Thursday

Already in Placencia, and just now catching up on the week.

The trip packing list includes: a flexible attitude and a willing spirit, we used both today.
Due to some change of plans, we were not able to get to the villages today. Several people went into Punta Gorda in the morning to use the Internet and run some errands. Gary and Suzanne walked the four miles into town, and then bribed one of the sisters (with ice cream) to drive them back to the retreat center.
Another group (Derlene, Mark, Ken, Anita and Christy) decided to walk back from town. The long hot trip was made a little more bearable with stop for both pizza and ice cream!

A few years ago we helped build a senior center in Punta Gorda. The Pallotine sisters run the center. When she saw the center last year, Sister Rose started formulating a plan for us to host an afternoon with the senior guests. About 15 people attended, after a nice lunch, they played Bingo,a ring toss game and sang songs. We had put together some small bags of hotel sized personal care items as the Bingo prizes. Desiree managed to be the big winner with two Bingos! The guests had a lot of fun and the sisters appreciated the energy and kindness of our team members (Rose, Desiree, Anne, Gary, Suzanne, Jill and a few others I have probably forgotten to mention). The two hour event seemed to fly by.
After all that Bingo and singing, the group rewarded themselves on the way home with a stop for refreshments at the Coral Garden Hotel. They sat by the pool surrounded by a beautiful garden and soaked in the sunshine.
Our guest at dinner on Thursday was Olive Woodye, the local coordinator of our scholarship program. Olive has done a great job making sure that are students are getting the uniforms and supplies they need as well as checking that the students are getting good grades in their classes.
Back to the villages tomorrow.