Tuesday May 7, 2013

Tuesday May 7, 2013  update #445

Bella was off on a lamp shopping expedition before we were to meet up later in the day.

I went back to Banco Pichincha and got bounced around amongst the personnel on different floors again before being given an entirely new credit card application and being told to return on Friday to complete the necessary documentation.

Next was another meeting at Hearts Of Gold to go over our expected online campaign to raise funds to help kids attend school.  Many kids don’t make it to school because the families can’t afford the $50 or so each for 2 pairs of shoes and the initial basic school supplies.   We have an ambitious goal of $6,150 to outfit 123 kids at 3 different partner organizations.   I was asked to write the Blog entry for our website before they do the teaser advertising in the social media.  We went over my offering and made a few revisions to satisfy everyone’s needs.

Then I had to hop a cab to meet Bella and friends at a Charity Bingo being put on at the Oro Verde Hotel for the Messengers Of Peace Orphanage for whom our friends Anne & Michal Roche volunteer.  There was a reasonable turnout of expats and Cuencanos and we enjoyed the Bingo in spite of the terrible caller who really had no clue what to do, changing his mind every 10 seconds.   At one point they replaced him on the podium then inexplicably let him back up there to finish the last games.  There were 50-50 draws, Latin American music and a light lunch too.   Our table ended up being the envy of the place because everyone won at our table, (except me, BooHoo), and some of them more than once.  I was playing 6 cards and we were using shirt buttons for markers.   We found several instances where cards had duplicate numbers, like two number 29’s on the same card!   Anyway, we had good company and contributed to another good cause.

Mark and Karen have bought a modern ground floor apartment along the Tomebamba this afternoon so they will be very busy with that purchase for a while.   It is about 8 blocks from where they live now.

We stopped again at the Chinese food place at the top of Gran Colombia and the food was again excellent, best Chinese food in town by far.   We had a few giggles at the antics of our little gangly waitress who was doing some fancy dance moves but didn’t realize we were watching.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.  Please see all new photos at http://souvenircuenca.blogspot.com/