Heart of the Planet

	Trip to Ecuador 2013

We were up before dawn and headed to the airport to begin our long day. We flew to Florida and then into South America. It was late and we were able to catch the sunset heading into Quito, South America. The picture did not capture how brilliant the colors were. We were 37,000 feet up in the air and the sunset certainly looks different from that view.

We then drove about an hour to get to our first location where we met a nice couple and a man from Haiti. We stayed in an adorable hotel called Eugina. The people were very nice and friendly. The food was delicious!

The next day we boarded a plane once more to fly the remainder of our trip and arrive at our final destination. Before landing, we took pictures out of the plane and we found an interesting extra light above the sun.

We landed in Loja in the evening and took a cab to Montesuenos. More pictures and information can be found on Montesuenos here. Montesuenos is hosting us for this trip and working with us to reach out to the community. Montesuenos is an ecological retreat that has hosted many thinkers on pertitent issues of the environment, science, and education. We were delighted to be able to work with them and reach out to the community.

Montesuenos also serves as a perserve of the great beauty of Ecuador. It hosts an example of many of the precious flora found in the rainforest.

Soccer

	We arrived at our first location in Vilacabama where over 20 children were anxiously waiting for the soccer practice to begin. Meredith of Montesuenos accompanied us in making this event a success! The children surrounded us and had smiles on their faces as we pulled out soccer balls, shirts, and shin guards. There is one town coach currently who faithfully works with the town's children. He was delighted to now have enough soccer balls to do more drills with the children. While a few of the children had soccer shoes, most just had regular tennis shoes. The supplies were limited for these teams and the they were delighted to have these much needed soccer supplies.
	We helped the children put air in the soccer balls. We were able to buy a hand pump so that the coach could have a way to reinflate the balls as time goes on. Besides 15 soccer balls, we also presented the teams with 4 high quality game balls. We also presented the coach with whistles and matching baseball caps for each team color. This was in hopes of getting towns people interested in becoming coaches for each team. A family member inflates the balls.

	We were able to present each child with a colored shirt for games. They were thrilled to recieve these shirts and did not have a standard uniform. Left: A family member fitted each child with a shirt. .
	Soccer shins were new for these children and some of them had to get used to them. They enthusiastically put them on and enjoyed that fact that they all matched. The little guy below stole our hearts!
It was a joy to see these children so excited and the day was a success. Giving is so much better than recieving!! It was a joy to brighten their day!	Here one of the fathers was excited to have his sons particpate and wear the soccer uniforms.
	The coach began a game between the blue and orange team and the kids took this game very seriously! They spanned in age from about 6 years old to 12 years old. Here the coach is giving them direction during the game.
Soocer for the children in San Jose

	We set up our supplies for the children of San Jose and waited for them to arrive at Montesuenos. Soon a group of children began walking up the hill and assembling together.
	Soon, we had 20 children awaiting anxiously for the soccer supplies. They were very excited! We also gave them each a pair of shin guards.
	We were also able to give most of the children a pair of tennis shoes. This was a great day!! Some of these children were wearing shoes that were much too small and we were able to give them bigger shoes. One boy had blisters all over his scrunched little toes. He was first embarrassed, but then he was very happy!
	Dumar, one of the local men has volunteered to be their coach.The day was a great success and the children were very excited to be part of a new soccer team. These children come from another part of the valley and do not have access or the means for many things. This was a very exciting event for them. We also provided them with a scoreboard that they can use for games.

	It is serendipitis how things work out! We brought two pop up goals thinking we would give them to the other group of children, but it turned out that this group of children do not have a soccer field. These goals will serve as a portable way for them to have practices and games. It was another wonderful day!!! It was a blessing to see these children so excited. Dumar reported the next day that the children were walking around showing others their new shoes. For many of these children, it was a very big blessing!!

Ecuador Keepers Presentation
	We set up a presentation time at the local school. They have a two room school. One room is used for the younger children and the other is used for the older children. The room became packed with local families from the village. There was standing room only for our presentation on ecology and reminding them of how important the rainforest and the purity of their land is for the rest of the world. We passed out rainjackets after the presentation. We offically announced the launch of the website where they would have a voice in keeping their land and rainforest protected.

School Supplies for the Children
	We showed up during the school day and surprised the school teacher and his students with school supplies for the school and the children. We were also able to give the children each a jacket. The children acted like it was Christmas and were delighted to get the supplies and the jackets. The teacher was very grateful and asked us to come back again.



We talked about how a playground really needs to be built on the empty area outside of the two room school house.

Improving the Lives of Others

There are three goals for this trip:

1. The country of Ecuador loves soccer. We wanted to give them a chance to start their own soccer league.

2. We wanted to also take this time to provide personal items such as raincoats, school supplies, art supplies, and shoes to the people who live there and do not have access to such items or cannot afford them.

3. We also wanted to do a conference for the people with the use of a translator to discuss their important role as caretakersof this sacred land, empower them to understand themselves, and to encourage them to remain true to nature. We want to empower them to use their voice to share with the world. Ecuador Keepers

Brightening Their Lives

How You Can Help

Items Needed	Obtained	Goal
We are delighted to report that we have reached our limit in capacity for what we can take down with us. You can still ship items down from your local USPS location. Be sure to keep is under 4 pounds for cheapest shipping. We have sent the items that we could not take with us and they are on their way! The last of the items will go out on Monday.
Children's and teen's tennis shoes	We have reached our limit that we can take with us!	We got it!!!
Soccer balls	24 soccer balls!	We got it!!!
Old fashioned pencils and sharpeners	We even got some colored pencils as well!!	We got it!!!
Notebooks and Art Supplies	We have a great package to present to the local school! It includes lots of notebook paper, colored pencils, goodies for the teacher, and other art supplies!	We got it!!!
Rain Jackets Medium Adult or children's sizes.	50 Raincoats!	We got it!!!
T-shirts size medium adult in any basic color (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Purple)	Enough shirts for 6 teams!	We got it!!!
Shin Guards	Enough for 6 teams!	We got it!!!
Goals	Two 6ft by 4 ft goals!	We got it!!!

A special thanks to Troy Toulouse who is generously helping us ship these items down!! We thank you!

You could really help by boxing some of these items and sending them to the following address:

Montesueños Eco-Retreat, P.O. Box 258, Loja, Ecuador 110150

We discovered that the shipping policies since last year have changed drastically. If you do not wish to ship the items, you can give them to me. Last year I sent a box at 7 pounds and it was about 20 dollars. Now, new regulations have been imposed. This was imposed by the US and the policies affected shipping costs. This is very unfortunate!!! Otherwise, the cheapest way to send them is to go to a US post office and make the box no more than 4 pounds. Send it as the cheapest rate (first class). Do not attempt to go through UPS, DHL, or FED EX. They will charge way too much.

Each box cannot exceed 7 pounds. This is very important because we would not want to have taxes imposed. To be on the safe side, make sure the box is less than 7 pounds.

Please send us an email or call us to let us know if you have sent something and we will mark it off of our list! Please have your shipment go out before March!!! The sooner the better! This way the shipment will be there for us to distribute.

Any shipment would be gratefully appreciated!! Even if you only ship one item, it is greatly appreciated!! Thank you in advance!!

Thank you!!!!!

Village Discount Outlet

St. Joseph's Hospital Staff

Dee Dee Kramp

Rachel Miller

Tom Rogers

Adam Arthur

Mike May

Ian Croft

Cliff Moffett

Shiella Moffett

A very special thanks to Troy Toulouse!

For the Children
	We began by purchasing chocolate for for Valentine's day. Our goal was to create a soccer league that could continue to grow once we left. Our stay in Ecuador would give us a chance to start them off with practices, games, and a competition with awards for each team. Imagine not having television, movie theaters, or other modern forms of entertainment. This would mean so much to them!
For the Families
	When the local people heard we were coming they were very excited. We asked what they needed and the men of the area requested rain jackets. They have two seasons in Ecuador, rainy and dry season. Many of the men work in the fields tending to crops. This would be a welcomed item for them. We went out and bought rain jackets out of our own pockets and have begun boxing and shipping them to Ecuador. We bought over 40 jackets which included children's rain coats as well. We are excited to see their faces when they are distributed to these families.
Empowering the Locals
	We will be holding seminars for the locals. We will focus on empowerment and give them a voice to share with the world.

About Ecuador

dr-brian-oleary-meredith-miller

A special thanks to Montesuenos! This is Brian and Meredith in 2009 when we visited them previously. It is a truly beautiful valley. There are no shopping malls or busy highways. They do not have access to the things that we take for granted everyday. Instead, they live off the land and in harmony with nature.

Ecuador is a third world country where many of the citizens live at poverty level or below. While many do not have a great deal of monetary resources, food is abundant and it has provided a portion of the world's food. The indigenous people are indians, who speak mostly Spanish, and are usually a quiet and peaceful people who live off the land. One valley stole our hearts and we vowed to return and reach out to the people.

Brian O'Leary, who passed on to the next realm in 2011, opened our eyes to the beauty of this country that can be truly appreciated when you see it first hand. He and his wife, Meredith started an ecological bed and breakfast, Montesuenos, where they wanted to educate others and provide a place for people who wanted to make a difference in how we treat our environment and each other. He also worked with the Ecuadorian government as a liaison to help protect the rainforest and natural preserves of Ecuador. It is one of the most treasured places of nature on the planet. The rainforest must be preserved.

You can see more information on Montesuenos here.

Thank you!!