On the second leg.

On the flight from Miami to Detroit.  Everything is going perfectly and planes seem to be running on schedule.  We arrive roughly 3:45 pm and will need to clear customs.  Then we'll head home for a nice nap. 

We are fed.

And when I say fed, I mean emotionally as well as in our tummies.  

A brief tour of Santiago and we landed at a combo sushi, italian, hamburger place.  The particular plus of this hotspot was that we could have wine that was drinkable while the kids had pizza and spaghetti and burgers.  After our taxi driver dropped us off in sort of the middle of nowhere...we were ok with that because we thought he was sketchy anyhow - we walked along in the, ahem, dark.....and came upon a group of men.  Trying out my Spanish with a friendly Canadian smile I said....Donde esta restaurante Sushi Ya?   The gentleman closest to me responded.....just go down to the corner and turn right.   THAT was a lovely moment.     There really is very little English here so that was quite a pleasant surprise.  Our sushi was fine - but I prefer Wasabi on Taylor.

Lovingly thinking of our friends Ron and Sue who posted dandy pics of their Okanagan wine tour as we drink our Chilean sauvignon blanc out of little teeny plastic cups in this overly hot lobby of our 2 star hotel in Santiago.  priceless. 

I do want  to mention that this is not entirely all fun and games and these kids really should be commended . It  is quite trying sometimes to be here where we don't speak the language and we all somewhat emotionally drained - we worried ourselves sick about the shoe arrival and the shoe distribution part can be a bit overwhelming.  Orderly and peaceful it's not.  The conditions the children live in are horrendous.   My legs are covered in some kind of explosive bug bites.  This is real travelling.  Sometimes a little too much authenticity. 

We needed every hand down here and they all came through with flying colours.  Whether it was finding matching photos or checking shoe numbers, or handing out stickers and neon bracelets, to entertaining and hugging and carrying kids on their backs....the photos will demonstrate all eventually.


(possibly giving the kids cake and pop BEFORE handing out the shoes was not the best idea.  Can you say ENERGY?  )

I think more than anything the amount of work put into our arrival by the Accion Callejara people really humbled us.  Welcome banners everywhere we went.  Unique and treasureably artwork - can't wait to show you some samples.  Parting gifts and the most incredible letter of thanks.  Speeches.  Hugs galore.  What an experience.

A quick update....then supper.

Today was the day.  We were up bright and early and ready to go for 8 am.  The taxi came for us at 8:30 and whisked us off to the Accion Callejara headquarters where we met the amazing Milagro and Bentodina along with so many others.  The shoes had JUST ARRIVED!   This morning.

So our first program involved "shoeing" for want of a better expression about 60 Haitian street kids.  Many of  these teens walked or found their way from Haiti after the earthquake.  They live basically on their own but the incredible people at Accion Callejara give them a place to drop in and feel welcome, often providing food but also activities and definitely lots of TLC. 

Then we were off to a school in the suburbs of Santiago.  This particular school started for 13 years in a railroad type trailer but has grown very well thanks to a generous donation by the Japanese government.  They've added a medical office, a dental office and several classrooms.  It is really the nicest facility for miles around.  More pictures later. 

We went back to headquarters and were served a delicious lunch by our wonderful new friends. 

The best was saved for last.  We travelled by car and truck and at the end walked in through the narrow winding hilly street....and we use that term loosely....to arrive at our next school.  Up an unbelievably steep staircase and we were greeted with huge shouts and cheers of welcome.

The kids put on several performances for our benefit - baton twirling, playing recorder, entertainment by their own version of Dancing Gabe named...Yanqui (no more than 4 years old).   Then it was "shoeing"| time - oh my goodness what a frenzy. 

One of the highlights was that 3 girls in the corner developed quite a crush on Derek and one of the English translators decided to tell them he was a rock star.  Oh Yes.  That did complicate things somewhat but it made it easier for us to clear a bit of space for the much overcrowded photography section (headed by Shea) when we sent him to the other side of the room to sign autographs. 

It was extremely crowded and loud through much of the time as we really tried to keep our cool in outrageously hot conditions.  But as you'll see when I get the photos posted...it was extremely well worth the effort. 

The kids made individual cards for us (I think there are at least 70 of them...all in Spanish). 

After we delivered the shoes we took a walking tour through the neighbourhood these kids live in.  It will be impossible for photos to capture it properly.  It is so heartbreaking...garbage and squalor everywhere.  People living in cardboard shanties underneath a bridge.  Pigs in the creek running through the area.  It was truly one of the most deplorable places I've ever seen - and most of you know I've seen a fair bit of poverty in my life.  I will post a photo but again, it is difficult to capture how truly awful it is.  

We really can't wait to add more photos and update this more...but we do need to go get some food before the town closes down so we're off to wake up the hard-working kids and get out to eat.  Will hopefully get more up later but definitely wanted to put at least a sampler up now.

Abundant thanks to Milagros and Bentodina, Ernesto, Dean, Bob and everyone else at Accion Callejara.  We will never EVER forget you and the children we had the privilege of meeting today. 

Exciting - Reliable internet.

We are now back in Santiago.  We have heard from the charity that all went well at the customs agents today.  The shoes were loaded on a truck and are expected to arrive in Santiago at 10 o'clock tonight.  Everything should be according to schedule then.


We've been told the Board of Accion Callejara had an emergency meeting yesterday and decided to pay the $600 customs fee.  We, of course, will reimburse them but they don't know that yet. (Thank you Sue B for always being so kind.)  We are so happy that everything has worked out after some scary moments.  The people at the charity seem to be extremely enthusiastic about the shoes and are so pleased that we are here and caring for these kids.  So we are clearly excited about the day we're going to have tomorrow. 

We realize that we really don't know how things are going to go tomorrow but expect to have lots of pictures and video when it's all done.

Many thanks to those of you who have been following the blog and cheering us on.  It means a lot.

And thanks to those who are being so supportive as we and Bree deal with the sudden loss of Tequila (our 12 year old chihuahua for those who didn't get the chance to meet her.)  Thanks Marnie for calling Bree.  She really appreciated the call.   

Ay Yi Yi!

Well , here's the update.  According to the charity, customs is holding the shoes hostage for another $600 in duties.  Our contact is headed down to Santo Domingo today to try to sort it out.  As everything is supposed to happen tomorrow we are very unsure of the situation.  we are supposed to visit 3 different areas tomorrow to deliver 324 pairs of shoes to these kids who really need them....some of them live in garbage dumps.....and once again we are being thwarted by the government.

Our arrangements had been for the shoes to be delivered right to the door of the charity on the 21st. 

So, bear with us as we all deal with this latest little crisis.  

No idea if our charity partners will even be able to arrange shipping for the shoes to Santiago even if they are able to get them through customs. 

So frustrating.

Weather is cloudy and extremely windy.  We had to work out how to get back to Santiago ourselves today.  That's our next project. 

Hopefully internet will be more reliable in Santiago. 

Much ado about nothing

It really wS no problem at all but the weather is now rainy and unpleasant. Glad we had a couple of nice days at the start. There is no Internet and this data use on my phone is crazy expensive so I likely won't post again til we are in Santiago. We go there tomorrow sometime.
We did go in an explore puerto plata a bit yesterday but today it is really coming down so I believe we are hotel bound. Hope all is well in the greAt white north.

Awaiting tropical storm Irene

Raining very hard. Worst part of storm expected in 2 hours. Will try to keep connected if possible. So far we have power but no Internet. Another little adventure.

Not much to report.

We are all alive and well, enjoying all that the Riu has to offer.  Weather has been perfect.  Daniel's 18th birthday went off without a hitch. 

Today we're going to venture into the town of Puerta Plata to see what mischief we can get into. 

The resort is much quieter today.  Many of the local people come on the weekends to enjoy the resort.  Today they are all gone and there is a noticeable difference in population. 

Just heard about Jack Layton and recognize that you really need to grab all you can out of life as much as you can.  ....as he did. 

We're certainly doing our best to live up to that philosophy. 

A few more photos perhaps.

As mentioned earlier, internet is really slow but I'll try to throw a few more photos up here. Allan's laughing because everyone in the lobby with a laptop has a strained look on their face as they wait for connection etc.  They tap their legs and screw up their faces....me included.  I try to read during uploads so I don't get too frustrated.  Reading Steven Tyler's biography is quite entertaining - and distracting for me while I wait.

 Today was a very relaxed day and we have an a la carte dinner at the steakhouse an hour from now.  The food has been pretty good - no complaints about anything at the hotel. 

Will now try to put up a few pics although we haven't been taking a lot of them.    If I am successful, thank Steven. 

A few bumps in the road.

We finally have internet access and it is somewhat limited so thank you for your patience (especially you parents of the boys who are likely waiting for word.)  I will be as succinct as possible and if I can add photos at the end I will.

First - our rebooked American Airlines flight was very late in departing.  So we were pretty sure we weren't going to make our connection to Santiago.  This involved a great deal of alternative planning with Team Shea as things would go quite differently from our original plan if we didn't get on the flight.  Allan and I ran like crazy to a different terminal (it definitely would have been funny to watch) and we actually made it.  Allan made an offhand comment to the guy at the gate about our luggage but he assured us it wouldn't be a problem.  Uh.  Wrong.  We arrived in Santiago with no luggage.  And we had generously decided to take Shea's with us so we all had nothing. 

Meanwhile - back to the kids.  It went well as far as the train to Fort Lauderdale and the meet up with Derek.  When they got to the Spirit Terminal however, they found that their flight - scheduled to leave at midnight was delayed....2 1/2 hours.  They were a little unhappy.  About 11:20 pm the flight was no longer delayed and leaving on time.  Luckily they were in the vicinity and awake enough to notice the change.  They arrived at our hotel in Santiago as scheduled and I was up to greet them.  Shea and I were in contact by text the whole time so that was a good thing.  (The boys did not have to pay for the carryon on Spirit.) 

In the morning after we somewhat dragged Team Shea out of bed at the ungodly hour of 9:45 - we headed to the bus depot.    When we got there they said the bus was full and we couldn't get on til 12:45.  After waking the kids up early I felt pretty bad about that and started looking for options.  Checked another bus company....left even later.  Finally Allan and I took a taxi to another bus company that had smaller buses but they left more frequently.  We sent our cab to pick up Team Shea and they whipped back and we got on a bus right away.  Probably a good thing we had no luggage.  With a quick 1 hour bus ride (online there were really inconsistent reports on the length of this bus ride) we were let out by this bus right at the door of the Riu.

All went well with check in and we were upgraded to ocean side rooms (when we asked.)

Luggage was awhile in coming - it arrived at 6 so that was a bit of a pain.  We were in the same clothes since 4 am the morning before.

Today is a day for enjoying the pool and beach and completely relaxing.  Now I will attempt to load a few pictures but you are up-to-date.   

Very small glitch #1

Our delta connection from tampa to Miami was cancelled. A few anxious moments as Alla's and my American airlines flight to Santiago would be missed. Luckily the nice delta people spoke to the nice American airlines people and we are now on an AA flight that's a tight connection but we should be ok. Quite a relief.

I may be a little crazy.

I stopped in at Dollarama today because it has been on my mind to bring the kids something for the "parties" that the group is organizing.  My initial plan had been to bring pencils and erasers or something but you know - those are a little....uh....boring. 

So I went through the whole store.  At last I found glow necklaces and then glow bracelets.  I started loading up.  Then I realized that we will see the kids during the day and the glow stuff won't really be as much fun for them during the day.  Then I found loads of awesome stickers.  So I loaded up more.  And then I decided to buy all of it.  I have no idea if this was a good idea or not.  But I really had fun.

I think we'll still try to pick up some school supplies when we get there.  Then we don't have to carry them all the way to the DR.  I was sort of hoping for pencils with Canadian flags on them or something but there was nothing like that at Dollarama.  I look forward to posting pics with the kids with their accoutrements!

More good news!

Just received word that our shoes have arrived in Santo Domingo and have cleared customs!  For those just joining in on this mad adventure - our last trip to Peru was not so successful and we were not able to get the shoes accepted into the country.  This is a big step forward - I am so excited I'm nearly speechless....and I am not known for being speechless. 

Well, that's good news.

My wonderful Guatemalan friend Jorge made the call to the Hotel Colonial and so we are all set with our reservations for tomorrow night....cutting it a bit close I know.  Sounds like a very charming place.  We'll be able to provide Team Shea with Dominican pesos ahead of time which will allow her to pay for the taxi from the airport (we've been assured it is very safe).  I should mention that in order to keep the trip as affordable as possible, Team Shea (Shea plus Mikey, Daniel and Derek) are travelling on the no-frills Spirit Airlines and are arriving in Santiago at 2 am!  We managed to snag all the remaining cheap seats for them and so Allan and I ended up on American Airlines arriving at the more civilized hour of 8:20 pm. 

The rooms sleep 3 and are roughly $40 Cdn each which includes breakfast for 2 people.  We'll just have to add breakfast in the morning for the two extra people.

http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/Santiago/blog-14481.html

Here's someone else's impression of the place.  Sounds very nice to me. 

That Allan...what would we do without him?

River West Park School donated over 200 pairs of shoes.  Because they didn't take individual photos we had a group shot taken of the kids who were organizing the shoe donations.  Shea had a bunch of prints made of that photo and we didn't take them on the last trip. 

We had a little trouble finding the prints but luckily Allan came to the rescue as usual.  We're very happy that we will be able to give the kids in Santiago the prints of the River West Park kids.  We have found that the children love getting the photos along with the shoes. 

Thanks Allan...as usual you've saved the day. 

And so it begins!

This is a very exciting time.  We have received word that the shoes have left the building!  (that's even better than Elvis!) 

This means that on August 25th we will be able to accomplish what Shea's dream was originally....to provide a lot of shoes to kids who really need them.  I want to mention here that there is a hint of sadness in this trip.  The people at Bruce Peru were simply amazing.  They worked so hard at trying to facilitate the shoe shipment - all to no avail. Thank goodness we were able to bring 90 pairs to those wonderful kids.  We just wish it could have been more.  They do a fantastic job in Peru and other countries and care so much for their kids.  We would have loved to get all our shoes to Peru.  But it was not to be.

Now all seems to be in place for our Fuze thru Shoes delivery to Santiago, Dominican Republic.  The group we're working with there is:  Accion Callejara.  (unfortunately their website seems to be under reconstruction.)  They are going to put together little back to school packs and include the Fuze shoes with the packs.  These they sell (for 5 cents or so) to families so that they don't feel it's just charity and the items are valued more.

This second Fuze tour crew consists of Shea, Allan and I, along with Shea's friends Mikey, Daniel and Derek.  Thanks to the parents for entrusting us with your offspring.  We will certainly appreciate putting them to work on the 25th and will enjoy having them along for the more "restful" part of this adventure.  I truly believe this trip will provide them with an eye-opening and possibly even life-changing experience.  When you are exposed to poverty up close and personal it is quite different than viewing it on tv.  And...being part of a positive change is quite addictive. 

I will do my best to update with notes and photos as we go along on the trip.  Sometimes the internet connections in these countries can make that a little difficult.  Other times it's a snap.  We really won't know til we get there.  But this will be a good place to check in from time to time.

So 5 more sleeps and we're off.