Hello from Yakima

Today we went to the Orfanatorio de Mazatlan to visit the children and bring them Christmas gifts. Greg, concentrating on his drive through the streets of Mazatlan on our way to the orphanage. The children were excited to see us and very curious about the big bag we brought in. Diana, the orphanage mother, opens the Christmas present we brought for all the children. They seemed to be happy with the 4 DVDs "Mundo Animales" (World Animals). I passed out the Christmas candy treat bags to each of the children. Diana allowed them only 1 piece. Good luck making sure that happens. In the entry of the orphange is a beautiful tree, nativity scene, and stockings hanging for each of the children with their names. Notice baby Jesus is not in the manager. He is not placed in the crib until Christmas Day, when he we born. Diana explained to us that a "senora" had made these stockings for the children. Not sure who that was though. They were beautiful stockings.

Greg's latest projects at the orphanage. He also fixed this bike for Kevin. Luciana is all smiles. She is now making trips once a month to Monterey to have work done on her jaw. We can see marked improvement in her face and her personality. More outgoing now.

Annually, about this time of year, Orfanatorio de Mazatlan holds a fundraiser in the form of a musical performance. This is the orphanage where Greg and I volunteer much of our time during our 6 months stay in Mazatlan. This year the donated performance was a production of the Flamenca dance. It was performed by a dance group here in Mazatlan, Miura Expresion Flamenca. For more information about this dance group, here is their website. http://www.miuraexpresionflamenca.com/ We've seen this group a couple of times at the Angela Peralta Theater and the performance that is in the video trailer on the website is the one we saw, "Romance de Tablao". It was fabulous! Miura Expresion Flamenca was founded in 2004 by Lucero Martinez. It's the only school dedicated specifically to the art of flamenco in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico. Here is an excerpt from the website : "Miura, is the only company in Mexico that looks to create productions with a contemporary vision in mu...

We started the 6th day, of Janet and Mike's visit, with a trip to the orphanage. The children were having lunch and celebrating a birthday in this picture below. Janet and Mike enjoyed visiting this humble orphanage and meeting the children that we talk so much about. Then we were off to the Central Market. A little silver jewelry shopping And you just can't go to the market without going through the meat section. Then we were off to the city center to view Mazatlan's breathtaking cathedral which was completed in 1899. Mike took these photos. I just couldn't decide on which ones to post, they were all soooo good. By the way, the photos I have posted about Mike and Janet's visit were a combination of ours and theirs. Great photos Mike & Janet! Across the street from the cathedral is the Centro Plaza de la Republica. Great place to get a shoeshine or relax on a bench for people watching or feed the pigeons. Then it was time for a drink at the El Mirador...

Greg has been keeping very busy this week at the orphanage. Among other projects, he has been working on painting this cement water cistern that is located in the patio area. It has been part of the orphanage since it opened it's doors in 1926. They recently painted the entire patio area and the cistern was red and they wanted it to match. They asked Greg if he would paint it for them. They are getting the orphanage spruced up for the annual fundraiser/musical on March 20th. After many coats of paint, Greg is almost done and it looks great. This is two year old Pablo. He has been at the orphanage since he was 6 months old. While Greg paints, I played with Pablo. We played a game of picking up the leaves that have fallen from the mango trees in the patio. He was entertained for quite some time with picking them up and putting them in the trash. This week at the orphanage a group of students from Sacramento where there. This is their 3rd year coming down and donating their time. T...