next needle into the band-aid, so when they take the needle out, there is already a band-aid on the right spot."
Why didn't I think of that???
Why didn't I think of that???
No Turning Back Now
Well, the tickets are all paid for and we are set to leave February 8th at 6:35 am for a marathon 27 hour travel period which sees us land in Santa Cruz at 9:10 am local time. I think our last flight from Miami is on an Albatross (the bird, not the plane) because that leg of the flight is just over 6 hours. Its actually not that bad because we get a few hours in each airport to organize the kids, get snacks etc and the last flight has us flying through the night so everybody but me can some sleep on the plane. For some reason I just can't seem to fall asleep on airplanes. I always think I'm going to miss something out the window kinda like William Shatner in the Twilight Zone episode. Melody will of course be fast asleep before the plane leaves the runway as usual.
Our flight plan takes us from Saskatoon to Toronto to Miami to La Paz and finally to Santa Cruz and of course the exact opposite on the way home.
The return flights are pretty good because we get to overnight in Miami and get some rest before the leg home. We are back to our home sweet home on April 5th.
That's all for now folks. Off to get more shots.
p.s. If you really want a ton of information on the city of Santa Cruz or Bolivia in general, there is a really great blog from a lady who lives in Bolivia that tells you everything you would ever want to know. She even lists a restaurant I can't wait to go to in Santa Cruz that serves all the local delicacies including armadillo (picture below), crocodile, charque (dried llama or horse meat like jerky seen below hanging to dry in the sun) and pacu (picture below) which is a cousin of the piranha.
Our flight plan takes us from Saskatoon to Toronto to Miami to La Paz and finally to Santa Cruz and of course the exact opposite on the way home.
The return flights are pretty good because we get to overnight in Miami and get some rest before the leg home. We are back to our home sweet home on April 5th.
That's all for now folks. Off to get more shots.
p.s. If you really want a ton of information on the city of Santa Cruz or Bolivia in general, there is a really great blog from a lady who lives in Bolivia that tells you everything you would ever want to know. She even lists a restaurant I can't wait to go to in Santa Cruz that serves all the local delicacies including armadillo (picture below), crocodile, charque (dried llama or horse meat like jerky seen below hanging to dry in the sun) and pacu (picture below) which is a cousin of the piranha.
Little Info For the Masses
For those of you who are not familiar with where the heck Bolivia is, its a landlocked country in the middle of South America. The western side of the country is about 3 miles above sea level in the Andes mountains and is where the capital city of La Paz is located. Our travels will not stop there however as we will be continuing on to Santa Cruz which is in the lowlands in the east.
Santa Cruz has a population of about 1.5 million people, but the city is not made up of high rises and looks like a very large small town when you are in it. Click here for the wikipedia page about Santa Cruz.
The main purpose of our trip is to help out our friend Ken Switzer and the El Jordan organization who work with street kids. Ron will be providing introductory computer classes and Melody will be teaching the girls esthetics services so they can make some honest income. Both Ken and El Jordan strive to get the kids off the streets, into schools or classes and keep them off.
Below is the building that we will be teaching in. Our accommodations will not be quite so nice however. If you click on this sentence, you will get a youtube video of a recent rain at the place we will be staying. Gives you a real idea of how nice we have it here.
Santa Cruz has a population of about 1.5 million people, but the city is not made up of high rises and looks like a very large small town when you are in it. Click here for the wikipedia page about Santa Cruz.
The main purpose of our trip is to help out our friend Ken Switzer and the El Jordan organization who work with street kids. Ron will be providing introductory computer classes and Melody will be teaching the girls esthetics services so they can make some honest income. Both Ken and El Jordan strive to get the kids off the streets, into schools or classes and keep them off.
Below is the building that we will be teaching in. Our accommodations will not be quite so nice however. If you click on this sentence, you will get a youtube video of a recent rain at the place we will be staying. Gives you a real idea of how nice we have it here.
Shots, Budget and Kindly Donations
We have started getting all our shots and so far everyone is taking them like real troopers. Not one tear has been shed by anybody so far. Halloween candy has terrific healing abilities if applied immediately after receiving an injection. Many thanks to Dr. Ardell for helping us with recommendations and actually performing the shots.
We also received the part that I hate today and that is the budget information which means that I have to actually get off my wallet and send in some cash to go. It also means that we have to start the fund raising portion of this experience. Lukas has kindly offered all his spare change to help out the cause.
We also want to send a shout out to the Salvation Army for donating a whole bunch of school supplies that we are going to fill our second suit cases with for the kids down in Santa Cruz. Believe it or not, they called us because they heard we were going and they wanted to help out.
We also received the part that I hate today and that is the budget information which means that I have to actually get off my wallet and send in some cash to go. It also means that we have to start the fund raising portion of this experience. Lukas has kindly offered all his spare change to help out the cause.
We also want to send a shout out to the Salvation Army for donating a whole bunch of school supplies that we are going to fill our second suit cases with for the kids down in Santa Cruz. Believe it or not, they called us because they heard we were going and they wanted to help out.
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