How do I even begin? It’s been too long and I should have posted this blog a while back. I recently got additional pictures and now I can finish the blog.
This is a story of two young women, who at 15 years of age, had an idea. They saw an article about Orphan’s Hope Project in a July 2008 Bay Area newspaper. Yes, one year ago. The article made them think. They came up with an idea of a Girl Scout Gold Award Project that they might possibly do. This project would be a direct benefit to the kids at Hogar Miguel Magone. The two girls, Ellen and Casey got in touch with me and we set up a meeting. They saw my Guatemala display in my office, the posters, the pictures, the Guatemalan artifacts and they also spent considerable time looking at the web site. They wanted to do something to help. So, we came up with a plan and it was a 10 month long project.
They decided to host a festival and that festival was called Chicos Latinos. It was held in May 2009. And yes, it was wildly successful. The festival highlighted the customs, foods, family life, geography and other information about Central American countries. Their booth was on Guatemala. They also needed a way to raise money to cover costs of the festival and to raise money for the orphanage. So… they made tie dyed t-shirts and sold them to the attendees at the festival.
Colorful shirts, aren’t they?
Here are the two girls, getting ready for the festival… counting organizing, sorting and thinking!
The day of the festival finally arrived and the May weather cooperated. Lots and lots of people attended the educational event.
The next picture is a shot of Ellen and Casey’s booth area.
Do you notice the words Pressure Cooker on the sign? There was a reason for that. With the money that they raised, it was hoped that we could buy a large, restaurant quality pressure cooker for the orphanage. We’ve been wanting a pressure cooker at the orphanage for over a year now. We just couldn’t find one in Guatemala that was large enough or sturdy enough for us at the hogar. We spend a lot of time cooking black beans for our meals… not to mention the gas that’s used to cook all those pots of beans.
This is another picture of their display area. There’s a sign on the table showing pictures of beans and rice. Yep, that’s one of our staple foods in Guatemala… and at the orphanage. We eat beans all the time and the pressure cooker would really be handy to have.
Did Casey and Ellen clear enough to help us get a new pressure cooker? They sure did!
Here they are, sitting proudly with the new pressure cooker.
I found a restaurant supply store in the South Bay that had a 41 qt. pressure cooker. The store put a hold on it for me, I drove to see it and I returned with this beauty. It is heavy, shiny and so sturdy. It makes me want to cook beans in it as soon as I get to the orphanage. The directions are only in English so we’re translating them into Spanish. Our cook does not know any English so she’ll need some help with the first batch or two of beans that we cook. We’re having a special shelf built… just for this pressure cooker. We want to take care of this jewel!
Gorgeous!
I also decided to buy a couple more serving spoons as the quality of them was superb. I couldn’t resist.
So.. the pressure cooker was shipped a couple of weeks ago and we expect the shipment to arrive at the orphanage in the next couple of days. The shipped boxes will be waiting for me when I arrive next week.
But… does the story end there? No, it doesn’t.
The girls also asked for donations of other items for the boys of Hogar Miguel Magone. I don’t want to share too much right now… in case one of our older boys reads the blog. Later, there will be another blog about the other things that Casey and Ellen are providing to the kids.
We are lucky that the girls decided that their hearts were big enough to take on this Gold Award Project and that the boys and the orphanage will be the recipients of their hard work. I can bet you that Casey and Ellen’s hearts are even bigger now.
Stay tuned for more exciting news soon.
Diane