I am really lucky that I have the Big Guy up above looking out for me! Apart from the mishap of losing my luggage I have had a fantastic time in Rio. On my flight from New York to Toronto I was seated ne*t (the letter after W doesnt work so readers figure it out ha ha) to a guy called Lloyd (lloyd i told you i would write about you). Lloyd and I talked non-stop the whole flight - you could not find two people more chalk and cheese - seriously - he couldnt believe I was travelling alone, with a backpack, for 3 months, no hotels, no fancy restaurants, only having a vague idea of where i will head ne*t! He thinks Im totally unique and totally crazy and we laughed non-stop (i should say i laughed at him.....) LLoyd booked his holiday to Toronto a month in advance and has spent the last month searching the internet for restaurants and making reservations!! ha ha who does that ha ha. lloyd seriously u cracked me up! He wouldnt dream of backpacking and I told him he needs to go to NZ and he will meet many people just like me lol. Well - there is only one me but you know what i mean!
On my connecting flight to Brazil I was seated ne*t to Gustavo who is Brazilian. We got talking and he said he would help me out with finding the right bus to take me to Rio de Janeiro from Sao Paulo which was awesome! We arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil to find that my backpack had not arrived with me! Gutted! The airline said they would locate it and send it on the ne*t flight from Toronto.....yea right...they should make that a Tuis add.......enter Gustavo...my brazilian angel......Gustavo stayed with me the whole time in the airport to talk with the Air Canada staff about finding my bag and then he took me in the ta*i his company pay for to the bus station (bout 30mins drive from airport) and the ta*i driver waited while Gustavo took me into the bus station, helped me buy my ticket, took me to the right gate for getting on the bus and then said goodbyes and left to go home! Total angel for sure! I looked on the bright side.....i didnt have to carry my pack to Rio - they told me they would deliver it to my door there.
On the bus to Rio (a 6 hour journey) I got talking to the only english speaking person on the bus and his friend, Mike and Monica, who are from the states and Mike just happened to speak Portuguese and has been living in Brazil for a while! So, another angel to help me out with language difficulties during the bus ride. While on the bus I realised I had no idea where I was supposed to meet the people I was staying with in Rio. I had no idea what they looked like and also knew that they spoke no english so trying to call was out of the question! Ahhhhhhh......i got off the bus and just stood in one spot for 5 mins until someone resembling Tulio (my friend in the Mount) came up and grabbed me saying Carla Carla....ha ha i nearly cried!
I have been staying with Walter and Jacqueline in their tiny little cute apartment in an area of Rio called Grajau for 5 nites. They have been so good to me, totally going out of their way to make me feel at home, feed me, clothe me (i had to wear all Jacqueline's clothes including underwear!!!!!) and drive me around Rio every day. It has been so awesome and they are the bomb. Totally amazing family - they have 3 young sons, Mathius 11, Lucas 9, and Samuel 6 and they live in a 2 bedroom place. The boys shre a room. When i arrived they took the mattresses from the boys room and moved them onto the floor into their bedroom and gave me the boys room - this is how out of the way they went to make me feel comfortable. The whole family speak no english which has been a total crack up at times. Never the less, with my spanish and somewhat very limited Portuguese and numerous hand signals we have been able to communicate no problem for the whole time. Its amazing how you find ways to communicate without language! My portugues has improved dramatically which is cool and now i speak a mad combination of spanish, portuges and english and somehow get understood. Wicked!
Unfortunately the weather has been not so great in Rio. I arrived late on Friday night and it rained for 3 days after that so going to visit the famous Cristo Redentor and Pao de Acucar were out of the question. You cant see them on a cloudy day let alone rainy! Walter and Jacqueline took me to shopping malls and a museum on the first day. Oh yea - Brazilians are freaky crazy drivers man!!! Insane! I had to close my eyes......everyone zips in and out of the traffic and toots horns at each other and drives twice the speed limit. Cops seem to be ornaments here and not sure how much use they really are!
Walter and Jacqueline have feed me amazingly well - i have never eaten so much queijo (cheese) in my life and they are stoked that i now have a little round tummy to take on my future travels ha ha. Brazilians love to eat!!!
Finally yesterday we woke up to the sun shining and we went to Cristo Redentor (the famous MASSIVE statue of Christ on top of a hill) - it is absolutely incredible. Up close it is huge!! And then after they dropped me off at Pao do Acucar (sugarloaf mountain) where I took a cable car up to the top. Amazing, incredible views!! I thort the $33 charge was a bit steep at first but when i got to the top (i had a free tour guide as well) i realised it was definitely worth it and I recommend it to anyone going to Rio!
Walter and Jacqeline are Christians and took me to their church, Maranatha. Really cute little place near their house. They go to church every day here! The first nite it was awesome just to sit and listen and have no idea what they were saying. Amusing...and then last nite the pastor brought his son along and got him to sit ne*t to me and translate the whole service - songs included!! Turns out their church is the same church we built the school at in Tijuana! Crazy but not coincedence im sure.......
Im now sitting in Foz do Iguazu - decided to fly here to save myself the 24 hour bus ride from Rio.........its pouring down with rain and there are hardly any travellers about so it is a bit lonely at the moment....i hope to meet some people when I go to see the amazing water falls tomorrow!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Lost Baggage!
just a quick note to say i have arrived in Brazil...without my luggage tho......it didnt make it from Canada but i hope they locate it and send it to me....my time has run out in internet cafe......write more later!!!!!!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
New York New York!!
New York has been incredible! My first impressions were not so favourable tho......when I stepped out onto 8th Avenue from the bus station I freaked out! So many people all walking at a million miles an hour in any direction, high rise buildings surrounding me and rubbish everywhere! A lot of places in NY City are really dirty and smelly - there is litter all over the streets and spilling out of the rubbish bins (or trash cans if i am an American!)
My friend Oscar has been an awesome host - its great to have a familiar face and place to go home to every nite after the hours and hours of walking and sight seeing every day. This place is so massive and there is so much to see and do here that even 6 days was not enough. The highlights of New York would be going to the top of the Empire State Building at night to see the incredible city at night, the Natural History Museum and just walking around the streets in awe of all the buildings and high rises. Central Park is beautiful but alas I did not see Jennifer Aniston or anyone else famous jogging around the park - stink ha ha. I tried in vain to get a photo of me with the NYPD as well - actually i didnt try too hard because i was a chicken to ask! After a couple of days of getting my bearings I was able to cruise around alone, even at night its safe here in Manhattan - there are police on almost every corner it seems. The food and restaurants here is second to none!! And the shopping!!!!!!! Lucky I am travelling on otherwise I would have maxed out my credit for sure!!!
I caught up with Matt Henderson ( a friend from school who lives here)...thanks Matty for the Jazz show. It was awesome!
Im flying out to Sao Paulo, Brazil tonight. Will be a bit sad to leave Oscar and New York but its on to the next adventure! I will try as best I can to get a few photos of NY up once I am in brazil........ciao for now!
My friend Oscar has been an awesome host - its great to have a familiar face and place to go home to every nite after the hours and hours of walking and sight seeing every day. This place is so massive and there is so much to see and do here that even 6 days was not enough. The highlights of New York would be going to the top of the Empire State Building at night to see the incredible city at night, the Natural History Museum and just walking around the streets in awe of all the buildings and high rises. Central Park is beautiful but alas I did not see Jennifer Aniston or anyone else famous jogging around the park - stink ha ha. I tried in vain to get a photo of me with the NYPD as well - actually i didnt try too hard because i was a chicken to ask! After a couple of days of getting my bearings I was able to cruise around alone, even at night its safe here in Manhattan - there are police on almost every corner it seems. The food and restaurants here is second to none!! And the shopping!!!!!!! Lucky I am travelling on otherwise I would have maxed out my credit for sure!!!
I caught up with Matt Henderson ( a friend from school who lives here)...thanks Matty for the Jazz show. It was awesome!
Im flying out to Sao Paulo, Brazil tonight. Will be a bit sad to leave Oscar and New York but its on to the next adventure! I will try as best I can to get a few photos of NY up once I am in brazil........ciao for now!
Friday, October 10, 2008
More Photos
I figured out how to put fotos on so check them out!!
These photos were taken at the orphanage that we visited. We took them gifts for the children and food as well. The couple who run the orphanage are just amazing. Many of us were sobbing by the time we left the orphanage. Saying goodbye to them was hard and we had only spent about an hour there! The other photos are of some homes in the slums........hard to imagine living like this.......
Photos
Hey all,
I am going to attempt to put some photos on here...not sure if my savvie internet skills stretch that far but i will try!! If not then check them out on my facebook albums those of you that have facebook!! I have posted about 70 photos on there.
Disneyland was loads of fun!! We got absolutely soaked on the Splash Mountain ride and when we got off and went to look at our photo it just had a screen saying "sorry your photo was washed away" - cracked us up - we must have been so heavy and caused too much splashing for the camera to get a shot!
On the way to LA Airport yesterday I just had to stop in at Venice aka "Muscle" Beach to check it out - we were running a bit late so only had time for me to jump out of the car and run down the boardwalk looking for those outdoor gyms............priceless..........found one with a huge black american guy working out in just his blue speedos.........just the photo i wanted ha ha!!!
Am now in New York staying with my Colombian friend Oscar....he will be my tour guide for the next few days!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
From Tijuana Slums to the Las Vegas lights!
Leaving Tijuana was so hard! I havent been able to stop thinking about them all back there and how our lives just go on as we do while they live their same hard existence in the hot dusty slums........
But it couldnt go on for ever.....so I am now in Anaheim, Los Angeles and eagerly waiting for tomorrow to arrive because I am going to Disneyland! The last few days have been absolutely awesome (well still comes 2nd to Mexico but great all the same)........we left Tijuana and crossed back into the states. All 3 of our vans were taken for a secondary check at the border where we saw a man being taken away in handcuffs and another really old mexican couple get searched - it was sad! They were so old and frail but the border patrol took their bags and searched everything in front of us.
Half of the group flew back to NZ that night and the rest of us have stayed on but split off in different directions. Myself and another guy Ben, had a tour booked for Las Vegas and Grand Canyon so we stayed in a motel in LA.....after booking we found out these motels have a wee bit of a bad reputation and it certainly lived up to that! Dodgy looking place, dodgy looking people, and that night there were police up on the same balcony as us because they had been called to some kind of domestic...i felt like i was in a tacky american movie with the drug dealing in dodgy cheap motels!! I was freaking out and so glad i was not alone! When i saw the police i bolted into our room and locked the door and tried to laugh it off but was pooing myself ha ha. It was all good tho, we survived the night but was glad to get out of there!
Sunday we jumped on a tour bus and took off for Las Vegas! What an awesome city - just so unreal out in the middle of the desert. Hotels hotels hotels and casinos casinos casinos. Lights and people everywhere........we were so lucky because a friend had put us onto a great website for finding cheap last minute deals on hotels so we got a 3 star hotel for only $30 per nite! Stoked!! It was called Stratosphere and its tower is the tallest West of the Mississippi and has thrill rides on the top of the tower!! It looks pretty much like the sky tower in Aucks. There is so much to see and do in Vegas and we just didnt have enough time there but had a good look around. A taxi driver we had one morning was an Italian guy who studies in Vegas...he kept telling us he was really tired and when i asked why he said he has a night job as one of the Chippendale dancers!!! If anyone has been to Vegas you will know what im talking about! I was loving it being driven around by a hot italian stripper!! ha ha.
The second day we were in Vegas we did a day tour to the Grand Canyon. Wowwwww totally lost for words and I really cant describe what it is like......all i can say is that you gotta check that out some day if you can. 170 miles of canyon as far as the eye can see and just soooooo huge!!! and absolutely magnificent!!!! It was a loooong 16 hour day with most of it spent on a bus but we had a cool bus driver who knew his stuff. He was a black american with an awesome accent that sounded like he was straight out of the 20s. Kind of reminded me a bit of Bubba Gump lol.
Our last day in Vegas we had some R&R time at the pool at our hotel and played a few pokies (im useless and had no idea what i was doing ha ha). The highlight for me would have to be the Fremount St Experience in downtown vegas - there is a massive tunnel like structure that is made of thousands of little lights and is like a MASSIVE LCD screen. Every 30 mins they have a light show which was fantastic! I took a video so will try upload it when i have more time.
So, we are now back in LA and have met up with two other girls from the Mexico group and will meet up with the rest of them tomorrow to go to Disneyland. I will get some photos up in a couple of days when i am at my friends place in New York!
But it couldnt go on for ever.....so I am now in Anaheim, Los Angeles and eagerly waiting for tomorrow to arrive because I am going to Disneyland! The last few days have been absolutely awesome (well still comes 2nd to Mexico but great all the same)........we left Tijuana and crossed back into the states. All 3 of our vans were taken for a secondary check at the border where we saw a man being taken away in handcuffs and another really old mexican couple get searched - it was sad! They were so old and frail but the border patrol took their bags and searched everything in front of us.
Half of the group flew back to NZ that night and the rest of us have stayed on but split off in different directions. Myself and another guy Ben, had a tour booked for Las Vegas and Grand Canyon so we stayed in a motel in LA.....after booking we found out these motels have a wee bit of a bad reputation and it certainly lived up to that! Dodgy looking place, dodgy looking people, and that night there were police up on the same balcony as us because they had been called to some kind of domestic...i felt like i was in a tacky american movie with the drug dealing in dodgy cheap motels!! I was freaking out and so glad i was not alone! When i saw the police i bolted into our room and locked the door and tried to laugh it off but was pooing myself ha ha. It was all good tho, we survived the night but was glad to get out of there!
Sunday we jumped on a tour bus and took off for Las Vegas! What an awesome city - just so unreal out in the middle of the desert. Hotels hotels hotels and casinos casinos casinos. Lights and people everywhere........we were so lucky because a friend had put us onto a great website for finding cheap last minute deals on hotels so we got a 3 star hotel for only $30 per nite! Stoked!! It was called Stratosphere and its tower is the tallest West of the Mississippi and has thrill rides on the top of the tower!! It looks pretty much like the sky tower in Aucks. There is so much to see and do in Vegas and we just didnt have enough time there but had a good look around. A taxi driver we had one morning was an Italian guy who studies in Vegas...he kept telling us he was really tired and when i asked why he said he has a night job as one of the Chippendale dancers!!! If anyone has been to Vegas you will know what im talking about! I was loving it being driven around by a hot italian stripper!! ha ha.
The second day we were in Vegas we did a day tour to the Grand Canyon. Wowwwww totally lost for words and I really cant describe what it is like......all i can say is that you gotta check that out some day if you can. 170 miles of canyon as far as the eye can see and just soooooo huge!!! and absolutely magnificent!!!! It was a loooong 16 hour day with most of it spent on a bus but we had a cool bus driver who knew his stuff. He was a black american with an awesome accent that sounded like he was straight out of the 20s. Kind of reminded me a bit of Bubba Gump lol.
Our last day in Vegas we had some R&R time at the pool at our hotel and played a few pokies (im useless and had no idea what i was doing ha ha). The highlight for me would have to be the Fremount St Experience in downtown vegas - there is a massive tunnel like structure that is made of thousands of little lights and is like a MASSIVE LCD screen. Every 30 mins they have a light show which was fantastic! I took a video so will try upload it when i have more time.
So, we are now back in LA and have met up with two other girls from the Mexico group and will meet up with the rest of them tomorrow to go to Disneyland. I will get some photos up in a couple of days when i am at my friends place in New York!
Friday, October 3, 2008
The Tijuana Magic Show
Hola!
Last entry i forgot to tell you about the Tijuana magic show! 2 days ago some of the ladies in my group had gone out to do some shopping for some of the families we are building for.....they parked at a McDonalds to get a quick bite to eat and were sitting inside where they were able to see the van (we hired 3 massive american vans - 15 seaters - we look like a convoy of prison trucks going along the street!)...well they had just got their food and had sat down when a truck pulled up in front of the window blocking their view of the van. Literally a minute later the truck drove off and walaaaaa NO VAN! Unbelieveable....the theives were total professionals obviously. So we were a van down and Diana and Michelle had to drive all the way back to LA to pick up another one. They also had to spend a whole day and a half dealing with police here and insurance companies etc etc. It was a bit of a blow to the group because things have been going so well but these things happen I guess! And at the end of the day - insurance pulled through for Diana so she only had to pay $200 excess thanks God! Somewhere out there, some theives have a van full of baby formula, food, documents about our christian volunteer organisation and a bible!! Kinda ironic really lol!
Unfortunately 2 nights ago I was struck down with food poisoning.....woke up at 3am and was on the toilet bowl for the next few hours....and no Hana it was not a repeat of Nov 25 2007!!! We had been warned to try to drink as much Coca Cola as possible because it is so bad for you that it actually has stuff in it that will kill bugs that might be in any of the food we are eating here - I know Mum you will be horrified that we are encouraged to drink it!!! Anyway, that nite i had a quesadilla from a local shop for dinner but didnt feel like Coke....bad move.......the toilet bowl became my new best friend and I was in bed for the whole next day. I was really upset because I missed out on the opening of the school we had built and also the street fiesta (party) that we put on for the community in the slums. So gutted! But...today i woke up feeling heaps better so have been out and about...
Lots of tears were shed today saying goodbye to all the amazing people we have met. I bawled saying goodbye to Daved, the little boy that is my new best friend (well after the toilet bowl) and I really hope I can come back some day to visit him and see how he has grown! We also went further into the slums to visit an "abuela" Grandma......they call her this, she is a lovely old lady that looks after 3 of her grandchildren and was so welcoming to all of us. We had an amazing time visiting and praying with her it was really aweome! We also went and dedicated the home that was built for the family and gave them the keys. Again there were lots of tears saying goodbye!
We leave Mexico tomorrow and head back into LA. Im going to Las VEgas and Grand Canyon but after this whole experience im not sure how the rest of my journey will be!
Lots of love to you all.......
Last entry i forgot to tell you about the Tijuana magic show! 2 days ago some of the ladies in my group had gone out to do some shopping for some of the families we are building for.....they parked at a McDonalds to get a quick bite to eat and were sitting inside where they were able to see the van (we hired 3 massive american vans - 15 seaters - we look like a convoy of prison trucks going along the street!)...well they had just got their food and had sat down when a truck pulled up in front of the window blocking their view of the van. Literally a minute later the truck drove off and walaaaaa NO VAN! Unbelieveable....the theives were total professionals obviously. So we were a van down and Diana and Michelle had to drive all the way back to LA to pick up another one. They also had to spend a whole day and a half dealing with police here and insurance companies etc etc. It was a bit of a blow to the group because things have been going so well but these things happen I guess! And at the end of the day - insurance pulled through for Diana so she only had to pay $200 excess thanks God! Somewhere out there, some theives have a van full of baby formula, food, documents about our christian volunteer organisation and a bible!! Kinda ironic really lol!
Unfortunately 2 nights ago I was struck down with food poisoning.....woke up at 3am and was on the toilet bowl for the next few hours....and no Hana it was not a repeat of Nov 25 2007!!! We had been warned to try to drink as much Coca Cola as possible because it is so bad for you that it actually has stuff in it that will kill bugs that might be in any of the food we are eating here - I know Mum you will be horrified that we are encouraged to drink it!!! Anyway, that nite i had a quesadilla from a local shop for dinner but didnt feel like Coke....bad move.......the toilet bowl became my new best friend and I was in bed for the whole next day. I was really upset because I missed out on the opening of the school we had built and also the street fiesta (party) that we put on for the community in the slums. So gutted! But...today i woke up feeling heaps better so have been out and about...
Lots of tears were shed today saying goodbye to all the amazing people we have met. I bawled saying goodbye to Daved, the little boy that is my new best friend (well after the toilet bowl) and I really hope I can come back some day to visit him and see how he has grown! We also went further into the slums to visit an "abuela" Grandma......they call her this, she is a lovely old lady that looks after 3 of her grandchildren and was so welcoming to all of us. We had an amazing time visiting and praying with her it was really aweome! We also went and dedicated the home that was built for the family and gave them the keys. Again there were lots of tears saying goodbye!
We leave Mexico tomorrow and head back into LA. Im going to Las VEgas and Grand Canyon but after this whole experience im not sure how the rest of my journey will be!
Lots of love to you all.......
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
HOT HOT HOT!
Hola mis amigos y amigas!
Wow this is turning into an absolutely awesome experience (Joanna - you and Dish would LOVE doing something like this - seriously). We finally finished el escuela (the school) today - it has been a long hard 3 days of building, tiling, jibbing, plastering, sanding (man that was hard!!) and finally painting!!!!!!! I have a new found appreciation of plasterers...how the??? That is such a hard job to get right! Definitely an art to it thats for sure. Our plastering job left much to be desired which made for a very long and painful day today of sanding and sanding and sanding....until about 3pm! We have awesome guys who are supervising our site - they are from a team called Baja Ministeries (a christian organisation that have been building houses for the poor in this area for 20 years i think). We only have a few ladders on site so as good old kiwis do we used a bit of kiwi ingenuity (aka horiness) and built ladders out of left over wood.....i managed to spill my paint pan twice all over me and ladder - no problema tho....just made my ladder look horyer (is this a word?? lol). The community around us every now and then come and look at whats going on. Checking out us gringos covered in paint and dust, sweating hard out! The lady across the road gave us homemade iceblocks that she had made for us today - it was such an awesome relief from the heat. I think we clocked 46 degrees at the building site! It is so so HOT!!
Oh and for those of you harping on at me about finding my Carlos or Jorge over here??? I have totally fallen in love.....his name is David and he is an adorable 10 year old boy who lives next to our building site. He is just such a happy little boy and loves having us there. He has no brothers or sisters, lives with his Mum and Grandma and doesnt go to school so plays by himself all day. It made me so sad to see him alone like that yesterday so today i gave him a few pressies. A soccer ball and some pencils and paper and a spanish-english book. He was stoked. I got him in the school painting with us for a couple of hours today to so that was awesome. My new friend for life!
This morning I got to experience visiting a local orphanage that one of the pastors of Baja Ministeries has just found about 10 days ago. It was an emotional visit for me. The couple that run this orphanage are just so amazing and have totally dedicated their lives to these kids. They both dont work as they are full time looking after 7 orphans they have plus thier own 2 children and rely completely on their faith to get by day to day. This weekend they have been asked to take in another 7 children! A mother of 3 kids heard about them and is a drug addict and wants to get clean and so is going to give her children to Kathy and Manuel for a year and check into rehab....the stories we have been told are just so unreal......each orphan has their own sad little story. At the moment the 9 of them live in a tiny little house - 4 kids in one room and 5 in another......the differences in our lives compared to their simple existence is just hard to get my head around - how they can live like this and still be so so happy!! They are amazing. We gave them food today and a suitcase full of presents for the children - the looks on their faces were priceless. Will try to get photos up as soon as possible for you to see! I left the orphange in tears - just totally lost it saying goodbye to them - typical Carla styles ha ha.
Gotta fly, dinner time...i have so much to write, could go on forever!!
Wow this is turning into an absolutely awesome experience (Joanna - you and Dish would LOVE doing something like this - seriously). We finally finished el escuela (the school) today - it has been a long hard 3 days of building, tiling, jibbing, plastering, sanding (man that was hard!!) and finally painting!!!!!!! I have a new found appreciation of plasterers...how the??? That is such a hard job to get right! Definitely an art to it thats for sure. Our plastering job left much to be desired which made for a very long and painful day today of sanding and sanding and sanding....until about 3pm! We have awesome guys who are supervising our site - they are from a team called Baja Ministeries (a christian organisation that have been building houses for the poor in this area for 20 years i think). We only have a few ladders on site so as good old kiwis do we used a bit of kiwi ingenuity (aka horiness) and built ladders out of left over wood.....i managed to spill my paint pan twice all over me and ladder - no problema tho....just made my ladder look horyer (is this a word?? lol). The community around us every now and then come and look at whats going on. Checking out us gringos covered in paint and dust, sweating hard out! The lady across the road gave us homemade iceblocks that she had made for us today - it was such an awesome relief from the heat. I think we clocked 46 degrees at the building site! It is so so HOT!!
Oh and for those of you harping on at me about finding my Carlos or Jorge over here??? I have totally fallen in love.....his name is David and he is an adorable 10 year old boy who lives next to our building site. He is just such a happy little boy and loves having us there. He has no brothers or sisters, lives with his Mum and Grandma and doesnt go to school so plays by himself all day. It made me so sad to see him alone like that yesterday so today i gave him a few pressies. A soccer ball and some pencils and paper and a spanish-english book. He was stoked. I got him in the school painting with us for a couple of hours today to so that was awesome. My new friend for life!
This morning I got to experience visiting a local orphanage that one of the pastors of Baja Ministeries has just found about 10 days ago. It was an emotional visit for me. The couple that run this orphanage are just so amazing and have totally dedicated their lives to these kids. They both dont work as they are full time looking after 7 orphans they have plus thier own 2 children and rely completely on their faith to get by day to day. This weekend they have been asked to take in another 7 children! A mother of 3 kids heard about them and is a drug addict and wants to get clean and so is going to give her children to Kathy and Manuel for a year and check into rehab....the stories we have been told are just so unreal......each orphan has their own sad little story. At the moment the 9 of them live in a tiny little house - 4 kids in one room and 5 in another......the differences in our lives compared to their simple existence is just hard to get my head around - how they can live like this and still be so so happy!! They are amazing. We gave them food today and a suitcase full of presents for the children - the looks on their faces were priceless. Will try to get photos up as soon as possible for you to see! I left the orphange in tears - just totally lost it saying goodbye to them - typical Carla styles ha ha.
Gotta fly, dinner time...i have so much to write, could go on forever!!
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